Taekwondo means "the way of the foot and fist". It is a modern Korean fighting system similar to Japanese karate. Taekwondo is one of a few Martial Arts that have reached the status of an Olympic sport.

Tae kwon do is based on kicks and are famous for its fast combinations. In Taikwondo-practise you use different drills to improve distance, timing, and accuracy. You also practise pre-arranged sparring, where you and your opponent decide who will attack, which technique will be used, and what the defence will be.

There are two different types of tae kwon do. Each of the two types has its own rules for competition. Olympic Taekwondo allows full contact kicks and punches to the body, and full contact kicks to the body. International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) Taekwondo only allows semi-contact kicks and punches to the head and body. The competitors are given points for their techniques depending on if the kick or punch was deflected or not.

Some people mean that Taekwondo date back to about 50 BC, but that is disputed by many. At this time there were three major kingdoms: Koguryo (37 BC - 668 AD), Paekje (18 BC - 600 AD) and Silla (57 BC - 936 AD). It was Silla that unified the three kingdoms after winning two wars against the Paekje and Koguryo kingdoms. Silla won much thanks to the Hwa Rang Do, a group of young men devoted to serving the kingdom Silla. Hwa Rang Do means "flowering youth" (Hwa = flower and Rang = young man).

After Silla won the war against Paekje and Koguryo, the Hwa Rang Do played an important role at the unification. The Hwa Rang Do was an elite group of young noble men, devoted to serve the kingdom Silla. Hwa Rang Do means "flowering youth". The Hwa Rang Do had a strict code of honour (that is the philosophical background of modern Tae Kwon Do) and practised several forms of Martial Arts, for example Taekyon and Soo Bakh Do.

Soo Bakh Do became a very popular sport during the Koryo Dynasty and was used as a military training method. During the Yi Dynasty (1392 - 1910) the Soo Bakh Do disappeared since the founder of Yi Dynasty, King Taejo, changed the religion of the state from Buddhism to Confucianism. According to Confucianism the upper class should read poetry and play music, Martial Arts was something for the lower class.

Modern Taekwondo is influenced by many different Martial Arts. The Martial Arts that have influenced most is Japanese Karate since Japan dominated Korea between 1910 and the end of W.W.II. The influence that Japan has given Taekwondo are the quick, strait-line movements that characterises various Japanese Marital Art systems.

At the end of W.W.II, several kwan's began training the old Korean Martial Art again. Some of these kwans were Chang Moo Kwan, Moo Duk Kwan, Yun Moo Kwan, Oh Do Kwan, Song Moo Kwan, Ji Do Kwan, Chi Do Kwan and Chung Do Kwan. These different kwan's united in 1955 and took the name Tae Soo Do. In the beginning of 1957, the name Taekwondo was adopted by several Korean Martial Arts masters, for its similarity to Tae Kyon.

General Choi Hong-hi required the army to train Taekwondo, so the first students were Korean soldiers. The police and air force had to train Taekwondo as well. At that time, TaeKwonDo was a Korean version of Shotokan Karate. In 1961 the Korean Taekwondo Union was founded from the Soo Bakh Do Association and the Tae Soo Do Association. In 1962 the Korean Amateur Sports Association acknowledged the Korean Taekwondo Union and in 1965 the name is set to Korean Taekwondo Association (K.T.A.). General Choi was president of the K.T.A. at that time and was asked to start the I.T.F. as the international branch of the K.T.A. The southern government was overthrown in 1961. General Choi Hong-hi left for America and established I.T.F. (International Taekwondo Federation), as a separate entity, two years later.

It took a while before real progress was made around the world, but eventually, in 1973, the World Taekwondo Federation (W.T.F.) was founded. In 1980, W.T.F. was recognised by the International Olympic Comite (I.O.C.) and became a demonstration sport at the Olympics in 1988. There has been several attempts to unify I.T.F. and W.T.F. but unfortunately, all of these attempts has failed. In the year 2000 W.T.F. Taekwondo goes Olympic.