Taekwondo: The Surprisingly Young Martial Art

While martial arts like kung fu and judo trace their roots back centuries, Taekwondo is basically the new kid on the block. This high-kicking, board-breaking Olympic sport was officially born in 1955—making it younger than McDonald's.

A Martial Art Built by Committee

After World War II and the Korean War, South Korea wanted to establish a unified national martial art. The problem? Korea had multiple martial arts schools called kwans, each teaching their own style with names like Tang Soo Do, Kong Soo Do, and Tae Soo Do.

In 1955, a committee of military officials and martial arts masters met to standardize these styles into one discipline. General Choi Hong Hi is credited with proposing the name "Taekwondo," which translates to "the way of the foot and fist."

Younger Than Your Grandparents

To put this in perspective, Taekwondo is younger than:

• Television broadcasting
• The electric guitar
• Sliced bread (invented 1928)
• The chocolate chip cookie (1938)

Meanwhile, Judo was founded in 1882, Karate developed over centuries in Okinawa, and Kung Fu styles date back over a thousand years.

From Obscurity to Olympics

Despite its youth, Taekwondo's rise has been meteoric. It became a demonstration sport at the 1988 Seoul Olympics—a deliberate choice by South Korea to showcase its national martial art on the world stage. By 2000, it was a full medal sport.

Today, Taekwondo is practiced by over 80 million people in more than 200 countries, making it one of the most popular martial arts on the planet. Not bad for something invented during the Eisenhower administration.

Why So Young?

Korea's tumultuous 20th century explains a lot. Japanese occupation from 1910-1945 suppressed Korean cultural practices, including traditional martial arts. After liberation, Korean martial artists—many of whom had trained in Japanese styles like Karate and Judo—worked to create something distinctly Korean.

The result was a martial art emphasizing Korea's cultural identity, featuring the dramatic spinning and jumping kicks that make Taekwondo instantly recognizable. Those flashy techniques weren't accidents—they were designed to look different from Japanese martial arts.

So the next time you see someone execute a perfect spinning hook kick, remember: they're practicing a martial art that's technically younger than the Peanuts comic strip.