Taekwondo Philosophy
The main philosophy of taekwondo is to create a peace in the world. To accomplish this goal, taekwondo starts with the individual before anything else. An individual should develop ethical traits and positive morals, personality, and character.
Taekwondo philosophy is not something theoretical. It is something practical that you do each and every day and can be shown through your actions. In short, you have to do taekwondo if you want to understand the taekwondo philosophy.
The principles of taekwondo
Etiquette or courtesy
If you read the history of taekwondo, you will find that it has some military foundations. Hwa-rang used martial arts for defense. These people had a code of honor that would guide them:
-Serve your Lord
-Trust your friends
-Serve your parents
-When taking a life be selective
-Never withdraw from battle
Those were the commandments of Hwa-rang. However, there are striking similarities between those commandments and the commandments used for taekwondo today:
-Be loyal to your country
-Be faithful to your spouse
-Respect your parents
-Be loyal to your friends
-Respect your siblings.
-Respect your teachers
-Respect those older than you
-Have a strong or invincible spirit
-Never take life if it is not necessary
-Always finish something you begin
-Be loyal to your school
The above commandments tell you one thing. Taekwondo philosophy needs loyalty and respect in all cases.
Modesty and integrity
This deals mainly with how you interact with people. Even if you are a better fighter than someone else, you should never brag of how you are good in taekwondo. Taekwondo is supposed to be a humble art that should earn respect and the practitioner needs to observe this by being honest and good.
Perseverance
Taekwondo practitioners should be very persistent in everything they do. They have to always strive to make themselves better every time. You always need to improve both your body and mind. If you start anything, there is no leaving it midway, you have to finish it because the rewards outweigh the challenges.
Self-control
This is a very important skill you need to learn. To take charge of your own life, you need to have self-control. Self-control will also help you earn respect as it will enable you to be respectful in hard situations, be cool and never get angry and to keep your temper under control.
Self-control will help you physically as you will learn how to throw punches and kicks and at the same time stop the punches and kicks one inch away from your opponent. Self-control will help you practice martial arts safely and effectively.
Indomitable spirit
This is one of the most helpful principles you can learn. Indomitable spirit will help you develop a spirit that cannot be defeated. No matter how tough the situation may look like, you believe you can handle it and you know how to handle it. This will help you enjoy life instead of fearing for the worst to happen.