Taekwondo originated in Korea and is the national sport of South Korea. Learning the art of taekwondo can assist in speed, flexibility, strength, balance, self-defense skills, and stamina. Taekwondo loosely translated means the art of kicking and punching.
Taekwondo is a recognized sport and has competitions under the direction of the World Taekwondo federation. It is one of only two Asian martial arts that are in the Olympic games. The other one is Judo. Taekwondo skills can help a person learn self-discipline and respect to grow as a person on top of just the physical skills learned. These physical skills include a taekwondo curriculum of moves and kicks along with sparring techniques. A person can also expect to get an aerobic along with an anaerobic workout.
A person can advance through the belt levels with the achievement of becoming a black belt being a highly regarded and respected achievement. In order to advance belt levels a person will need to learn a series of forms, attend a number of classes, learn self defense and other skills, pass a test, and most fun of all break boards.
Taekwondo is a great sport for people of all ages and skill levels, male or female. Even a person not interested in the competition aspect can benefit greatly from all of the self defense skills learned. Also taekwondo can be a terrfic workout. A typical intense hour of sparring class can burn 500 calories. What distinguishes taekwondo from other martial arts like karate is the emphasis on kicking. This makes taekwondo more of a workout than other martial arts due to the amount of energy and flexibility it takes to kick with good form.
A major emphasis in taekwondo is the focus on self-defense and not unprovoked violence. This makes it the perfect sport for anyone just looking to learn self defense.