JeffJ said:
Like I've said before, I'm not a TDK practitioner. My wife however has been for about the past 25 years. The dojo she went to, and still goes to as well as teaching at her own school, teaches only the Ch'ang Hon forms. From what I'm reading here, that's an oddity. Is that true? If so, why is that?
Thanks,
Jeff
Jeff,
As to the "oddity" or "rarity" of the Chang Hon forms, I believe this is mostly due to political organizations, and a desire of different Kwans (branches of Taekwondo schools), to establish their own identity, separate from the direct connection to General Choi Hong Hi, his Oh Do Kwan of the past, and the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF).
While historical events are somewhat clouded in opinions, personal agendas, misinformation, and a general misunderstanding of what happened, and why, some of the important details should suffice for an answer to your question.
When the re-emergence of Korean culture occured in 1945, after the end of WWII, and the Japanese control of the Korean peninsula, the various Kwans that were established had little Korean history of their own. General Choi, having studied Japanese Karate in Japan, borrowed the concept of "Kata" (prearranged forms) to put together his own system of forms which he labeled the "Chang Hon" school (Gen. Choi's pseudonym meaning "Blue Cottage"). Since this system of forms was one of the few that was distinctly made for "Taekwon-do," even though it was based on Karate Kata, the Chang Hon forms became very popular and widely used in the 1960's and 70's.
When I first began training in Taekwondo in 1976, it was with the ATA (American Taekwondo Association). At that time, Grandmaster Haeng Ung Lee was the founder of the ATA, but had remained under the direction of another Korean Grandmaster who was the President, and GM Lee was an 8th Dan, and the Vice President. Both of them had a relationship with General Choi, even though they were not a part of the ITF. In the late 1970's a powerful Korean Grandmaster Kim of South Bend, IN died of throat cancer, and the entire political structure of Taekwondo shifted. GM Lee took over the ATA as president.
By the early 1980s, GM Lee of the ATA called his top ranks together, and they created the Song Ahm forms to replace the Chang Hon forms. In the 1980's, and 90's, I spent fifteen years training with a Jidokwan school who used the Pal-gwe forms. In the late 80's they began the switch over to the Taegeuk forms because of the future of Taekwondo in the Olympics, and the WTF approved forms. The U.S. Chung Do Kwan, under the direction of GM Ed Sell, has always favored the Chang Hon forms, but in the past decade have begun to make the shift to the Taegeuk forms as well.
It seems that the Chang Hon forms are become less practiced by those who are not directly affiliated with the ITF. Although they are wonderful forms, and the first ones I learned, they do have the stigma of being a product of General Choi, and closely related to the Karate Kata (stigma only to those who don't want that connection). I have learned all of the Pal-gwe, then had to learn the Taegeuk.
I believe that the concept of form practice in general might have a "borrowed stigma" but the Taegeuk techniques are really as basic of Korean Martial Art striking as you can get. Any similarity to Japanese forms is, in my opinion, a natural phenomenon based on the fact that a strike is a strike, and a kick is a kick, and forms are going to be similar no matter what. Personally, I believe that any forms anyone could possibly create, if they displayed basic skills of blocking, punching, and kicking, could be unjustly connected to Japanese karate Kata, simply because there similar in nature. Genral Choi's forms, on the other hand, were likely based on his personal experience in Karate, but that too is a comparrison of structure, more than a lineage of origin.
CM D. J. Eisenhart
