Il Gi Dojang Geneva

Taekwondo is a martial from South Korea which is practiced without weapons. Taekwondo is famous for its spectacular kicks but it is a complete martial art with sparring, Poomsae (forms), Hanbon Kiriougui or one-step sparring, Hoshinsul (self defence) and Kyokpa (breaking techniques). We work on all these aspects at Il Gi Dojang Geneva

Free Trial

New to Taekwondo or to our Club? Feel free to come and try out our lessons without obligation for a week. Taekwondo is a great way to work out for all ages and we cater to all levels. It is also an Olympic sport which will help boost endurance, strength and confidence. Just come in your sports gear and tell the teacher you are attending for a trial

Free Trial

New to Taekwondo or to our Club? Feel free to come and try out our lessons without obligation for a week. Taekwondo is a great way to work out for all ages and we cater to all levels. It is also an Olympic sport which will help boost endurance, strength and confidence. Just come in your sports gear and tell the teacher you are attending for a trial

Kiriougui

Although sparring can be done without protections to demonstrate control and accuracy, most sparring is done according to Olympic Rules with full protections and mainly kicks.  Like a game of chess, the key is to bring the opponent into the right frame of mind and position to carry out attacks that score points.  Kiriougui is an exciting and high intensity sport, rated one of the most exacting cardio practices of any sport.  Because of the many rules for the safety of contestants, it has become less interesting to watch as only a small subset of Taekwondo techniques are allowed in Olympic sparring.  However to develop cardio endurance, self-confidence and resilience, Kiriougui is a very interesting complement to the other aspects of the martial art.

At training, sparring is done with higher and lower belts, heavier and lighter opponents and the key is to develop cardio resistance, endurance, resilience and calm when receiving a strike, strategic thinking and to broaden the set of techniques and combinations one can execute quickly and to great effect.  

At competitions where contestants will aggressively try to win, participants are matched to their own weight and belt categories.

To enjoy Kiriougui fully, each practitioner must come with a full set of protections at training.  

Poomsae

Poomsae are formalised fights against imaginary adversaries. Poomsae train concentration, power and fluidity of movement, breathing, balance and energy management. A convincing Poomsae is a real workout and getting all the elements of the Poomsae working harmoniously together to maximum effect takes a lot of training. All the elements of Taekwondo are trained in the Poomsae which has to be executed to a very high degree of accuracy: stances, blocks, kicks, hand techniques. The practitioner should finish each Poomsae at the same place it started.

Keon

TAEGUK IL DJAN active link

1st Poomsae, represents the sky

Yi

TAEGUK YI DJAN active link

2nd Poomsae, represents joy, pleasure; associated with a lake

Ri

TAEGUK SAM DJAN active link

3rd Poomsae, represents fire

Jin

TAEGUK SA DJAN active link

4th Poomsae, represents lightning and thunder

Seon

TAEGUK OH DJAN active link

5th Poomsae, represents the wind

Gam

TAEGUK YOUK DJAN active link

6th Poomsae, represents water

Gan

TAEGUK TCHIL DJAN active link

7th Poomsae, represents the mountain

Gon

TAEGUK PAL DJAN active link

8th Poomsae, represents the earth

KORYO, 1st Black Belt Poomsae

KUMGANG, 2nd Black Belt Poomsae

TAEBECK, 3rd Black Belt Poomsae

PYONGWON, 4th Black Belt Poomsae

SIPJIN, 5th Black Belt Poomsae

JITAE, 6th Black Belt Poomsae

CHONKWON, 7th Black Belt Poomsae

HANSU, 8th Black Belt Poomsae

ILIO, 9th Black Belt Poomsae

Hoshinsul & Han-Bon Kiriougui

Han-Bon Kiriougui is a formalised practice of defence against a punch attack. This gives the opportunity to learn the execution of blocks and counter attacks with precision and train reflexes that will become useful in sparring and self-defence.

Hoshinsul is a practice of self-defence against someone grabbing you and is closer to “street” self-defence. The attacker can grab the wrist, attempt to strangle, grab clothing. Hoshinsul techniques allow to free oneself of the attacker and neutralise them with strikes, armlocks, or throwing techniques.

Some elements of hapkido (or judo) are integrated into Han-Bon Kiriougui and Hoshinsul to broaden the tools at the practitioner’s disposal.

Kiokpa

Breaking techniques (Kiokpa) is a tradition in Taekwondo. It demonstrates the energy deployed by a correctly executed Taekwondo technique – whereas an incorrectly done technique will often lead to the energy bouncing back into the hand or foot causing hurt or injury and leaving the targeted object intact.
Breaking techniques are ubiquitous in demonstrations, breaking wooden planks mainly, but also bricks or roof tiles. It is also an obligatory part of every grading.

History of Taekwondo

Taekwondo (lien wikipidia) (Korean : 태권도, pronounced : [tʰɛ.k͈wʌn.do]) is a Korean martial art whose name can be translated as the “way of the foot and the fist” in reference to the absence of weapons needed to practice it.
General Choi Hong Hi, considered the founder of modern Taekwondo proposed the name in 1955 to designate a martial art that had taken over a thousand years to evolve.
Created shortly after WWII and after the end of the Korean War, Taekwondo was intimately linked to the creation of a national identity in Korea. As the country is still split in two parts, so is Taekwondo with two global federations with slightly different rules and patterns: the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) and World Taekwondo (WT). World Taekwondo’s focus has grown in line with its participation in the Summer Olympics since the year 2000 (Olympic sparring) and doesn’t allow punches to the head whereas ITF Taekwondo sparring does. The poomsae and the execution style in each federation are also quite different.
The distinguishing feature of Taekwondo compared to other martial arts is the emphasis on spectacular kicks. The martial art of Taekwondo is a complete martial art focussed on percussion without weapons.

South Korea
Korea, derives its names from the Koryo dynasty (10th century CE). The capital of South Korea is Seoul. The flag of South Korea called Taegukki, is composed of a circle in the centre called “Taeguk” with the the Yang (red) and Yin (blue). The Ying/Yan represents opposing elements such as white (yang) / black (yin); good (yang) and evil (yin); day (yang) and night (yin), positive (yang) and negative (yin)… The Taeguk can also be interpreted as the red sun above the blue sea.

The Taeguk is surrounded by four symbols in black, the four elements: air / water / earth / fire

Taekwondo as an Olympic sport
South Korea took the opportunity of the 1988 Seoul Olympics to showcase their national sport: Taekwondo.

After being a demonstration Olympic sport in 1988 in Seoul and in 1992 in Barcelona, it was decided on 4 September 1994 by the 89 members of the International Olympic Committee that Taekwondo would join the growing family of Olympic Sports.
Perhaps because it was the centenary of modern Olympics or for other organisational reasons, Taekwondo didn’t participate in the Atlanta Olympics of 1996 but made its debut as Olympic Sport at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.