Olympic Taekwondo in South Korean

By



ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My thanks go out to all who have helped me complete this study and with whom this project may have not been possible. In particular, my gratitude goes out to friends, facilitator and family for extensive and helpful comments on early drafts. I am also deeply indebted to the authors who have shared my interest and preceded me. Their works provided me with a host of information to learn from and build upon, also served as examples to emulate.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION1

Background of the Study1

Aims and Objectives2

Research Questions2

CHAPTER 02: LITERATURE REVIEW3

History of Olympic Taekwondo3

Martial Arts Training and Its Benefits4

Styles of Martial Arts5

CHAPTER 03: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY9

Validity11

Reliability11

Gantt Chart12

REFERENCES13

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

To cherish the achievements and contributions of sports, a special, one day event is to be held in South Korea. The aim of the event is to celebrate the achievements of the sportsmen and promote sports as a whole. The impact of sports on a society is positively undisputable. With the emergence of new technologies in the past decade, we have seen a declining level of participation and interest in sports by the new generation. The spirit of sports has to be revived and in order to achieve this target; an event has been organized with the elite sportsmen and women participating to promote sports in society (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995, pp. 219).

In Asia especially, as the word martial implies, martial arts were military disciplines and a major part of a warrior's training. They were also taught by warrior-priests in Japan and China, who obviously had a religious component to the disciplines as well. Despite this history with religion, the martial arts are not a religious practice. For the most part, religion did not play a big part in the history of martial arts. The Shaolin Temple being the central birthplace of Chinese martial arts in the fifth century in China was the only exception (Clawson, 1996, pp. 182).

It is difficult to accurately trace back the origins of most Asian martial arts. This is due to lack of historical records, the secretive nature of the teacher-student relationships and political circumstances during much of its history. Martial scholars speculate using narrow range of theories, and using whatever information they can find from ancient times. Most of the evidence comes from ancient depictions in tombs, vases, sculptures, and paintings. Literary records are pretty much nonexistent as they were destroyed during the wars over the centuries (Columbus, 1991, pp. 127).

Most of the martial arts that are practiced around the world today, transcended mainly from Okinawa, Japan, China and Korea. These did not become popular internationally until judo was introduced to the world from Japan in the 1930's; karate, also from Japan, in the 1950s, and tae kwon do from Korea, in the 1960's. These were the beginnings of martial arts becoming global.

Aims and Objectives The aim of this study is to assess Olympic taekwondo in South Korea. In the light of this aim, the following objectives ...