Taegeuk Yook Jang

Quick Facts

About the kata

Taegeuk Yook Jang is the sixth of the eight Taegeuk forms; according to the English Wikipedia its name means "the sixth part of Taegeuk." It carries the trigram Gam (감, ☵), water. Its place in grading differs: Wikipedia and the Taekwondo Compendium (nbtkda.com) link it to 3rd geup, phoenixtaekwondo.net to red belt 2nd kup, taekwondopreschool.com to blue belt 4th geup. Compared with earlier forms it adds, according to Wikipedia, a turning knife-hand block eolgul sonnal biteureo makgi, followed by the kick dollyeo chagi, palm blocks, backward steps into the stances dwit kubi and ap kubi, and a slow block arae hecheo makgi. Wikipedia gives its tempo as eight counts, the Taekwondo Compendium about five seconds. Phoenixtaekwondo.net counts 23 movements made up of 31 techniques, taekwondonation.com 19 steps – the difference comes from how they are counted. The single kihap belongs, according to nbtkda.com, to the last dollyeo chagi kick; phoenixtaekwondo.net places it on the kick after the 270-degree turn. The spacing between movements is not uniform according to the Taekwondo Compendium: it depends on whether the next technique attacks or defends. The floor pattern, according to phoenixtaekwondo.net, follows the character 王, "king."

The kata in different styles

Meaning of the name

The Taekwondo Compendium (nbtkda.com) reads Gam as flowing water and assigns it the ear in the human body: the ability to hear and to sense both the firmness and the softness of the force around oneself as one's own. Phoenixtaekwondo.net stresses the formlessness of water, which flows around every obstacle, and so wants the form practised smoothly and with quiet certainty; it reads the two dollyeo chagi kicks in it as an image of water that turns in any direction without hesitation. Taekwondopreschool.com assigns the trigram the west and the second son, and wants the form to be calm as a lake at one moment and fierce as a waterfall at another.

Bunkai – applications

The Taekwondo Compendium (nbtkda.com) links the new elements of this form to wrist work: after a block or after catching an attack, the practitioner pulls the opponent by the wrist and follows with the dollyeo chagi kick, or with the lock nulleo kkeokgi or the throw neomgigi. The same source reads the backward steps into dwit kubi as a retreat from which defence and an immediate counterattack follow.

In grading syllabi

• Kukkiwon system (poom and dan): 1st poom
• Kukkiwon system (poom and dan): 2nd poom
• Kukkiwon system (poom and dan): 3rd poom
• Kukkiwon system (poom and dan): 4th poom
• Kukkiwon system (poom and dan): 1st dan
• Kukkiwon system (poom and dan): 2nd dan
• Kukkiwon system (poom and dan): 3rd dan
• Kukkiwon system (poom and dan): 4th dan
• Kukkiwon system (poom and dan): 5th dan

Technique Sequence — WT Taekwondo

Breakdown source: phoenixtaekwondo.net

1. #1
   Ap KubiArae Makgi
2. #2
   Ap KubiAp Chagi
3. #3
   Dwit KubiBakkat Makgi
4. #4
   Ap KubiArae Makgi
5. #5
   Ap KubiAp Chagi
6. #6
   Dwit KubiBakkat Makgi
7. #7
   Ap KubiSonnal Biteureo Bakkat Makgi
8. #8
   Narani SeogiDollyo Chagi
9. #9
   Ap KubiBakkat Makgi
10. #10
    Ap KubiBaro Jireugi
11. #11
    Ap KubiAp Chagi
12. #12
    Ap KubiBaro Jireugi
13. #13
    Ap KubiBakkat Makgi
14. #14
    Ap KubiBaro Jireugi
15. #15
    Ap KubiAp Chagi
16. #16
    Ap KubiBaro Jireugi
17. #17
    Narani SeogiHecheo Makgi
18. #18
    Ap KubiBakkat Makgi
19. #19
    Narani SeogiDollyo Chagi
    kiai
20. #20
    Ap KubiArae Makgi
21. #21
    Ap KubiAp Chagi
22. #22
    Dwit KubiBakkat Makgi
23. #23
    Ap KubiArae Makgi
24. #24
    Ap KubiAp Chagi
25. #25
    Dwit KubiBakkat Makgi
26. #26
    Dwit KubiSonnal Geodeureo Bakkat Makgi
27. #27
    Dwit KubiSonnal Geodeureo Bakkat Makgi
28. #28
    Ap KubiBatangson An Makgi
29. #29
    Ap KubiBaro Jireugi
30. #30
    Ap KubiBatangson An Makgi
31. #31
    Ap KubiBaro Jireugi