Nominating General Choi Hong Hi for the Taekwondowon's (Taekwondo Park) Hall of Fame

I read a post on the Sooshimkwan blog about nominating Choi Hong Hi for the Taekwondo Parks hall of fame. This is something I wholeheartedly

support and I hope every Taekwondoin who reads this will read on and then write an email nominating Choi Hong Hi (and anyone else they fell should have this honor) to the hall of fame. There has indeed been a lot of bad blood between the Kukkiwon/WTF on one side and the ITF on the other but what every Taekwondoin needs to understand is that no matter what "lineage" you hail from be it Kukkiwon, ITF or any independent group practising Taekwondo; Choi Hong Hi was instrumental in the formative years of Taekwondo. In fact he gave Taekwondo its name! In my view that should be enough to secure him a place at the hall of fame. Lets stop buckering over old politics, and lets give this man a vote eventhough you might not agree with everything the man did or said. I am not found of his "Sine Wave Theory", nor do I like the political association behind the pattern name "Juche", but I recognize the huge contribution this man has had on all of Taekwondo still. Please read on and send an email:

Micro Post; This months quote

The bad blood between WTF/Kukkiwon on one side and ITF on the other side has in my opinion divided the Taekwondo students for far to long now. Both sides could do well to open up and take in the knowledge and wisdom that each group has gotten over the years. All of the original masters, pioneers and todays grandmasters are merely human and nobody is perfect, but we should take the positive that we can get and incorporate that into our own Taekwondo.

 

For Kukki-Taekwondo exponents Choi Hong Hi is merely known as the founder of Oh Do Kwan and ITF Taekwondo and little else. I think that is a shame as there is a lot in his writings that we could learn from and he did make many contributions to early Taekwondo so both sides should respect and honor his memory. Even the name "Taekwondo" we have and use today he came up with to just mention one of his contributions to our art no matter the lineage.

 

Below is a quote that Kousaku Yokota shared on his facebook page a while back that he attributed to Choi Hong Hi:



 

“A warrior who over reacts will rarely finish anything successfully.”
-Choi Hong Hi

 

Making your own training equipment; "Tire Makiwara"

"Just finished assembling the Tire Makiwara"

In Karate and early Taekwondo the training was usually divided up largely by training and perfecting basics, forms and impact training on the striking post. In the west it is undoubtfully better known as "Makiwara"
which is a Japanese term meaning wrapped straw (take that translation with a grain of salt as it is me writing from memory) while in KMA (Korean Martial Arts) it is known as Kwon Go or Dallyon Joo. The latter term meaning forging post and the former meaning "Fist" and something:p (sorry but I have never seen the Hanja or Hangul for Kwon Go).