Frequently Asked Questions

Taekwon-Do is a martial-art of self-defence developed in Korea by General Choi, Hong Hi (1918-2002) in the early-mid 20th Century. “Martial-art” means a system of combat - typically from the Orient but not necessarily so. Rifle-shooting can be thought of as a martial-art, but we normally consider a martial- art to offer a much wider range of techniques along with some kind of moral or spiritual background. As a martial-art of “self-defence” Taekwon-Do is strictly designed to be protective in nature, as opposed to aggressive. The Taekwon-Do student will learn just as much (perhaps more) about defensive techniques as offensive. As it was developed in Korea it bears close similarities to some other martial-arts from the Orient. In fact, General Choi was a student of both Japanese “Karate” and a Korean art of foot-fighting called “Taek Kyon”, and used his experience in both of these arts to develop the system we use now. The Taekwon-Do Choi developed has a simple moral code in the form of five tenets:- Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverance, Self-control and Indomitable Spirit - and students are encouraged to adopt these qualities in their everyday lives.

At the start of the session the entire class “lines-up” in front of the instructor. As a new student you will have to start at the back, with the prospective of progressing through the grades and getting closer to the front. You should always be directly behind someone if you are not on the front row, and directly to the left of someone if you are not in the right-most column. Once lined up the senior student will call the class to attention with the command “Class: charyot” (charyot is the Korean word for “Attention”). The senior student will then say (if Mr Scheer is instructing): “Scheer, Sabum nim ke. Kyong Ye” which roughly translates as “Scheer, instructor. Bow” with Kyong Ye being a command for the class to bow to the instructor. The senior student will then ask the class to raise their right hands and will then recite the five tenets in English and Korean and the Taekwon-Do Oath, with the class repeating after each line, as follows:

Senior: Courtesy, Ye Ui
Class: Courtesy, Ye Ui
Senior: Integrity, Yom Chi
Class: Integrity, Yom Chi
Senior: Perseverance, In Nae
Class: Perseverance, In Nae
Senior: Self-control, Guk Gi
Class: Self-control, Guk Gi
Senior: Indomitable Spirit, Baekjul Boolgool
Class: Indomitable Spirit, Baekjul Boolgool
Senior: I shall observe the tenets of Taekwon-Do
Class: I shall observe the tenets of Taekwon-Do
Senior: I shall respect my instructor and seniors
Class: I shall respect my instructor and seniors
Senior: I shall never misuse Taekwon-Do
Class: I shall never misuse Taekwon-Do
Senior: I shall be a champion of freedom and justice
Class: I shall be a champion of freedom and justice
Senior: I shall build a more peaceful world

The instructor will then say “Kyong Ye” to tell the class to bow and will proceed to give any announcements he or she may have, and then start on the warm-up exercises.

In any physical activity, a good warm-up is essential to reduce the risk of injury. Without a warm-up the joints will be stiff because the synovial fluid that lubricates them will be cold and more viscous. Your muscles will be cold and unable to operate very efficiently. Even your tendons and ligaments will be tight and run risk of being stretched/pulled. The warm up should prepare your body for rigorous exercise by slowly raising your heart-rate, loosening joints, and stretching muscles. After some preliminary exercises the warm up often starts to incorporate pseudo-combat techniques (e.g. gentle forward kicking - not intended to be performed with technical exactitude, but still closely resembling the Taekwon-Do technique called “front snap kick”).

During the class there will be a variety of different areas covered:

Sparring: This is the competition-style (point scoring) controlled fighting you might see on TV. Taekwon-Do is now in the Olympics, although the organisation is different to the AUTC governing body, so you have perhaps seen it there. Two (or possibly more) students are in a ring with protective gear on their hands, feet and head (we may also wear gum shields, shin-guards and guys must wear a groin guard), aiming to get an attacking technique past their opponent's guard to roughly an inch from their chest or face.

Patterns: These are fixed sequences of offensive and defensive movements against one or more imaginary opponents. They are used to train flexibility, control, equilibrium (both static and dynamic), and also offers students a chance to visualise the more unusual techniques in action (by unusual I mean anything you wouldn't expect to see in a bar-fight). Patterns can be performed alone or in groups; sometimes group patterns can look particularly impressive if the participants are arranged in particular ways or choreograph special techniques.

Bag-work: You've all seen kick-bags and punch-bags before I'm sure! Bag-work is great for fitness and power training since the bags generally offer a large cushioned target and you don't have to worry too much about focus. However, we also use smaller hand pads called Focus Mitts to switch from power to focus.

Destruction: Requiring both focus and power, destruction is perhaps the best test of a student's grasp of the Theory of Power. Typically we “destroy” plastic boards that can be slotted together again. A standard, new, red board is roughly equivalent to an average grown man's ribcage; and with the boards held in a holder called a “horse” they are often at chest-height too! Beyond the plastic boards we may also break standard roof tiles, house bricks, and wooden boards.

Step-sparring: In particular, one-step sparring. This is as close as we can get in the dojang (training hall) to a real self-defence situation. The attacker lets the defender know they are ready, and then as soon as the defender has acknowledged, the attacker may execute an attack of whatever form they wish. The defender must block or dodge the attack and execute a counter-attack as soon as possible. This emphasises the Taekwon-Do goal of being able to eliminate an opponent with a single attack.

Fundamentals: This is where the student learns and practices individual techniques and combinations under the tuition of the instructor. The instructor will be looking for unstable stances, inefficient techniques, dangerous characteristics of a technique (for example exposing the veins of the forearm when practicing a block meant for knife/bottle defence) etc.

When the session is nearly finished the class will be called to line-up once more in front of the instructor for a cool down. During the training session your muscles will have produced a toxin known as lactic acid - which is a cause of the aching and stiff muscles people often experience after intensive exercise. The cool down is designed to gently bring your heart rate down to normal again, and to “squeeze out” the lactic acid from your muscles. If you feel you did not get enough of a cool down, or that a particular muscle group could use more attention, you will be welcome to continue a cool down once the class has been dismissed.

After the cool down, any final announcements or comments will be made by the instructor and/or committee members, and then the senior student will call the class to attention once more (“Charyot”). The first time, the class will be asked to make themselves “presentable” with the command “Dobok”. The Dobok is the white training suit most of your fellow students will be wearing and all the command is asking is for each student to turn around and adjust their clothes and belt and collars etc to make themselves look smart. Once each student is satisfied they are presentable they will turn back towards the instructor and when the senior student believes the class to be ready (s)he will call Charyot again, followed by the same sentence you heard at the start of the class (e.g.: Scheer, Bo-Sabum nim ke. Kyong Ye). The instructor will then ask the class to face the senior student (always in the front right corner of the line-up) and ask the class to bow to him/her as well (e.g. Walker, Bo-Sabum nim ke. Kyong Ye). The instructor will then dismiss the class again with the command “hai-san”.

After dismissal the instructor will remain at the front of the training hall (dojang) to answer any queries the students have. Students may feel free to ask anything they wish related to the art, but if the instructor is busy with someone else they should either wait their turn or speak another senior member. Quite often in the Aberdeen University Taekwon-Do Club some students will stay behind to practice some bag-work or destruction, etc, or seek extra tuition from a senior grade. These activities are at their own risk as once the class has been dismissed, any further activities are not covered by their insurance.

There is a minimum training period between each grade, but after that you may take a grading or leave it until the next opportunity at your leisure; many students prefer to feel they have perfected their requirements for the next grade before testing for it, preferring to take longer but get good passes rather than rush their gradings and get mediocre/poor passes. So, disregarding the minimum training period, it rests wholly on the individual student. If you train at least twice a week a student can normally expect to reach first degree black belt in approximately four years, and three years if you prefer the faster route. Do not feel discouraged if you feel it is taking you longer than everyone else to progress:- Taekwon-Do is designed to be able to cater for people of all abilities - after all, everyone has a right to defend themselves so everyone should be allowed to learn how - and if you feel you are falling behind do not be afraid to speak to the instructor about receiving extra tuition. The instructor and senior grades are expected to be willing to assist at all times! (Within reason…)

If you have an ITF licence you can pay for a renewal and continue training from your previous grade. Without a licence you may or may not be permitted to continue at your previous grade - at the discretion of the organisation's chief examiner (in the AUTKD this is Mr Murdoch VI).

1. Never tire of teaching. A good instructor can teach anywhere, any time, and always be ready to answer questions.
2. An instructor should be eager for his students to surpass him; it is the ultimate compliment for an instructor. A student should never be held back. If the instructor realizes his student has developed beyond his teaching capabilities, the student should be sent to a higher ranking instructor.
3. An instructor must always set a good example for his students and never attempt to defraud them.
4. The development of students should take precedence over commercialism. Once an instructor becomes concerned with materialism, he will lose the respect of his students.
5. Instructors should teach scientifically and theoretically to save time and energy.
6. Instructors should help students develop good contacts outside the dojang. It is an instructor's responsibility to develop students outside as well as inside the dojang.
7. Students should be encouraged to visit other dojangs and study other techniques. Students who are forbidden to visit other dojangs are likely to become rebellious. There are two advantages for allowing the students to visit other gyms: not only is there the possibility that a student may observe a technique that is ideally suited for him, but he may also have a chance to learn by comparing his techniques to inferior techniques.
8. All students should be treated equally, there should be no favourites. Students should always be scolded in private, never in front of the class.
9. If the instructor is not able to answer a student's question, he should not fabricate an answer but admit he does not know and attempt to find the answer as soon as possible. All too often, will a lower degree black belt dispense illogical answers to his students merely because he's afraid of “losing face” because he does not know the answer.
10. An instructor should not seek any favours such as cleaning the studio, doing repair work, etc. from his students.
11. An instructor should not exploit his students. The only purpose of an instructor is to produce both technically and mentally excellent students.
12. Always be honest with the students, and never break a trust.

1. Never tire of learning. A good student can learn anywhere, any time. This is the secret of knowledge.
2. A good student must be willing to sacrifice for his art and instructor. Many students feel that their training is a commodity bought with monthly dues, and are unwilling to take part in demonstrations, teaching and working around the do jang. An instructor can afford to lose this type of student.
3. Always set a good example for lower ranking students. It is only natural they will attempt to emulate senior students.
4. Always be loyal and never criticize the instructor, Taekwon-Do or the teaching methods.
5. If an instructor teaches a technique, practice it and attempt to utilize it.
6. Remember that a student's conduct outside the dojang reflects on the art and instructor.
7. If a student adopts a technique from another dojang and the instructor disapproves of it the student must discard it immediately or train at the gym where the technique was learned.
8. Never be disrespectful to the instructor. Though a student is allowed to disagree with the instructor, the student must first follow the instruction and then discuss the matter later.
9. A student must always be eager to learn and ask questions.
10. Never betray the instructor.

There are many criticisms about the way Taekwon-Do students train. A lot are not relevant to ITF Taekwon-Do at all, and some that are relevent to ITF schools, do not apply to AUTkd. Here are some of the more common criticisms:

Taekwon-Do, like most martial-arts today, is just about winning competitions.
Although the ITF does indeed hold competitions for its members, the competitive style training is primarily found in the WTF (World Taekwon-Do Federation), as indicated by their presence in the Olympic Games. In the ITF competitions are secondary to our students' training in the art as intended by General Choi, Hong Hi, the founder. In the Aberdeen University Taekwon-Do Club we put great emphasis on realism and practicality regarding self-defence.

Taekwon-Do students fight with pads on their bodies… You'll never get tough like that!
The training pads we use in ITF Taekwon-Do were introduced in the 1970s for the protection of Taekwon-Do students. Our reasoning was thus: It is no use training for any period of time and then, due to an injury from sparring, have to miss out on weeks of training just to recover. We wear pads on our hands, feet, head and groin (for men), along with several other options. The hand and foot guards are not for the wearer's protection, but the opponent's. They will soften any blows delivered but there is still significant impact to toughen them up. Alongside sparring though we also train and reinforce our bodies with a practice we call “Forging”, where repeated impacts are used to strengthen skin and bones at key points. Altogether we have a safer and more effective method for students to learn how to defend themselves.

Taekwon-Do is practically a religion. You go on and on about General Choi like he's some sort of prophet, who, I heard, didn't even really found Taekwon-Do!
As noted by former AUTKD instructor, CalumMurdo Kennedy, on his website: “Taekwon-Do is not a religion, but it is a way of life.” And General Choi, we believe, brought us this way of life as his legacy. We do not revere him, or worship him; we simply honour him in our memories and respect his gift to humankind. Many other Taekwon-Do institutions contend that he truly founded Taekwon-Do, saying, for example, he merely presented the name in 1955 when it was being chosen. General Choi is the man who brought together the techniques and knowledge of Karate and Taek-Kyon into a single art, and who later taught it to the Korean military. General Choi is the man who led the expansion of the art through the world. It was General Choi who dedicated his life to our art and its development. We recognise him as founder, and lacking proof to the contrary will continue to do so. So amen, General Choi Hong-Hi.