On April 11th, 1955, the name Taekwon-Do was officially adopted for the martial art General Choi Hong Hi had developed using elements of the ancient Korean martial art of Taek Kyon and of Shotokan karate, a martial art he had learned while studying in Japan.The philosophical values and the goals of Taekwon-Do are firmly rooted in the traditional moral culture of the Orient. On the technical side, defensive and offensive tactics are based on principles of physics, particularly Newton's Law, which explains how to generate maximum force by increasing speed and mass during the execution of a movement.Wanting to share the results of his philosophical reflections and his technical experiments, General Choi planned and wrote a unique reference work, the Encyclopedia of Taekwon-Do. In its fifteen volumes, he explained in detail the rules and practices of this art.Always striving for excellence, General Choi presented Taekwon-Do as in a state of cont-
inuous evolution, open to changes that would
improve its effectiveness. He wrote that anyone
who believes he has fully discharged his duty
will soon perish. Likewise, any undertaking that
is perceived to have reached its objectives is
likely to lose momentum, stagnate, and die.
Since the beginning, Taekwon-Do has never stopped evolving, driven by the strong will and a lot of hard work by its Founder. The leaders of today also recognize the need to evolve and they are equally passionate about the future of the organization. TaeKwon-Do was brought to the Pottstown area by Master Kong IL Young, a student of General Choi. Master Jim Murray learned from Master Kong, then started teaching his own students, Master Bill Lees being one of them. Master Lees opened a dojang in Pennsburg where Mark Cashatt started training.
Since the retirement of Master Jim Murray from the United TaeKwon-Do Federation, the UTF has continued headed by Master Lees. In 2005, we re-joined the International TaeKwon-Do Federation. Opportunities in the past few years has enabled our instructors to train with many wonderful international instructors such as Grandmaster Choi Jung Hwa, president of the ITF, son of General Choi. The relationships we are able to create in TaeKwon-Do strengthens each one of us and ensures true TaeKwon-Do, as General Choi would have liked it, to continue for generations to come.
