History of Taekwondo
Literally,” The art of kicking and Punching”, Taekwondo is a native Korean form of fighting that embraces kicking, punching, jumping, blocking, dodging, and parrying. It is a system of training both the mind and the body, with an emphasis on development of moral character.
History of Karate
The Japanese art of Karate’s roots can be traced to ancient India, China, and Okinawa. India, which developed yoga and its diaphragmatic breathing methods, has exerted influence on numerous combative techniques throughout these countries. Many martial arts scholars consider India the birthplace of all martial arts.
National Karate is a combination of both Taekwondo, and Karate techniques. This blend of martial arts began in the 1960’s with the advent of the “Open Tournament.” Grand Master Jhoon Rhee can be credited with changing the face of martial arts in the United States.
10th Degree Black Belt and Grand Master Jhoon Rhee was a Taekwondo practitioner born in Asan, Chosen, South Korea on January 7, 1932. Unbeknownst to his father, Rhee began training at age 13 with Nam Tae-hi and ultimately graduated from the Chung Do Kwan school.
As an officer in the South Korean Army, he attended Southwest Texas State College in 1956 and returned later to finish his engineering degree at the University of Texas-Austin. During this time, he introduced the Korean martial art of Taekwondo to the United States.
In his time at university, Grand Master Rhee met and started training Allen Steen, who became the first person promoted to black belt by GM Rhee. Mr. Steen then returned to his hometown of Dallas, Texas and opened his first commercial martial arts school. Pat Burleson also became a student of GM Rhee at this time and likewise returned to his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas and opened his first school.
In 1962 after graduating, Grand Master Rhee moved to the East Coast and opened his first martial arts school in the United States in the Washington D.C. area. By the mid-1980s, his schools grew to a total of 11 locations in the D.C. metro area. His influence continued to grow throughout the country through the legacy of his initial students in Texas.
At the time of his death in 2018, Grand Master Jhoon Rhee was widely recognized as the “father of American Taekwondo”. In 2000, the National Immigrant Forum and Immigration and Naturalization Services acknowledged Rhee as the only Korean-American included in the top 203 most recognized immigrants to the country.
National Karate Founder Grand Master John Worley and his business partner Grand Master Larry Carnahan both trained under Rhee’s student, Pat Burleson and were directly instructed by Chuck Loven at the Worth Health Studio in Fort Worth, Texas.
In 1970, John Worley, as a first degree black belt , moved with his wife and two small children to the Washington DC area and began his professional karate teaching career. During the next three years, GM Worley was trained directly by Jhoon Rhee as part of his employment in the Jhoon Rhee Institute.
GM Carnahan followed the path from Texas to Washington, DC in 1973 and spent the next three years teaching and training with GM Rhee.
According to John Worley, “The classical martial training we received from GM Rhee provides the foundation of what we teach in our NK schools today. In Texas, under Chuck Loven’s training, we all were pretty good fighters. But Chuck didn’t put much emphasis on the “form” side of karate training. I consider that my actual martial training started under GM Rhee’s direction when we moved to DC.”
“GM Rhee was the most innovative martial arts leader the world has ever seen. He departed from much of the traditional tae kwon do training and developed his own ideas as to how to teach all aspects of martial arts. While training under his direction, we learned the importance of demanding excellence in all the basics of proper stances, blocking, punching and especially proper kicking mechanics”.
Jhoon Rhee made world-wide impacts on the sport aspects of martial arts with his introduction of musical forms and his development of protective sparring equipment. Along with GM Worley’s brother, Pat, GM Worley and GM Carnahan were among the first to wear the newly developed sparring pads in actual competition.
The first difference is the place of origin. Tae Kwon Do comes from Korea while Karate originated in Okinawa before migrating to Japan. Although there are some hand strikes in Tae Kwon Do, it is primarily a kicking art. Karate was originally called” Okinawa Te.” Te translates to “hand” and is the ancient, indigenous combat and self defense system developed in the Ryuku Kingdom now known as modern day Okinawa. Because weapons were strictly prohibited during periods of strict rule, Okinawans secretly combined their local fighting methods with Chinese martial arts.
Jhoon Rhee is considered the father of American Tae Kwon Do. He is noted as the first Korean to teach Tae Kwon Do in the United States.
Tae Kwon Do started primarily as an adult activity until mainstream exposure through the popular 1984 movie The Karate Kid captivated children across a generation. That single movie changed how people thought of martial arts, and it became not only an adult activity but also an activity for kids as well as the whole family.