According to  Master Tom Jang:

Tae Kwon Do is a systematic and scientific Korean traditional martial art that teaches more than physical fighting skills. Taekwondo is a discipline that teaches ways to enhance the spirit and one's life. Taekwondo does this by training your body and your  mind.  Today, Taekwondo has become a global sport and is included in the olympic games while garnaring an international reputation for beign a dynamic, healthy and fun way to learn self defense.

Let's take a closer look at the meaning of the word Tae Kwon Do. Tae Kwon Do is often writen as one word (Taekwondo) as well as three words. It is composed of three parts as shown in the English spelling, though it is one word in Korean. Tae means "foot," or "to step on"; Kwon means "fist" or "fight"; and Do means the "way" or "discipline." If we put these three parts together, we can see two important concepts behind "Tae Kwon Do."

First, Tae Kwon Do is the right way of using Tae and Kwon, "fists and feet," or all the parts of the body that are represented by fists and feet.

Second, it is a way to control or calm down fights and keep the peace. This concept comes from the meaning of tae kwon: "to put fists under control" or "to step on fists". Thus Tae kwon do means, "the right way of using all parts of the body to stop fights and help to build a better and more peaceful world."

Tae Kwon Do has been developing with the 5000-year long history of Korea that aimed at producing leaders of the country. Tae Kwon Do today is similar to the martial arts in other Oriental countries and shares some features with them. During the course of its evolution, Tae Kwon Do has benifited from incorperating the best of many different styles of martial arts that existed in the countries surrounding Korea, like Japan and China.

Tae Kwon Do is very different from many such Oriental martial arts. First, physically it is very dynamic with active movements that include a myriad of foot skills. Second, the principle physical movements are in simpatico with that of mind and life as a whole. Third, it possesses dynamic poses from another perspective.

Tae Kwon Do can be characterized by unity: the unity of body, mind and life, and the unity of the pose [poomsae]. When you do Tae Kwon Do, you should make your mind peaceful and synchronize your mind with your movements, and extend this harmony to your life and society.

-Master Jang

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