Saturday 3 March 2012
The two most common martial arts being practiced in Australia are Taekwondo and Karate.
Ever since people have been interested in doing martial arts they have been wondering what is the difference between the two. This poses a problem especially for those who are just looking around for a martial art school or studio.
The fact that both Karate and Taekwondo seem to be wearing the same style of uniforms with different belt colors does not help either.
Modern traditional Karate was developed in the islands of Okinawa in Japan after some influences from Chinese martial arts.
In fact, there are different styles of Karate but they are all commonly considered as Japanese martial arts today. The colored belt system was developed to show the different ranks of Karate practitioners.
With white belt depicting novices and black belts representing instructor levels and higher, there is a whole range of other different colours in between.
Modern Taekwondo was developed in Korea after much influence from Japanese Karate during the occupation by Japan. Sometimes, Taekwondo is referred to as Korean karate.
The Koreans adopted the same white uniforms along with a colored belt ranking system for Taekwondo. Today, there are two major styles of Taekwondo, one under the International Taekwondo Federation and the other under the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF).
There are also older Korean styles including Tang Soo Do and Moo Duk Kwan. Some of the more modernised Karate and Taekwondo schools also use uniforms with other colors such as red, black and blue. This is in addition to the traditional white uniforms. It can be noted that in Karate, arms or hands are used 60% of the time for strikes or blocks while the use of legs for kicking is just around 40%. This breakdown is seen in the many forms or katas of Karate, which are set routines that simulate fighting against imaginary opponents using martial arts techniques.
The forms from Taekwondo would have the opposite percentage breakdown with 40% hands and 60% legs. In Taekwondo, there is more stress on higher kicks to the head level than in Karate. Taekwondo practitioners also utilize more jumping or flying kicks where one is airborne while executing kicking techniques. The Taekwondo forms or patterns are generally a bit shorter and less complex than the Karate forms. Some Taekwondo schools have been known to use the odd Karate form in its curriculum as well.
In Australia as well as other parts of the world, there are separate conventional competitions for Karate and Taekwondo.
However, the open martial arts tournaments often have competitors from both Karate and Taekwondo competing together. Some of the larger open martial arts competition events even have separate forms divisions for Japanese Karate and Korean taekwondo competitors but the fighting or sparring divisions is usually combined.
Many black belts in Taekwondo end up studying Karate and vice versa.
Taekwondo has received more publicity in recent years since its introduction as an Olympic sport. But both Karate and Taekwondo are considered as hard style martial arts today compared to the more “softer” martial arts.
Martial arts are often known for their enjoyment in learning, and Taekwondo has seen a proliferation of modern martial arts centres that offer exciting classes with high action and dynamic activities that are much more fun for children, teenagers and adults.
