Dear All, There have been many great discussions concerning Taekwondo history, the various families, and the lineage from which many of the contributing posters have come. I propose we take the time to represent our specific kwans (be it one of the 1st Five, the "Original 9", or one of the many kwans to have developed since then! If you have a strong kwan connection, and good understanding of the Kwan of your dojangs origin please start a thread on that specific kwan. Explain the practices of your kwan, share stories from the "glory days" and offer information in response to questions asked. When starting your new thread, simply use the name of your kwan as the thread title! Let us each give respect to one another's kwan, and seek to gain education of the principles and technical differences. Not as a means of finding fault, but as a means of greater understanding! TAE-KWON! Spookey
Very nice idea & I loved your other reply in that other thread. I would just like to make something clear & see how you feel, as well as others. I believe there were "5 original kwans". I also like the way I have seen others refer to it as the 6 early kwans. I don't like the term or number of 9 kwans, as it is not equal IMHO. Here is what I mean: Between 1944 & 1947 the 5 original kwans opened. However during that time period Gen. Choi & Col. Nam, both Jr. Officers at the tme, started teaching Tang Su Do or Korean karate to their soldiers. In fact the KASA in 1959 stated that the ODK, because of this fact, had to be looked at on par with the "original 5 kwans", hence the term "6 early kwans". This paved the way for the establishment of the 1959 KTA. While many may not like this, I would also like to point out that 2 of the Kwans lost their founders after only 3-4 years, when the Korean War broke out in 1950. In fact they (Chang Moo & Ji Do) opened later under new names & with new leadership (Lee Nam Suk & Dr. Yoon/Lee Chong Woo. Additionally the CDK lost their founder when he fled to japan to escape political persecution in 1950. All 5 of the original kwans closed. broke up during the chaotic time of the Korean Civil War. But Gen. Choi & Col. Nam continued teaching their soldiers, even though the ODK was not officially named & opened in 1954. So I think it is fair to look at the 6 as equals. if not, the JDK & Chang Mu Kwan, in all fairness would have to be taken out as well. Plus the SMK opened & closed, more than once, even moved, before the war broke out. Even the MDK changed names & focus. Really the CDK was the only one that really survived with little change, other than the leadership. So they all had their share of problems & turbulence, during the early days of the formative year period.
Our group originally comes from Oh Doh Kwan... and we kept a lot of the forms/practices through the various WTF/KKW changes, eventually doing both the KKW patterns and Chang Hon patterns. Eventually we split off (for various reasons) and are Independent now (the original group has become more and more WTF/KKW-ified).
We proudly come from a Moo Duk Kwan lineage through GM Richard Chun, one of America's Taekwondo pioneers. We continue to practice a traditional style of TKD and try to keep as much of our Moo Duk Kwan roots alive as possible.
When I trained WTF back in the early 90's I trained under JiDo Kwan with an Instructor who most people only know as "Mantis" LOL in Weymouth. We used to train very hard and had a sick bucket outside of the DoJang where people would regularily go and be sick before coming back in to train some more. I remember kneeling on the floor with my feet outstretched for almost whole lessons and sitting in horse riding stance holding weights until you couldn't lift a pencil. I know people see WTF now as more about the "Sport" sparring side of WTF but where I trained the sparring was only a part of training with about a 60/40 split in the favour of technique and poomse. Not long after I started a few other people started also and after the Instructor left (rather dramatically and quickly) the club moved about a bit but was still keep running by the new students. From what I know they are now under Chung Do Kwan and the student that took it over still runs it and is now a 5th Dan.
When I trained WTF back in the early 90's I trained under JiDo Kwan with an Instructor who most people only know as "Mantis" LOL in Weymouth. We used to train very hard and had a sick bucket outside of the DoJang where people would regularily go and be sick before coming back in to train some more. I remember kneeling on the floor with my feet outstretched for almost whole lessons and sitting in horse riding stance holding weights until you couldn't lift a pencil. I know people see WTF now as more about the "Sport" sparring side of WTF but where I trained the sparring was only a part of training with about a 60/40 split in the favour of technique and poomse. Not long after I started a few other people started also and after the Instructor left (rather dramatically and quickly) the club moved about a bit but was still keep running by the new students. From what I know they are now under Chung Do Kwan and the student that took it over still runs it and is now a 5th Dan.
