Yes they do ... but one school may stress the importance of kata/hyungs/patterns or "forms" (empty handed: meaning no weapons) in their class curriculum more than another school. There are some schools that may practice the Palgwe, Taeguek or Poomse/Tul (Chang Hon forums) ... either one or the other or all three forms.
All tkd school will stress forms, Some more than others. From what ive seen WTF school do forms for mainly look at sparring. School that mainly do ITF style of TKD do a lot more practice on forms. There are quite a few ITF school that have started teaching weapons of korea. (bo, jo, Kama, and sword and so on.) So they do a mix. But in short YES all TKD school do open hand forms.
i agree with Chazz. so the only difference between the schools would be in how much they stress the forms. you didn't say whether or not u like that.
I would think that "empty hand" combat forms is a cornorstone of any TKD corriculum, otherwise, what's the point? But, I don't know what everyone else is thinking......I think. heheh...
i really enjoy sparring but i don't mind doing the forms. some people don't get the true purpose of the forms, they think it's just moving around, doing the technique no matter how. if u really do ur forms correct, they can be exhausting too. when i was tested for the black belt (1st dan), we spent a weekend with a korean master. among other things, we did all forms a million times. we had to repeat them all over again and again and again till they were as close as possible to perfection. the korean master paid attention to every finger , toe, fist, hand, body posture...every detail...and he should. in the end it was really great to watch us do the forms. poetry in motion
I agree with neryo, Forms when perfected are absolute poetry in motion. Especially upper (1st dan and up) forms. I don't consider myself a graceful person, but learning and attempting to perfect my forms has REALLY helped me to feel more fluid in my overall TKD performance. TKDshane Ÿ
