‘Tae! Kwon! Do!’ Roaring sound of Taekwondo is spreading into Rwanda. Taekwondo is one of the most popular sports in the world which is originated from Korea. Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, ‘Tae’ means “to strike or break with foot”; kwon means “to strike or break with fist”; and do means “way”, “method”, or “path”. Thus, Taekwondo may be loosely translated as “the way of the hand and the foot.” It combines combat techniques, self-defense, sport, exercise, and in some cases meditation and philosophy. The basis in Taekwondo practicing is the technique. The training system is an endless repetition and perfectioning, of the studied techniques. I mean not only the working out of separate hits, blocks, but sparring and forms as well. As it was mentioned, Taekwondo is not just physical exercises but an art as well. The concept of Taekwondo art is the union of mind and spirit aiming at self-perfection. When a man is deeply involved in his self-development, thinks over and analyses his acts, then it comes the real human nature - not only physical, but spiritual and moral one. Sometimes people tend to think that Taekwondo is similar to Karate, Japanese martial art but these two are totally different. In 1989, Taekwondo was the world’s most popular martial art in terms of the number of practitioners. Gyeorugi, a type of sparring, has been an Olympic event since 2000. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, four of Korean Taekwondo players took part in competitions and all of them won the gold medals. It was very precious moment for Korea because as the origin country of Taekwondo, four players really made all of the people in Korea to be proud of who they are. Naturally, many people in Korea get their hopes up for 2012 London Olympics.In Rwanda, there is the Rwanda Taekwondo Federation(RTF). According to Martin Koonce, who has started Taekwondo in the country for the very first time, quite a number of people have been learning Taekwondo already while many others are eager to learn how to practice the sport.
