KOREA
Tae Kwon Do being the obvious art we know about and don't use
As stated, if you have Karate and Savate, as we do, there is nothing in TKD that is useful to Absorb and Add, and when you include our use of Thai, we certainly don't need to look to Korea
TKD is derived from Tang Soo Do, which itself is based on Shotokan, with an emphasis on kicking over hand techniques
As is known, Karate does not naturally have high kicks and spinning kicks, the use of more elaborate kicking methods was adopted after Karate teachers were exposed to Savate and saw how effective that form of kicking can really be
TSD was founded at the end of WW2 from the study of Shotokan, with some alleged Chinese influence, if that is true it is not clear how much - Five main schools/styles were founded, called Kwans
TKD was made up of the five TSD kwan styles, and only came into being in the 1960s - TSD still continued to exist and be practiced
The "Patterns" as they call Forms/Kata have been changed a lot from the Karate forms, if they were ever properly learnt - there are no applications to them, and TKD/TSD "Masters" have reasons they do not teach them as applied forms - they are essentially meanlingless "air" forms
This is where you get problems with the claims of "lineage" and origin in Korean MA
- that it is based on Taekkyon the old style
- the modern founder had a mysterious Yip Man/Mr Miyagi style teacher that only taught it to him (how many times have we heard that )
- that there is an old scroll passed own, or that someone came across later
Hapkido - an attempt to mix the Karate that became TKD with Aikido, allegedly with some Judo
Kuk Sool Wan -a modern hybrid that is supposed to be Traditional, like a Koryo, claims roots in the old arts, but as these were not passed on, this is basically Hapkido and Kung Fu
Korean MA-ers claim to still have the original Korean arts that were supposed to have been passed down to them - not much is actually known about these systems, how much of them really existed if at all, and there is no lineage, scrolls, no Grandmasters, no family styles - after Japanese occupation, WW2 and Korean War it is unlikely that anything was passed though to the next generation - if it was Hapkido would never be needed, the Kuk Sul "founder" would not have had to seek out and extensively learn Kung Fu, and there would not be this big development from TSD to TKD
And, whether it sounds harsh, if Korea kept losing wars, how effective could their historical MA actually be - compare this to Thailand/Siam, Land Of The Free, which has never been conquered, and we still have Krabi passed down to this day
The old Korean MA:
Subak
Taekkyon
Hwa Rang Do
Gwon beop
As with anything, you get athletes who train and compete in TKD and TSD who become skilled kickboxers, and World Class in their own right
Chuck Norris practices American Tang Soo Do, his original Karate style, which speaks for itself - though he is an exception not an example
KOREA then is the Country which we have complete access to, but that we take nothing from
