When Is a Turning Kick not a Turning Kick?

RobBnTX

Orange Belt
In almost every TKD class I have ever been in, both ITF affiliated and Kukkiwon affiliated what in Karate is called a Roundhouse Kick is called a Turning Kick instead, with the exception of a couple of schools that have Moo Duk Kwan heritage. Those schools used the Karate/Tang Soo Do term of Roundhouse Kick.

Is this because the Moo Duk Kwan resisted some of the terminology changes that were introduced by Gen. Choi and it has just filtered down through the years in schools that although they are now Kukkiwon they continue to this day to use some of the older Karate/Tang Soo Do names for techniques?

Just curious is all.
 
I've found that there is actually a difference between the TKD 'turning kick' and the karate 'roundhouse' in the way it is executed so the name difference would be apt.
 
I've never done karate, so I'm not sure specifically how a karate roundhouse kick differs from a TKD roundhouse kick (dollyo chagi).

When I've seen the term "turning kick" in TKD, it's referring to the general class of kicks that start with turning towards your back. That would include back kick, 360 roundhouse, etc. (Edit: in context, for example, in WTF sparring rules turning kicks get you an extra point.)
 
Probably because some chose to adopt a colloquial Boxing term and others did not. The term "Round House" as it applied to the punch related to the punches trajectory of being able to go around the boxing "Guard" or house. If you could not make that connection or particularly be versed in English slang there is nothing intuitive about the name.
 
Probably because some chose to adopt a colloquial Boxing term and others did not. The term "Round House" as it applied to the punch related to the punches trajectory of being able to go around the boxing "Guard" or house. If you could not make that connection or particularly be versed in English slang there is nothing intuitive about the name.

In the karate classes I've done ( and do!) we don't use the term 'roundhouse' it's always Mawashi Geri. When I've visited TKD classes it's been either 'turning kick' ( for me and the beginners who didn't know the Korean for the kick lol) or the Korean term.
 
Sorry, I should have made it more clear as to the kick I was referring to. In Korean it is Dollryuh chagi or Dollyo chagi, I have seen it spelled various ways. In Japanese Karate it is a Mawashi-geri,

When I was in an ITF affiliated school several years ago we always called it a Turning kick. All the Kukki schools I have been in or visited over the last few years also called it a Turning kick with the exception of a couple of different ones that had Moo Duk Kwan heritage (including my present dojang) and I that they call it a Round kick or Roundhouse kick.

I was reading A Killing Art The Untold History of Tae Kwon Do by Alex Gillis and he mentions that Gen Choi changed some the terminology somewhat for various techniques from Karate/Tang Soo Do. I don't have the book in front of me so I cannot accurately give you the quote or page number. Anyway since GM Hwang Kee resisted joining the KTA if they did not accept some of those terminology changes instituted by Gen. Choi and that has now filtered down to schools of MDK heritage that although they are now Kukkiwon TKD affiliated have kept some of the older terms for techniques.

No big deal, just thought it had to more than coincidence that the two schools that I know of that are Kukkiwon TKD but of MDK heritage calls the kick a Roundhouse kick instead of a Turning kick and Gillis' book got me to wondering about it is all.

I remembering reading somewhere that the Roundhouse kick was sort of a MDK trademark while the Side Piercing kick was a Chung Do Kwan favorite. Again no big deal.
 
S

I was reading A Killing Art The Untold History of Tae Kwon Do by Alex Gillis and he mentions that Gen Choi changed some the terminology somewhat for various techniques from Karate/Tang Soo Do.

This had nothing to do with the English terms. Those were a translation of the Korean text. An example of change from TSD / Japanese term was for instance "Shuto" to "Sonkal" for knifehand. When I had Nam Tae Hi as a guest instructor he still used "Shuto" as a leftover from the CDK days.
 
I'm a Taekwondo guy, and Turning kick is a new term for me. I've heard of Roundhouse kick which would seem to be the same thing.


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