Etiquette in Taekwondo (bowing)

The first of the five tenets of Taekwondo is Etiquette, which means that as a student of Taekwondo you should show respect and good manners to others. Not just within the training hall (Dojang) but in your everyday life.

The most noticeable way this happens within the Dojang is the bow which should be performed whenever appropriate, and specifically:

1. When entering or leaving the Dojang. If an instructor is within the Dojang when you enter or leave, you should bow towrds them. If the Dojang doesn't have an instructor in it, the bow should face the centre of the Dojang.
2. Before and after performing a pattern.
3. Before and after any sparring activity (bow to your opponent).

Additionally, when an instructor calls you to come over to them, etiquette states you should stop one pace before reaching them and bow before taking the final step into their presence. This is particularly important at gradings - bow before taking the final step up to the examiners desk. If you've been doing it in lessons, it will come naturally.

The bow should be performed with closed fists at your sides, feet together, a slight bend at the hips, and another bend at the neck so you are looking down at the floor. It should be pointed out that maintaining eye contact when bowing is considered impolite, and possibly aggressive.

When I first started training, I mentioned Taekwondo at a family gathering (my wife's side of the family). At the time I didn't know why, but a stony silence reverberated around the dining table. After a minute or two, the conversation moved elsewhere and things seemed back to normal. When we left, my wife berated me for mentioning Taekwondo in front of her relatives. Obviously I expressed my surprise and asked why this had caused such obvious offense! My wife's family are keen church going Christians, and it turned out the practice of Eastern Martial Arts is, by some Christians, seen as a violation of the Bibles' teachings. In particular, the bow is sometimes seen as an act of respect towards a deity other than the Christian God, namely Buddha. I laughed when I heard this and assured her I hadn't become a Buddhist, although if I chose to do so, I didn't see why I should face intolerance for doing so. The bow is simply a show of respect towards your instructor, fellow students and Taekwondo. Nothing more, and more importantly, nothing less.

Congratulations Sarah

A bit late (I've been on holiday) but I simply have to publish my congratulations to Sarah Stevenson for achieving Britains' first ever Olympic Medal in Taekwondo. Obviously a Gold Medal would have been fantastic, but a Bronze is no mean feat by any standards in a sport that is so well dominated by it's home nation, the Koreans.

A truly great achievement, and something to spark great optimism for the future of Taekwondo in Great Britain. Looking forward to seeing more of our fighters inspired by this success in 2012!

Taekwondo translations

Translating Taekwondo moves from Korean to English (that is, to a phonetic form so you can understand them when spoken) is quite possibly one of the most controversial parts of Taekwondo. I've got a lot of translations on my Taekwondo glossary page, and yet more on the pattern pages. Browse the web, and you'll find other sets of translations that are different. Some will basically be simply different ways of producing the same sound, so while I call a front kick "ap chagi" you'll see others writing that as "Ahp Chaggi" or any number of other variations. This is simple enough to understand, but it gets complex when you start seeing variations that bare no resemblance to what you have been taught as the right way. A good example would be the reverse turning kick. When I first started training (that would probably be before you were born) we referred to it as "bandai dollyo chagi". Now it's referred to as simply "horyo". Bandai dolly chagi is (or rather was) an attempt to directly translate the three Korean words "reverse", "turning" and "kick". Some clubs still use it I believe.

So what is the cause of the discrepancies? I asked my Taekwondo instructor this week, and he gave some insightful answers.

First up, every high level instructor will certainly have his/her own set ideas. Don't argue with your Master!

Directly translating Korean into English doesn't really work, so almost all translations are the best they can be, but never truly accurate.

When General Choi split Taekwondo in half by setting up ITF Taekwondo, the remaining masters in WTF changed quite a few words in the Taekwondo vocabulary so it would be different to the "new" style of ITF.

The Japanese occupation of Korea also had an impact on the Korean language, and some of those changes have filtered into Taekwondo.

There are five major schools (Kwans) in Korea (Chung Do Kwan, Moo Duk Kwan, Jidokwan, Song Moo Kwan and Chang Moo Kwan - my club is a member of the Chung Do Kwan). Depending on which Kwan the current head at the Kukkiwon is affiliated to, translations get changed.

The use of the prefix "An" (for instance "An Chagi" - inner crescent kick) usually refers to the direction of the move, but in some cases may refer to the body part used (for instance the inner side of the forearm).

Phill Payne dropped me an e-mail explaining that "Naeryo Chagi" (Axe Kick) used to be referred to as "Chikyo Chagi". It looks like Chikyo is the Korean for Axe, but has been dropped in favour of Naeryo meaning "downward" so the kick is described by it's direction, rather than it's name.

Conclusion? Unfortunately the only hard and fast answer as to what is "right" is that your instructor is right. I'm going to stop worrying about it!