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Ki Whang Kim's Taekwondo

Heculian Taekwondo continues to teach the legacy that was left by Grandmaster Ki Whang Kim. Unlike many other Taekwondo schools our philosophy and approach to training is based in Budo. Our style is street fighting based rather than sport based. Grandmaster Kim combined the knowledge that he received from training in judo back in high school, Shudokan with Toyama Kanken, Yoshikan Aikido with Gozo Shioda, and Praying Mantis Shoalin Kung-Fu to create a style of Korean martial art that stood out from the rest.

Even though Grandmaster Kim came to the States to teach Moo Duk Kwan Tang Soo Do with the help of his good friend Hwang Kee (the founder of Moo Duk Kwan) his approach to teaching the style was very different than any other Moo Duk Kwan school. In 1971 the Korean Taekwondo Association had promoted Ki Whang Kim to 9th Dan black belt. This had made him the senior Korean martial arts master (Grandmaster) at the time. Ki Whang Kim was the only Greandmaster that was not self promoted to 9th Dan.

Unlike today Ki Whang Kim wasn’t just a “Gradmaster” by title only. He proved to the world that his approach to training and understanding of martial arts was superior and could stand up to any other style. He did this through his students by creating champion after champion starting in 1968 to the present. The students of Ki Whang Kim have the most wins and Grand Champion titles at S. Henry Cho’s All American Open than any other school. Grandmaster Kim’s students also have the most listings in the Taekwondo Hall of Fame than any other school.

Even though Ki Whang Kim flew the banner of Taekwondo he didn’t follow the curriculum of either style (I.T.F or W.T.F) or their approach to training. He did, for all intents and purposes, create a new style of martial art. With the mascot of Kim’s Studio Mike Warren and his “right hand man” Albert Cheeks they did usher in a whole new era of fighting. Because before the era of Mike and Cheeks people weren’t using lead leg kicks, the ax kick or bouncing around like boxers in karate tournaments.

Ki Whang Kim’s knowledge, ideology, philosophy and approach to training has no comparison in the world of Korean martial arts. He had combined all four disciplines into his own creation. This is why today we have given it the name Sa Bang Kwon (Four ways of the fist). Sa Bang Kwon Taekwondo is a street fighting self defense system that does not teach theory.

Classical vs Traditional

In 1971 after the turmoil within the Korean

Taekwondo Association (KTA) had settle down

Taekwondo began to take off like a rocket.

In 1973 the World Taekwondo Federation

(now just World Taekwondo) was

established and Taekwondo became a national

sport of South Korea. It is this time period that people are referring to when they say "Traditional" Taekwondo. With the establishment of World Taekwondo the focus of Taekwondo moved away from street self defense to sport fighting. Olympic style fighting became the ultimate goal of World Taekwondo and anyone associated with the organization. This is why when you see ANY school that is a member of the World Taekwondo and Kukkiwon they always offer another styles of martial arts and that's because Olympic style sparring is not effective for street self defense.

This is where Classical Taekwondo differs from Traditional Taekwondo. Classical Taekwondo is like learning Latin, classical ballet or classical music. It gives you a deeper understanding of the arts. People practicing Taekwondo not knowing the history and development of Taekwondo do not realize that Taekwondo existed before World Taekwondo. Taekwondo came out of Tang Soo Do and Kong Soo Do which one can say are Taekwondo's big brothers. So all through out South Korea Korean Karate schools were very popular with their different styles emphasized. Such as Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan, Kong Soo Do Ji Do Kwan, Tang Soo Do Chung Do Kwan and etc. In the 1960's schools began to drop Tang/Kong Soo Do and add Taekwondo to their name. This was the classical period of Taekwondo. A brief 13 years from the establishment of the Korean Taekwondo Association in 1958 to the establishment of the World Taekwondo Federation in 1971 was when the training of Taekwondo was purely street self defense. This is where Herculain Taekwondo continues the training that was passed down from Ki Whang Kim.