SKY The sky appears blue because of Rayleigh scattering. The light scatters on nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the air that are a smaller size than the wavelength of the blue light. ...The molecules radiate scattered light as electric dipoles, and the intensity of the scattered light is inversely proportional to the fourth power of the wavelength.
Photo courtesy of https://pixabay.com/

The solid and broken bars in the eight image tiles in the top navigation are called trigrams. The octagonal trigram pattern is a common symbol for the Chinese term Bagua. The pattern has eight (ba) areas (guas). "South" is always found at the top of the Bagua. Each trigram represents a particular natural phenomena: Sky ☰, Lake ☱, Fire ☲, Thunder ☳, Wind ☴, Water ☵, Mountain ☶, Earth ☷. If you click on a trigram, it will take you to the corresponding taekwondo form page. Each form has a trigram which I describe scientifically and call scigrams. The tangram animation in the middle of the trigram tiles is supposed to represent a kicking woman. A tangram is a puzzle which originated in China. It is created out of seven flat polygons that can be put together to form shapes.


The movements are listed here so that you can see the Korean translation for some of the techniques by hovering over the green and pink highlighted text.

trunk reverse punch The sides of the forward leg and the punching arm are the same. - momtong pandae chirugi
trunk straight punch The side of the forward leg is opposite that of the punching arm. - momtong paro chirugi
parallel stance - naranhi sogi
left/right front stance, walking stance - oen /orun ap sogi
left/right forward stance The feet are wider apart than for the front stance - oen /orun ap kubi
ready stance - chunbi sogi
low block - arae makki
inside block (from inside to outside) - an makki
high block/face block - eul gool makki
front kick - ap chagi
middle punch - momtoong chirugi
StanceMovementsPoom
ready stance  
walking stanceTurn to the left 90° while executing left low block, walking stance, right middle punch while stepping forward right side in walking stance.1, 2
walking stanceTurn to the right 180° while executing right low block, walking stance, left middle punch while stepping forward left side in walking stance. 3, 4
forward stanceTurn to the left 90°, forward stance, left low block, right middle punch, don't step forward.5, 6
walking stanceLeave left foot anchored to the spot and turn 90° to the right, left inside block, step forward left side (leaving left arm in place) in walking stance, right middle punch.7, 8
walking stanceRight foot anchored to the spot, turn 180° to the left, right inside block, step forward right side (leaving left arm in place) in walking stance, left middle punch.9, 10
forward stanceTurn to the right 90°, forward stance, right low block, right arm should be over the right leg. Left middle punch, don't move forward.11, 12
walking stanceTurn to the left 90°, left high block, right front kick (arm remains up), right middle punch in walking stance. 13, 14
walking stanceTurn to the right 180°, right high block, left front kick (arm remains up), left middle punch in walking stance.15, 16
forward stanceTurn to the right 90°, left low block while stepping forward with left leg, right middle punch while stepping forward with right leg.17, 18
parallel stanceParotKuman



Learn just enough Hangeul to complete a crossword puzzle!

GO TO HANGEUL CROSSWORD PUZZLE



PDF documents with taekwondo vocabulary in English, Hangeul, and transliterated Hangeul to download. I had a native Korean proofread the original documents and he corrected the Hangeul in red pen.
TKD Vocabulary: Korean to English Vocabulary for Forms TKD Vocabulary: English to Korean

Lesson 1

Taegeuk Il Jang, New Techniques

Stances 서기, 굽이 sogi, kubi
naranhi sogi 나란히 서기 parallel stance
oen /orun ap sogi 왼 / 오른 앞 서기 left/right front stance, walking stance
oen /orun ap kubi 왼 / 오른 앞 굽이 left/right forward stance - The feet are wider apart than for the front stance.
chunbi sogi 준비 서기 ready stance
charyot sogi 차렷 서기 attention stance
Punches, Strikes, Thrusts 치기, 지르기 chigi, chirugi
momtong pandae chirugi 몸통 반대 지르기 Trunk reverse punch - The sides of the forward leg and the punching arm are the same.
momtong paro chirugi 몸통 바로 지르기 Trunk straight punch - The side of the forward leg is opposite that of the punching arm.

If the definitions of straight punch and reverse punch sound backwards to you, take a look at this Web page with an answer from Dr. Master Sang H. Kim about the difference between the two.

Blocks 막기 makki
arae makki 아래 막기 low block
palmok momtong arae makki 팔목 몸통 아래 막기 forearm middle low block
an makki 안 막기 inside block (from inside to outside)
pakkat palmok momtong anmakki 바깥 팔목 몸통 안 막기 outside forearm inside block
eul gool makki 얼굴 막기 high block
palmok eulgool makki 팔목 얼굴 막기 forearm high block
Kick 차기 chagi
ap chagi 앞 차기 front kick

Mouse over the photo for body part words in romanized Korean. Some examples of various spellings (i.e., transliterations) you could find on the Web are also given.

female_body
high head high hand arm chest arm hand middle trunk middle low leg low foot