당Soo Do DeskTang Soo Do study

Study reference

Tang Soo Do

당수도

The way of the Tang hand. A Korean martial art shaped in the Moo Duk Kwan of Hwang Kee, opened in Seoul in 1945, drawing on Korean striking traditions and the forms of Okinawan and Japanese karate.

01FormsFourteen hyung, from the three basics through Kong Sang Koon, each with a YouTube example.형02TerminologyCommands, stances, hands, and kicks in hangul, with the romanization you will hear in class.용어03Korean numbersNative counts for a set of ten, and Sino-Korean for building larger numbers. Hear them spoken.숫자

Five values repeated in class

Moo Duk Kwan schools teach these as a set. The Korean wording is stable; the English gloss shifts a little from federation to federation.

  • 인내

    In nae

    Endurance

  • 겸손

    Kyum son

    Humility

  • 정직

    Chung jik

    Honesty

  • 용기

    Yong gi

    Courage

  • 정신통일

    Chung shin tong il

    Concentration

What a form is for

A hyung is a solo sequence that stores stances, blocks, and strikes in an order you can repeat until they are boring, and then until they are clean. It is not a fight and it is not a dance. The applications come later, from an instructor who can show what the hands are actually doing.

Two names, one family

Hwang Kee later stressed the name Soo Bahk Do for the art. Many schools in the United States still say Tang Soo Do and keep the Ki Cho, Pyung Ahn, Bassai, and Naihanchi sets. Chil Sung forms belong to the Soo Bahk Do side of the family and are not listed here.