The world’s first and foremost independent martial arts teachers organization.

AIKIA World Martial Arts Masters

World Tae Kwon Do International

Accepting all interpretations of Taekwondo

It is often said that the Korean martial arts date back over 2000 years. However, specific evidence of an art other than the concept of “fighting” has not been discovered. We do know with certainty that the modern masters of Korean taekwondo trace their practice back to the 1910-1945 occupation of Korea by Japan. Many Korean men were required to learn karate as part of their service requirement. Some, including Korean national Mas Oyama, were so enamored with the karate training that they elected to adopt Japanese names and live as Japanese citizens even after the United States freed Korea from Japan.

Mas Oyama went on to become one of the most easily identifiable international karate masters of all time.

After Korean Independence, the art of karate was translated as Kong Soo Do (way of the empty hand) or as Tang Soo Do (way of the China hand). In 1955, General Choi Hong Hi submitted the name “Tae Kwon Do” as the preferred name for karate like arts to be taught in Korea. The first Korean instructors, including Jhoon Rhee, began to offer their art in the US as early as the late 1950s. Americans practicing taekwondo in the late 1960s recall that the forms and skills being called taekwondo were in many cases interchangeable with the Japanese Shotokan style of karate. Tournament competitors such as Chuck Norris, Joe Hayes and Mike Warren helped increase the popularity of the Korean style.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s the Korean government sponsored a number of Korean taekwondo “masters” to immigrate to the US and teach taekwondo as a cultural art emphasizing a positive relationship with South Korea. Some would argue that the influx of Korean instructors financed by the Korean government presented an unfair advantage for proliferation of TKD schools. TKD quickly became the most popular martial art in the US.

By the 1970s taekwondo began to develop an identity of its own as new “chon-gi” patterns were introduced. The World Taekwondo Federation did much to separate modern taekwondo from its Japanese karate relatives. The Korean version of taekwondo places emphasis on kicking skills while the Japanese karate places emphasis on punching skills. Today’s American taekwondo stylists offer a wide range of influences that may include forms of kickboxing and Brazilian jujitsu to form a more complete fighting art.

World Taekwondo International was designed to accept all interpretations of taekwondo without prejudice. Certified agent-instructors who hold Dan rank in taekwondo may use the WTI logo.

“World Taekwondo International”