Sine wave in forms/hyung/poomse

I'm currently reading a fascinating book by Alex Gillis regarding the history of Tae Kwon Do which is called 'A Killing Art-The untold history of Tae Kwon Do'. This is an excellent read, if somewhat dry in parts, and reveals some interesting facts about this very modern art.

I often thought that certain Korean Tae Kwon Do practitioners had a certain bobbing up and down feel to their forms somewhat and reckoned this was due to stylistic or cultural differences. I've always been told to move through from one technique to another aspiring to keep the head as level as possible and to minimise 'bobbing'. Gillis says that General Choi introduced what he called a 'sine wave' to his forms when he was introducing Tae Kwon Do to North Korea in 1980. This, maintains Gillis, "distinguished it from Karate and Kim Un-yong's Tae Kwon Do".

This sine wave relies therefore on gravity for power and not a hip rotation and as Gillis writes, "gave Choi's...patterns a distinct style-slower, more rhythmic".

Whether or not this is more powerful I cannot say as I have never practiced the sine wave but it helped concretise the schism within Tae Kwon do and meant Choi could claim the North Koreans were practicing "pure Tae Kwon Do" and that other instructors were "fakes".

Here's an interesting video showing the diminuative Choi himself emphasising the 'big' sine wave:

And this other video shows 'Choong Moo' hyung being performed showing this chracteristic bobbing motion:

Taekkyeon or Important Intangible Cultural Asset No. 76

Ok so I'm getting it. Slowly, but I think I'm getting there. You see it's difficult when you've been fed the Tang Soo Do party line for a long time you kind of ... accept it. But after a bit of digging and reading around you realise that things aren't quite what they seem.

All the official manuals would like you to believe that Tang Soo do is an indigenous Korean martial art with a heritage of 2000 years and including the Hwarang Knights in its family tree. You can tell I thought something wasn't quite right:

Chinese heritage of Tang Soo Do

Korean Kicks (all through the night)

...and these ruminations were confirmed by reading 'A killing Art' by Alex Gillis which shows how General Choi and his main technical director Nam Tae-hi both trained in Karate-do, called in Korea Tang Soo Do. When Choi met the South Korean president, Rhee Syng-man,  soon after the Korean war it was the president who insisted that the demonstration of martial ability that had just been laid on for him by Choi be called Taekkyon. Rhee, understandably, didn't want to hear that these Korean warriors were practicing a Japanese martial art. This got Choi thinking about a new name and a new art form and he ultimately went on to form Tae Kwon Do.

What Rhee was talking about, Taekkyon, is a traditional kicking martial art performed in Korea and while it may not be the pre-cursor to Tae Kwon Do or Tang Soo Do as some insist it must have an influence on these styles post-Second World War. How can I be sure? Check out these videos and you'll see what I consider to be typical Tang Soo Do kicks. Of course there may have been some cross-fertilisation between the two arts. Taekkyon had been banned during the Japanese occupation (and before that Confucian ideals frowned on physical feats in favour of intellectual ones) so both Tang Soo Do and Tae'kkyon attempted to recreate themselves in the late 20th Century. 

Tae'kkyon has an intriguing dance-like quality similar to the jinga of capoiera but the kicks look powerful and focused enough to make a mess of your face! Interestingly it is has the crazy sub title of 'Important Intangible Cultural Asset No. 76'!

Good Taekkyon history site (in French only).

...and compare the Taekkyon initial 'dance' to the Brazilian martial art of capoeira and it's 'Jinga':