Olmps

In 1943 the Japanese officially introduced karate, judo and kung fu to Korea as aspects of military training for conscripted locals:thus, by the time Korea was liberated in 1945, all the ingredients were in place for the new hybrid of taekwondo to blossom..The crucial role of Choi Hong Hi in formulating the rules of taekwondo and popularising the sport is covered below, as is the acrimonious split between its ruling bodies..Another key moment in the development of what was soon to become taekwondo was a demonstration in front of President Syngman Rhee in 1952, during which a master named Tae Hi Nam broke thirteen roof tiles with a single blow.. Rhee was sufficiently impressed to order that all Korean troops should receive training in the evolving martial art..

The growth of taekwondo during the few decades of its existence has been phenomenal: by 1974 there were around six hundred ITF trained instructors distributed across the globe.. But it was the newly formed WTF, which held its first World Championship in Seoul the previous year, which was to take its version of the sport into the Olympic Games, thanks to some intense South Korean lobbying..Today the organisation encompasses 197 national unions..

The Disowned Father of Taekwondo

General Choi Hong Hi developed taekwondo, gave the sport its name and was the force behind its global spread.Yet today the

sport’s governing body can scarcely bring itself to mention his name. Born in what is now North Korea in 1918, Choi Hong Hi studied

calligraphy under a tutor called Han Il Dong, a master of taekkyeon, an ancient Korean form of foot fighting. When his pupil showed interest, Han Il Dong taught it to him, despite its being banned by the country’s Japanese occupiers.

During the war, Choi was imprisoned by the Japanese for attempting to avoid conscription, and during this time created a hybrid of taekkyeon and karate. After his release, he joined the newly established Korean army and began teaching his method. On the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, he formed a crack regiment on the island of Cheju, which marched under a flag displaying his clenched hand over a map of Korea.

The‘Fist Division’provided taekwondo instructors for the whole South Korean army and Choi was promoted to the rank of major general. His star continued to rise and he demonstrated the new martial art in the Far East and America.But the coming to power of General Park Chung Hee in 1961 presented Choi with a major problem;back in the 1940s he had been a member of a military panel that had sentenced the General to death.

GENERAL CHOI HONG HI SEEMS UNHAPPY WITH HIS EASEL

Choi had no option but to leave the army, though for a time he continued to live and teach in South Korea, founding the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) in 1966. But life under the Park regime became increasingly intolerable and in 1972 he went into exile in Canada, taking the ITF with him.The South Korean government promptly set up a rival body, the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF), and set its intelligence unit on Choi.Told that his son and daughter, who had stayed in South Korea, would be executed if he didn’t return home, he responded with the line:‘I chose taekwondo over my son’ (his daughter doesn’t appear to have got a mention).

If Choi was no longer a pin-up in Seoul, his reputation there took a nose dive when he introduced taekwondo to North Korea in 1980. He eventually moved to Pyongyang, where he died in 2002.

Game On: Taekwondo Basics

As with most oriental martial arts, taekwondo is a

philosophy of life as much as a method of fighting: the extreme concentration required to smash through a stack of wooden boards is an aspect of the mental discipline that will lead one to the truth. . But competitive taekwondo requires measurable criteria of success, as well as certain measures to prevent serious injury. . Olympic taekwondo is therefore confined to sparring (gyeorugi), a form of constrained combat in which points are awarded for striking various points of the opponent’s body.. Other elements of taekwondo include self-defence, breaking boards and tiles, and poomsae – set movements based on imaginary contests against multiple attackers..

Taekwondo means ‘the way of the foot and the fist’, and that in a nutshell is what the sport is about.. Contestants are allowed to strike each other only with their feet and the leading part of their closed hands.. The leg is the primary weapon, which is logical as it is the longer and more powerful limb..The fists are of secondary importance – although they are invaluable for blocking, strikes with them score fewer points.. In boxing parlance, hand-strikes are the jabs, while the kicks are the hooks and uppercuts..

The form of the bout

Olympic taekwondo bouts are held on a square

measuring 8 x 8m, with a 2m margin which is not a part of the fighting area..The fighters begin facing each other, standing on starting positions 1m from the centre of the mat..They return to these positions at the beginning of each round. .After they have bowed to each other, the referee calls out ‘shi-jak’ and the fighting begins..

Bouts consist of three two-minute rounds separated by one- minute rest periods.. If the scores are level at the end of the final round, the bout goes into sudden death – the first combatant to score a point wins the match.. If no victor has emerged after two minutes, the officials choose a winner on the basis of aggression shown in the sudden death round..

According to WTF literature, for a blow to score a point the judges must deem it to have been executed ‘accurately and powerfully’.. Glancing or half-hearted contact does not count..

Officials

A single referee controls each bout and keeps it flowing.

In the normal course of events, referees do not award points..This is the job of the four corner judges,whose main task is to score shots to the head (body strikes are recorded electronically).. If, however, the judges fail to reach a majority decision about the award or deduction of a point(s), the referee has the casting vote..

Equipment

Taekwondo is practiced in a traditional uniform

known as a dobok, with a protective jacket called a hogu worn over the top..At the Olympics and other major competitions, hogu are fitted with sensors that automatically register hits to the parts of the torso that must be struck to earn points (the front and the sides)..This development has relieved the judges of a major burden, but the new technology won’t altogether put a stop to controversy: it has been argued that the sensors are too sensitive, and cannot distinguish between a legitimate strike and a part of the wearer’s body hitting the hogu in a counter-reaction to a successful block.. Kicks to the head are scored solely by the judges..

Contestants wear plenty of safety equipment.. If they didn’t, few bouts would last long.. In addition to their blue or red hogu, they sport head and hand protectors, groin, forearm and shin guards and gum-shields..

Scoring

Punches to the head are forbidden but kicks to it are

positively encouraged by the award of up to 4 points.. Points are scored as follows:

Kick or punch to the hogu – 1 point

Kick to the hogu involving a partial turn of the assailant’s body – 2 points Kick to the face or side of the head – 3 points

Kick to the head or face involving a full spinning turn – 4 points

To win a bout ahead of the end of the third round, a fighter must achieve a lead of 12 points, though this rule doesn’t apply during the first round.. In the event of a knockdown, the referee counts to ten – in Korean..As in boxing, there is a mandatory eight count.. If a fighter fails to get up in time, or if the referee deems them to be in no state to continue, their opponent wins..

Penalties and warnings

For every two warnings (kyong-go) a fighter receives, he

is punished with a one-point deduction (gam-jum).. If a fighter accumulates four point deductions he forfeits the bout..Warnings are issued for the following offences: attacking below the waist; inadvertently striking an opponent’s face with the hand; both feet going over the boundary of the fighting area; feigning injury; avoiding combat; turning the back to an opponent except in the course of executing a spinning kick; holding, pushing, butting or kneeing..

More serious offences such as attacking a fallen opponent or deliberately striking them in the face are punished with an instant gam-jum..

Competitive taekwondo requires mastery of a wide

range of kicks, punches, blocks and dodges..A selection is shown in the diagram..

The contestants in Olympic taekwondo go at each other hammer and tongs from the word go, because aggression is rewarded.. The kicks and punches are so attention grabbing that it’s easy to miss the blocks and dodges, but avoiding being hit is just as important as hitting: developing an eye for this aspect of taekwondo will greatly enhance your enjoyment of the sport..

Taekwondo Goes to the Olympics

The opening ceremony at the 1988 Seoul Games was a

pretty emphatic pitch for taekwondo’s elevation to the ranks of full Olympic sports: several hundred white-clad South Koreans performed a perfectly co-ordinated taekwondo routine, accompanied by spine-tingling sound effects on the stadium PA..The crowd went wild.. South Korea went on to win nine of the sixteen demonstration events..

It wasn’t until 2000, however, that taekwondo made its full Olympic debut.. South Koreans won three of the eight golds on offer in Sydney, but the diversity of the nationalities of the other medallists (Greek, Cuban,Australian and Chinese) was equally striking.. In Athens four years later, China and Taiwan tied with Korea, taking two titles each..The South Koreans were back on form in Beijing, winning half of the titles on offer, but the main talking point of the event was Cuban fighter Ángel Matos, the men’s middleweight champion at Sydney, who kicked the referee in the face after being disqualified for exceeding a time limit.. Matos was banned for life; Fidel Castro expressed his ‘total solidarity’ with the fighter..

More consequential for the future of the sport was the quarterfinal between Sarah Stevenson (GB) and Chen Zhong (China).. Four seconds before the end, with the Chinese fighter leading 1-0,

YOU CANNOt BE SERIOUS! SARAH STEVENSON REACTS IN DISBELIEF To HER APParent DEFEAT IN BEIJING

Stevenson landed a clear match-winning kick on her opponent’s face.. Unaccountably, two of the four corner judges failed to register the strike, as did the referee, who had the authority to cast the deciding vote..As a result, Zhong was awarded the fight..After vigorous protests from the British team, the judges watched a video replay and reversed their decision, to the fury of the Chinese crowd.. Following this incident, the adoption of replay technology was just a matter of time..

Why Watch Tennis?

Tennis is a splendid spectator sport: fast, intense and

intimate..You can get to know the competitors surprisingly well during the course of a match, or at least have the illusion of doing so, as the TV cameras pick up every emotion flickering across their faces.. But you know this already..The question is therefore not so much why you should watch the sport as why you should watch the Olympic version..

Twenty years ago, this would have been a tricky question to answer..When tennis was reintroduced as an Olympic sport in 1988, few of the world’s top performers were interested: the tournament had no prestige, fell right in the midst of an already packed season, and there was no prize money.. But the decision of the sport’s governing bodies to start awarding ranking points for Olympic tennis – to men from 2000 and women from 2004 – transformed its relevance to hard-bitten pros, who have come to appreciate that a gold medal looks nice in the trophy cabinet.. Barring injury, most of the big fish will be there in 2012..

Admittedly, there is still some doubt as to whether tennis really belongs in the Olympics..A gold medal should be a pinnacle of an athlete’s career, but no tennis player would rather win an Olympic title than a Grand Slam.. Nevertheless, the competition in London will be fierce and provide a welcome additional fix for those who haven’t been satiated by Wimbledon, just three weeks earlier.. It will also be fascinating to see whether the same players can prevail in both..

The Story of Tennis

Lawn tennis is often assumed to have descended from

real or royal tennis, an indoor game involving a droopy net and asymmetrical racquets, played by HenryVIII.. In fact, the two sports have little in common, although both ultimately derive from jeu de paume, a game played in medieval France using bare hands (paume = ‘palm’) rather than racquets.. However, lawn tennis was created chiefly by Major Walter Wingfield of Llanelidan, for the amusement

of his summer guests..A hybrid of several pre-existing games, his invention went by the name of Sphairistikè (from the ancient Greek for ‘playing ball’), was played on a court shaped like an hourglass, and in 1874 was deemed original enough to earn a patent..

The game swiftly morphed into lawn tennis. . Indeed, the world’s first ‘tennis club’ had been founded in Leamington Spa two years before the patent, and within months of the patent a court had been laid in New York.. In Britain, Oscar Wilde became a devotee, and in 1878 women’s colleges at Oxford and Cambridge began organising doubles competitions..

Four years after Wingfield’s patent, the All England Croquet

Club inWimbledon held its first men’s tournament. A women’s

tournament followed in 1884. .The entrants initially played in voluminous bustle dresses, but in 1887 a teenager named Lottie Dod took the title wearing shortish skirts, in defiance ofVictorian convention. . (Twenty-one years later she won an Olympic silver medal for archery..)

Other centres of the new sport began to organise national championships of their own.. England was followed by the USA in 1881, France a decade later and Australia in 1905..These tournaments, collectively known as the Grand Slams, became the heart of the international tennis circuit and remain so today..The other key ingredient in the development of the game was the establishment in 1900 of the Davis Cup, an annual competition for men’s national teams; the women’s equivalent, the Federation (now Fed) Cup, arrived 63 years later..

The British dominated the sport until the 1920s, when the pendulum bifurcated towards America and France.. The latter’s so called ‘Four Musketeers’, featuring René Lacoste of crocodile fame, won twenty singles and twenty-three doubles Grand Slam titles between them in the men’s division, while the great Suzanne Lenglen lost only two sets in seven years..

The winners’ lists from the Davis and Federation Cups show clearly how power has shifted over the years.. Prior to 1975, the men’s championship was invariably held by one of the Grand Slam nations, usually either the USA or Australia (the British dropped off the radar after 1936 and France went almost sixty years