General Choi Hong Hi
founder - trainer
🌍 Korean🥊 Founder of Taekwon-Do, ITF patterns (Tul), military combat systems🎂 09-11-1918- 15-06-2002
General Choi Hong Hi (9 November 1918 – 15 June 2002) is the founder of Taekwon-Do. Born in what is now North Korea, he was expelled from school at the age of twelve for participating in anti-Japanese protests—a hint of the defiant character that would define his entire life. He studied calligraphy under a master who also taught him traditional Korean Taekkyon, then later earned a second-degree black belt in Shotokan Karate during his studies at Tokyo University. During the Japanese occupation, he was imprisoned for his role in the Korean independence movement. He trained in his cell.
After Korea’s liberation, he joined the new South Korean army, eventually rising to the rank of general and teaching his combat methods to soldiers. On 11 April 1955, he formally named the art Taekwon-Do—the way of the foot and the hand—synthesising Korean Taekkyon, Japanese karate, and his own scientific analysis of power generation into a unified system. On 22 March 1966, he founded the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) in Seoul.
His most enduring technical legacy is the 24 patterns (Tul)—each one a precise sequence of techniques representing the 24 hours in a day, or a human lifetime. He documented the entire system in a 15-volume encyclopaedia, recording every movement and its biomechanical rationale with military precision.
His legacy is inseparable from controversy. A falling-out with the South Korean government led him to leave for Canada in 1972, and he later introduced Taekwon-Do to North Korea—a politically charged move that caused a permanent split in the martial arts world. South Korea responded by founding World Taekwondo (WT) in 1973, developing the Olympic sport competition format that most of the world now recognises. Choi maintained leadership of the ITF—with its focus on the original semi-contact, self-defence art—until his death in Pyongyang in 2002, aged 83.
The split he left behind has never fully healed. Three organisations today claim ITF legitimacy. But none of that diminishes what he built: a martial art practised by tens of millions across more than 200 countries, rooted in discipline, scientific precision, and the conviction that a person of any size can defend themselves effectively.
After Korea’s liberation, he joined the new South Korean army, eventually rising to the rank of general and teaching his combat methods to soldiers. On 11 April 1955, he formally named the art Taekwon-Do—the way of the foot and the hand—synthesising Korean Taekkyon, Japanese karate, and his own scientific analysis of power generation into a unified system. On 22 March 1966, he founded the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) in Seoul.
His most enduring technical legacy is the 24 patterns (Tul)—each one a precise sequence of techniques representing the 24 hours in a day, or a human lifetime. He documented the entire system in a 15-volume encyclopaedia, recording every movement and its biomechanical rationale with military precision.
His legacy is inseparable from controversy. A falling-out with the South Korean government led him to leave for Canada in 1972, and he later introduced Taekwon-Do to North Korea—a politically charged move that caused a permanent split in the martial arts world. South Korea responded by founding World Taekwondo (WT) in 1973, developing the Olympic sport competition format that most of the world now recognises. Choi maintained leadership of the ITF—with its focus on the original semi-contact, self-defence art—until his death in Pyongyang in 2002, aged 83.
The split he left behind has never fully healed. Three organisations today claim ITF legitimacy. But none of that diminishes what he built: a martial art practised by tens of millions across more than 200 countries, rooted in discipline, scientific precision, and the conviction that a person of any size can defend themselves effectively.