To understand the answer to the question, what is tae kwon do, you must first understand its name. Tae kwon do is the national martial art of Korea and is also correctly referred to as tae kwon do and tae kwon do.

Tae kwon do is an "open hand" style of combat that has ancient roots and great similarity to many of the combat arts practiced throughout the Orient for more than two millennium. Tae kwon do has evolved greatly since its origins but became the martial-art we know today during the 1940s and 50s.

You'll need a little history lesson to understand why an ancient Korean martial art is so young. In a nutshell, the Korean people were subjugated by Japan as far back as 1898. Japan officially annexed Korea in 1910 and continued to occupy the Korean peninsula to varying degrees until 1945, and the end of WWII.

Korea was reeling from so many years of horrific treatment at the hands of the Japanese and was struggling to unite itself once again.

During their struggles with the Japanese, many Korean masters emigrated to Japan or China where they were allowed to learn and practice combat arts. This is something that was not allowed in Korea which is how Korean combat arts were lost in great detail. The return of these martial arts masters after 1945 brought a resurgence to combat arts in Korea.

These fathers of modern tae kwon do opened schools where they taught their individual styles based on Japanese, Chinese and original Korean combat arts.

What is Tae kwon do? Tae kwon do is a modern martial art from the country of Korea with ancient roots influenced by Chinese, Japanese and Korean combat styles.