Taekwondo. Doug Cook

So much about taekwondo has changed since the 1960s when I began teaching in New York City. Back then the term taekwondo was seldom used by schools to describe the style they featured, favoring instead to advertise as karate academies, an imprimatur more familiar to the public in general. While it is considered the most popular martial art in the world today, taekwondo had not yet found its identity as an Olympic sport and the various institutes or kwans had only recently combined under a single standard. Korea, my native land, was still on the mend following the bloody civil conflict of the early 1950s that claimed the lives of so many.

Yet even then I had a clear understanding of where I intended to take the art I had worked so hard to master from an early age. Rather than concentrate purely on the combat sport taekwondo was quickly becoming, I chose instead to promote many of the offensive and defensive skills transmitted to me at the famed Moo Duk Kwan in Seoul by Master Chong Soo Hong. Traditional hand techniques, sweeps, joint locks, and throws were then perceived as being far too dangerous for competition and were subsequently forbidden in the ring. The performance of poomsae—the formal exercises representing the essence of the art—was being foreshadowed too by the need to develop modern fighting strategies that would ensure competitive domination in the future. What would become of these hard earned, time tested skills? Would they evaporate and be forgotten like so many other customs throughout the world?

It rapidly became apparent that an organization needed to be created that did not stand in opposition to, but acted in accordance with the various entities that were springing up to support taekwondo as an Olympic sport in America. Undoubtedly, this organization would assist with that worthy goal, but would also continue to propagate the traditional and philosophical aspects of the art. Poomsae, basic technique, ritual one-step sparring, meditation, and self-defense drills would receive equal attention to that of competitive sparring. And so in 1980 I founded the United States Taekwondo Association whose mission was then and remains now the promotion of the ancient and evolving art of taekwondo.

The USTA has currently been in existence for over twenty-five years, and during that time I have cultivated many fine instructors capable of assisting me in the promotion of taekwondo as the traditional martial art that it was intended to be. Some became world champions. Still others went on to establish schools of their own here and abroad. Yet one in particular, Master Doug Cook, has chosen not only to teach professionally, but to follow in my footsteps and support the art through the written word. While teaching five classes a day sometimes as often as seven days a week, he has authored two books published by YMAA, a highly respected member of the literary community. Taekwondo—Ancient Wisdom for the Modern Warrior and Traditional Taekwondo—Core Techniques, History, and Philosophy both focus on the philosophy and techniques unique to the practice of traditional taekwondo rather than its sportive mate. Both have become best-sellers and have inspired thousands of students around the world.

In Taekwondo—A Path to Excellence, his third book, Doug Cook has again touched on virtues, principles, and techniques that are certain to fortify the martial artist

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Taekwondo. Doug Cook

Taekwondo

Foreword