Sammamish Tae Kwon Do Program

Our school teaches Tae Kwon Do, Arnis, and Self Defense. Collectively taught, each are complimentary to one another and contributes to developing a proficient and well-rounded Martial Artist.

Tae Kwon Do is a Korean martial art famous for its long, deep stances and its head-height kicks, jumping and spinning kicks. It is the world's most popular martial art in terms of the number of practitioners. Physically, Tae Kwon Do develops strength, quickness, balance, flexibility, and stamina. Mentally, Tae Kwon Do develops respect, integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit. In Korean, Tae Kwon Do is loosely translated as "The art of the hand and foot".

Tae Kwon Do, as we teach it, includes combat techniques emanating from the hands and the feet, self defense, form, sparring, competitions, exercise, board breaking, meditation, and life skills.

Combat techniques emanating from the hands and the feet includes learning the fundamental techniques such as kicking, blocking and defending, punching and other striking, and effective movement with your feet to get you in and out of striking range. Techniques are often practiced in high repetition and then revisited frequently so that eventually they become natural and almost thoughtless to execute. This helps to make a practitioner more instinctive in a real life self-defense situation and less panicked.

Self defense in Tae Kwon Do, primarily consists of kicking when confronting an attacker. You can counter-attack from a greater distance while staying out of harm’s way. The legs are the strongest muscles in the body. We practice kicking high because of the numerous target areas located higher up on the body. Most people are caught off-guard when you defend yourself with kicks because they’re inexperienced in dealing with them. Some weaknesses can be exposed when using Tae Kwon Do for self-defense. For that reason, we bring in techniques from other styles to become better-rounded.

Form is a practice or performance of a prearranged sequence of techniques. Most Forms resemble combat, but the emphasis is more on weaving different movements and techniques that flow together to be artistically pleasing. Form can be used as an effective conditioning tool and also as a way of developing a martial artist’s aptitude with power, balance, precision, reality, and correct technique.

Sparring is a partner drill where students practice combat in an organized environment. You’re expected to be able to control your technique with precise accuracy and recoil the motion within an inch or barely penetrating into the person’s targeted area. It’s great practice for self defense situations plus a fantastic workout.

Competitions are an exciting aspect of training. The most common competitive aspects of Tae Kwon Do are Form and Sparring. Through competition, we develop many key attributes that help us to grow both as martial artists and as people including: managing stress, performing in front of others, practicing commitment, demonstrating good sportsmanship, learning resilience, and working to be at our best.

Exercise featured in Tae Kwon Do training consists of: waking up the muscles, cardio stamina training, strength training, high-intensity interval training, and stretching.

Board Breaking is a way to bring together the physical, technical, and mental aspects of your training. It can be used as either a demonstration of skill or a test of one’s ability to deliver a powerful and technically correct strike. Mentally, intense focus and a clear and positive mindset are required.

Meditation is used to clear your mind and not let anything from the outside world bother you or affect your training. Push it to the side and be in the moment so you can give 100% of your focus to your training. You’ll learn to breathe properly through meditation so you can save energy and only exert yourself when it’s efficient and effective.

Life skills are developed that spill over from the training mat to everyday life. We focus on memorizing phrases that state core values and putting them into practice.

Traditional Tae Kwon Do

Shortly after the end of World War II and Japanese occupation, new martial arts schools called kwans opened in Seoul. These schools were established by Korean martial artists with backgrounds in Japanese and Chinese martial arts. At the time, indigenous Korean disciplines were all but forgotten. The umbrella term Traditional Tae Kwon Do typically refers to the martial arts practiced by these nine kwans during the 1940s and 1950s.

Traditional Tae Kwon Do includes the powerful and elaborate kicks that most people are familiar with, but it also implements a wide array of hand technique strikes and blocks stripped from the modern sport version of the art. Traditional Tae Kwon Do and the arts of the original nine kwans found their way to America and throughout the world via the students and descendants of the original kwans.

Our System

The style of Tae Kwon Do we teach originated from the Chang Moo Kwan system of Korea, as brought to America by Grandmaster Chang Hae Choi. Chang Moo Kwan is one of the original nine kwans of Traditional Tae Kwon Do. Sa Bum Nim Thomas Zoppi, 6th Degree Black Belt, developed his own modernization of the techniques of the system with the council of his instructor, Sa Bum Nim Dan Di Vito. The new system was subsequently named American Chang Moo Kwan.