Soo Bahk Do (Moo Duk Kwan)
수박도Hwang Kee''s Korean art, taught through the Moo Duk Kwan. In 1960 it parted from the name Tang Soo Do and turned away from the path of competitive sport.
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South KoreaCharacter & Origin
Training
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
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About Soo Bahk Do (Moo Duk Kwan)
Soo Bahk Do is a Korean martial art taught through the Moo Duk Kwan organisation. The school was founded on 9 November 1945, shortly after Korea''s liberation from Japanese occupation, by Hwang Kee. The art he taught in it was originally called Tang Soo Do; on 30 June 1960 he renamed it Soo Bahk Do. The renaming was not cosmetic. By it Hwang Kee declared that the centre of the practice was to be personal development rather than competitive sport or military application — precisely the directions the other Korean schools were taking at the time as they converged on a unified taekwondo. Soo Bahk Do therefore stayed outside the Olympic line, and has remained outside it since. Technically it is a composite of several sources: Okinawan karate, Shaolin long fist and taijiquan, with claimed elements from the Korean manual Muye Dobo Tongji. The result rests on deep, firm stances and on active hip work as the source of power. Its signatures are a wide store of kicks and a mixture of linear movement with the circular motion inherited from the Chinese side of the pedigree. Forms (hyung) and the precision of their execution are the core of the teaching. The art is led today by Hwang Hyun Chul, known as H. C. Hwang, the founder''s son, through certified instructors under the banner of World Moo Duk Kwan.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.