Over on my dream dojang thread, an interesting discussion regarding taekwondo history came up.

Being a kumdo instructor, I am very familiar with many dojangs and internet posters promoting kumdo as being thousands of years old, some even going so far as to say that Japanese kendo is actually a Korean invention. 

I see similar such historical statements regarding taekwondo.  So, here's the discussion topic:  How old is taekwondo?

Friendly discussion/debate please, and also, please support or be ready to support any assertions.

I'm posting this because I am genuinely interested in both points of view (ancient vs. recent), so please keep it friendly:)

On some of the forums I post on, I'd never post this topic, but I do think that the members of TKDspace are mature enough to discuss this without flaming eachother.

Daniel

I'll be civil, I'll post the information I have collected for a while and post it with sources after I get off from work.

Since when are you ever not civil?

Daniel

Sometimes when there are subjects that I'm passionate about, I can get a little carried away, bad habits from college debate team.  So I'll do my best to keep it in check and stick with the facts.

I have resolved to the fact after reading various accounts, books and articles regarding of the history of  KMA in general, that we will never really come to an agreement of what is the true history... was it born April 11, l955 when named by Gen. Choi or is it 2,000 years old?

From

Problems in the Identity 
and Philosophy of T'aegwondo
and Their Historical Causes
By: Steven D. Capener

"T'aegwondo currently faces something of a crisis in identity and direction as a result of the confusion and distortion regarding its historical origins and process of development. This is due in large part to the efforts to portray t'aegwondo as a unique product of Korean culture, developed over the long course of Korean history since the Three Kingdoms period. The fact that t'aegwondo is the product of Japanese karate, introduced into Korea just after liberation, and the efforts to deny or conceal this fact have left t'aegwondo divided into two identities: that of martial art based on self defense and that of competition."

http://www.usa-taekwondo.us/HistoryofTaekwondo.pdf

I am hoping to purchase this book soon  "A Killing Art: The Untold History of Tae Kwon Do.

http://www.ecwpress.com/books/art_killing_untold_history_tae_kwon_do

... looks interesting , does it not?

Are we going back to the roots with Taekyon or when General Choi presented this method of hand to hand combat to his troops, or when Korea accetped and recognized it as it's own seperate and viable Martial art?

General Choi: "A combination of circumstances made it possible for me to originate and develop Taekwon-Do. In addition to my prior knowledge of Taek Kyon, I had an opportunity to learn Karate in Japan during the unhappy thirty-six years when my native land was occupied by the Japanese. Soon after Korea was liberated in 1945, I was placed in a privileged position as a founding member of the newly formed South Korean Armed Forces.

The former provided me with a definite sense of creation, and the latter gave me the power to disseminate Taekwon-Do throughout the entire armed forces, despite furious opposition."

Korea accepted and formally recognized TKD as its own Martial Art on Apr 11, 1955.  Not too shabby in a little over 50 yrs it has become the most popular MA in the world.  A lot of which goes to a tremendous marketing of the product by the Koreans. 

I blame Japan for everything. 

From what I've seen and been told the Karate influence is a lot more prevalent in the way that the forms are performed in TKD in Korea more so than in the US.  Starting under Master Suan we were taught the forms as a mock fight that you should flow from one movement to another and that the form would speed up and slow down to degree in different parts of the form the same as it would in a fighting situation.  In Korea the form is more of a collection of individual moves there is no flow it is move and lock, move and lock the same way the we learned to do forms in Karate. 

Everything has its influences, so to say (for example) that basketball is hundreds of years old because it is similar to games played hundreds of years ago would be (in my opinion) inaccurate.

So my question is: how old do you believe taekwondo to be as a specific, viable, and distict martial art?

Daniel