On 22 March 1966, in Seoul, General Choi Hong Hi founded the International Taekwon-Do Federation, the ITF. 3,64 It is the body behind one of taekwondo's two great families, and its story follows its founder out of Korea.
Leaving home
In the early 1970s South Korea withdrew its support for the ITF, after disagreements that included whether to teach taekwondo in North Korea. 1,2 The ITF moved its headquarters to Toronto in 1972. 64 General Choi lived in exile, and in 1980, by the ITF's account, he first went to North Korea, with 15 students. 165 In 1985 the ITF's headquarters moved again, to Vienna. 64
The Encyclopedia
In exile he wrote his system down. The Encyclopedia of Taekwon-Do runs to 15 volumes. He finished it in 1983 and it was printed in 1985; the 1999 edition is the last he worked on. 1,3,62,166 All three of today's ITFs start from it. 1,62
The book explains the shape of the art he built. There are 10 grades for coloured belts and nine grades, called degrees, for black belts. 62 Why nine? General Choi explained that nine is the highest single digit and three times three, three being an esteemed number, and he grouped the degrees into three classes: 1st to 3rd for novice black belts, 4th to 6th for experts and 7th to 9th for masters. 62
There are 24 patterns, called , and he explained that number too: the 24 hours of a day, standing for a lifetime. 62 Behind every technique sits his "Theory of Power", six ideas: reaction force, concentration, balance, breath control, mass and speed, with speed treated as more important than size. 1,61 Later he refined the way of moving so that the body rises and falls through each movement, the ; many ITF clubs use it, though not all. 1
The book is strict about children. Breaking boards, the power test, is "strictly prohibited for children" because of the risk of bone or muscle damage. 62
15 June 2002
General Choi died on 15 June 2002, in North Korea. 1,2 He remains a divisive figure: the ITF's founder to one family, and a name left out of the other's histories. 2
Three federations, one name
After his death the ITF split. Three bodies exist today, each called the International Taekwon-Do Federation, and each with its own line of succession. 3,18,60,64,68
| Which ITF | Led by, as published | Base, as published | How it traces its leadership |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Vienna ITF | Prof. Ri Yong Son | Vienna, Austria | Chang Ung, elected in Pyongyang in September 2002 18,60 |
| The ITF registered in Madrid | Grandmaster Paul Weiler, elected 2019 and re-elected 2023 | Legally registered in Madrid, Spain, in 2007 | Trần Triệu Quân in 2003, then Pablo Trajtenberg in 2011 64 |
| The ITF run from Harlington | Grandmaster Choi Jung Hwa, General Choi's son | Harlington, Middlesex, UK | Elected his father's successor in 2001, by one account 18,68 |
All three practise the same 24 patterns from the Encyclopedia, with differences of detail. 1,62
A fourth path: the GTF
One of the ITF's own senior men had already left before the split. Park Jung-tae was one of the KTA's original masters and the ITF's Secretary General from 1984. He left the ITF and, by one account, founded the Global Taekwon-Do Federation, the GTF, on 14 June 1990. 14 A British founder member, Roy Oldham, gives the formal founding as October 1990 at a congress in Toronto. 106 The GTF is said to have added six patterns of its own to the ITF set. 14 Park died on 11 April 2002, and his wife Linda is said to have succeeded him. 14 Whether the GTF still operates is not confirmed. 69
While the general was abroad, something else was happening in Seoul. A new headquarters was being built for the taekwondo he had left behind.