ITF Taekwondo
태권도A branch of taekwondo founded by Choi Hong Hi on 22 March 1966. It has 24 tul, a two-round match with controlled contact and scoring hand strikes to the head.
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South KoreaCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
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About ITF Taekwondo
ITF Taekwondo is a branch of taekwondo associated with General Choi Hong Hi. He introduced the name Taekwon-Do on 11 April 1955 and on 22 March 1966 founded in Seoul the ITF federation, which nine national associations joined. The headquarters moved to Toronto in 1972 and to Vienna in 1985. After Choi’s death in 2002 there are three organizations named ITF. Technically the ITF is associated with the sine wave, in which the body rises between techniques and sinks at the strike, and with Choi’s Theory of Power, according to which the energy of a strike grows mainly with speed. Sources differ on when the sine wave arose, and it is used only by some schools. Training and competition rest on the 24 tul forms, sparring and breaking. Under the ITF rules in Vienna of 2026, sparring is two rounds on an area of 9 × 9 m, contact must be controlled and hand strikes to the head score. Competition also includes tul, special technique and power breaking, and self-defense as a performed routine. A helmet, gloves and shin guards are compulsory. Competition categories start at 8 years. The grades are divided into gup 10–1 and dan 1–9, and the belt colors are white, yellow, green, blue, red and black. Among the ITF organizations, however, the grades are not uniform.
History
ITF Taekwondo is one of the two main branches of taekwondo. The name Taekwon-Do was introduced by Choi Hong Hi on 11 April 1955. He founded the federation ITF Taekwon-Do on 22 March 1966 in Seoul with nine national associations as founding members and became its first president. In 1972 the headquarters of the federation moved to Toronto, which the organization links with political tension with the South Korean government and with the effort to spread taekwon-do around the world. Choi Hong Hi then left for Canada and in 1979 traveled to North Korea. In 1985 the headquarters moved to Vienna, where it was meant to support growth in the countries of the Eastern Bloc. Choi Hong Hi died on 15 June 2002. Since 2002 there have been three organizations named ITF: the ITF in Vienna, led by Chang Ung (elected 2002) and from 2015 by Ri Yong-son, the ITF led by Paul Weiler, and the ITF led by Choi Jung-hwa, Choi Hong Hi’s son, who was elected successor in 2001, a decision that Choi Hong Hi revoked in 2002. Sources give the seats of the organizations differently.
How it differs
ITF and World Taekwondo (WT) are the two main branches of taekwondo. WT was founded in 1973 as the World Taekwondo Federation and is the Olympic federation, and taekwondo has been a medal event since Sydney 2000. ITF is not an Olympic federation and has been split into three organizations since 2002. Bout scoring differs. An Olympic WT bout has three two-minute rounds, and according to NBC Olympics a hand strike to the trunk scores 1 point, a kick to the trunk 2, a kick to the head 3 and turning kicks 4 and 5 points, while a hand strike to the head is prohibited. The ITF rules in Vienna from March 2026 have two rounds, a punch to the body or head for 1 point, a kick to the head for 2 and a jumping kick to the head for 3 points, and the bout is stopped only to confirm a technique worth 3 to 5 points. The AFP agency reported in 2017 that Olympic taekwondo uses noticeably fewer hand strikes. The forms differ too. WT competes in poomsae, for adults the prescribed forms are Taegeuk 8 Jang and the master forms Koryo to Hansu, judged out of 10 points, 4 for accuracy and 6 for presentation. ITF has 24 tul judged out of 100 points.
Technique
Sources link ITF movement with the sine wave, in which the body rises between techniques and sinks when a technique is executed. According to some, Choi Hong Hi developed it after 1973 and described it in his work of 1983, which describes the rise and fall of the hips and the flexing of the knees to increase mass in the strike. An essay by Grant Eccles (ITFNZ, 2015) states that the editions of 1965 and 1972 do not know it and that the term sine wave first appears in the fifteen-volume edition of 1993. The sources thus differ on the date, and the sine wave is used only by some ITF schools. Choi’s Theory of Power rests on the fact that kinetic energy grows with the square of speed and only linearly with mass. It includes reaction force, concentration, equilibrium, breath control, mass and speed. According to the ITFNZ essay, the 1965 edition had only four components, without mass. The forms are called tul. The official syllabus has 24 of them, and in 1986 the tul Juche replaced the earlier Ko-Dang.
Training
Instruction is based on the tul patterns. According to the ITF led by Paul Weiler, the official syllabus has 24 tul, symbolizing the 24 hours of the day. According to the ITF rules in Vienna, the shortest is Chon-Ji with a 30-second time limit and the longest is So-San with 110 seconds. In 1986 the tul Juche replaced the earlier Ko-Dang. In the ITF competition led by Weiler, two competitors simultaneously perform one optional and one prescribed tul, judged on technical content, power, balance, breath control and rhythm. We did not find the structure of a typical lesson or the recommended training frequency in ITF sources.
Ranks and progression
The student grades gup are counted from 10th to 1st, the master grades dan from 1st to 9th. The belt colors are white, yellow, green, blue, red and black. Holders of the 1st to 3rd dan are titled boosabum, the 4th to 6th dan sabum, the 7th and 8th dan sahyun and the 9th dan saseong. Dan grades are issued by the individual ITF organizations separately, so the grades are not uniform among them. We did not find the examination rules, that is waiting periods and minimum age, in ITF sources.
Who it suits
The ITF rules in Vienna of March 2026 divide competitors into pre-children (8–9 years), children (10–11), cadet (12–13), junior (14–15), youth (16–17), adult (18–34), senior (35–44) and veterans from 45 years. At a championship each country enters two men and two women per category, in the senior category up to three per sex. Children’s matches are shorter: pre-children fight 2 × 1 minute, children and cadet 2 × 1.5 minutes. The area may be reduced to 6 × 6 m for pre-children and to 7 × 7 m for children and cadet, and children may use 8 oz gloves. The rules do not mention children’s club programs.
Competition
The ITF rules in Vienna of March 2026 set two rounds for a match, for juniors to seniors of 2 minutes each with a one-minute break. The standard area measures 9 × 9 m with a safety margin of 1 m, and attacks must be controlled at the point of impact. A hand strike to the trunk or head and a kick to the trunk are worth 1 point, a kick to the head 2 points, a jumping kick to the head 3 points, and airborne kicks with a turn from 180 to over 360 degrees to the head 4 and 5 points. In the tul competition five judges score an individual performance out of 100 points, 80 for technique and 20 for power, with the highest and lowest marks discarded. Holders of the 1st dan draw the first tul from the series Kwang-Gae to Ge-Baek and the second from the series Chon-Ji to Ge-Baek. Special technique is breaking a board at height, for a flying high kick at least 2.8 m for adult men and 2.3 m for women. Turning the board by 90 degrees or more earns 10 points, less than that 2 points, a touch 1 point. Power breaking is a separate discipline and is not held at a junior tournament. Self-defense is competed as a performed routine, men with one Hero against three opponents, women with one Heroine against two. A team match is won by the team that gets 6 points, a win in a match counts 2 points and a draw 1 point.
Gear
The ITF rules in Vienna of 2026 require ITF-approved protectors in a match: closed Velcro gloves, 10 oz for those aged 14 and over, 8 or 10 oz for children and cadets, plus a mouthguard, a helmet protecting the whole head except for the face, shin guards and hand and foot protectors in the color of the corner. Women wear a breast protector, men a groin protector. The rules do not mention a trunk protector, and according to them the helmet is compulsory.
Philosophy
The ITF led by Paul Weiler lists five tenets of taekwondo: courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit. According to it, indomitable spirit is the courage to overcome fear, especially when freedom and justice are at stake. It calls the philosophy Do, the way, and holds body and mind inseparable. According to the five duties, a student is to observe the tenets of taekwondo, respect elders and superiors, not distort the name Taekwon-Do, be a fighter for freedom and justice, and help build a more peaceful world. The ITF stresses that what decides is conviction, not repeating the tenets at every lesson.
Today
ITF competitions are today held under three separate organizations, and neither grades nor rules are uniform among them. The scoring rules differ between the ITF organizations. Injury data for ITF are sparse. The Archives of Budo 2015 conference paper summarized about 4,000 competitors from 15 medical reports from ITF competitions in Poland and from published WTF studies. It reports 111.6 injuries per 1,000 exposed athletes in ITF, 117.7 for ITF juniors, 82.8 for WTF men and 87.0 for WTF women, and places both branches among sports disciplines with an average injury rate. We did not find a study that would follow, with figures, the health or fitness benefit of ITF specifically.
Did you know
The ITF names 11 April 1955, when the name Taekwon-Do was approved, as the official date of the birth of taekwondo. Choi Hong Hi was born in 1918, in 1946 graduated from the first military academy of the South Korean army, and in 1953 founded the 29th Infantry Division on Jeju Island. In 1959 he led a tour of the Far East with nineteen of the best black belts. The first ITF World Championship took place in 1974 in Montreal. Taekwondo was a demonstration sport at the Olympic Games in Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992, and was absent in Atlanta 1996. According to the AFP, in 2017 World Taekwondo dropped the word Federation from its name to avoid the abbreviation WTF. On 23 September 2019 the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA declared the ITF, based in Austria, non-compliant with the anti-doping code because it had not completed a compliance questionnaire.
Frequently asked questions
What is ITF taekwondo?
ITF taekwondo is the branch of taekwondo led by the International Taekwon-Do Federation, founded on 22 March 1966 in Seoul. Since 2002 the ITF has been split into three organizations. It differs from Olympic taekwondo under World Taekwondo in its sparring rules and tul patterns.
Who founded the ITF?
The ITF was founded by General Choi Hong Hi, whom Britannica calls the chief founder of taekwondo. The federation was established on 22 March 1966 in Seoul with the consent of nine countries, and Choi was its first president.
What is sine wave in ITF taekwondo?
Sine wave, or sinusoidal wave, is a movement in which the body rises between techniques and sinks as the technique is performed, in order to transfer body weight into the strike. According to an essay by Grant Eccles, the term first appears in the fifteen-volume taekwondo encyclopedia from 1993, and only some ITF schools use it.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.