Nutrition in Combat Sports

264 W. Pieter
that the hwarang was an exclusively military group. Only the Sagi, compiled by a
general, makes mention of the hwarang producing military leaders. Both the Sagi
and the Yusa recount the religious character of the group, which is taken to indicate
that any reference to them as mainly a military institution should be viewed with
extreme caution [2] .
Taekkyon is usually presented as being related to taekwondo (e.g., [6] ). It is commonly
translated as (an art of) “kicking” [3] or “foot technique” [6] . More than 2
decades ago no Chinese characters could be found for the name [7] . The significance
of this is that classical Chinese was the written language for the Koreans for centuries,
while the spoken language was Korean. It was not until the mid-fifteenth century
that the Korean alphabet was created and, over time, purely Korean words entered
the language, i.e., with no Chinese characters with which to write them. In other
words, if the word taekkyon had been used in ancient texts from before the midfifteenth
century, it should have Chinese characters. Since none were found, it most
likely is a new Korean term. It was not until Henning’s [8] authoritative article that it
became clear that the original word was takkyon (“push the shoulders”). The author
related that the use of taekkyon was probably “based on a lack of knowledge of
the Chinese characters or an attempt to disassociate it from possible foreign
origins” (p. 11). Takkyon was a game that was also known in Japan in which the
participants tried to unbalance or trip each other by leg sweeps or by pushing [9] .
Gradually, Confucianistic values were ascribed to the popular game of takkyon ,
so that modern taekky o n could be more highly regarded, since it was originally
associated with criminals [10] . Research has shown, however, that takkyon probably
disappeared as a game soon after the change from the nineteenth to the twentieth
century [10] .
According to Capener [1] , the need to Koreanize karatedo was expressed by
changing the name, the development of a set of techniques different from the Japanese
original and by attempting to come up with a “history” to legitimize the new sport as
uniquely Korean. The name was changed to “taekwondo” in 1955. Choi Hong Hi
(1918–2002), who claimed to be the instigator of the new name, was a member of the
committee that agreed to use “taekwondo” instead of such names as “tangsudo” or
“kongsudo” [11] . Choi himself said that there was no taekwondo before Christ [11] ,
thereby confirming what historical research has shown (e.g., [2, 8] ).
In 1966, the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) was established. Its rules
of competition stipulate no contact, while the athletes wear a helmet as well as hand
and foot protective gear to help prevent injuries. Sparring bouts last two rounds of 2
min with a 1-min break between rounds for the eliminations and three rounds of 2 min
for the finals.
In 1973, the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) was founded, which follows
full-contact competition rules. Protective padding includes a helmet, hand and
shin padding, body armor, and a cup. Matches are for three rounds of 2 min with
1-min breaks in between rounds. Full-contact kicks are allowed to the head and
face and designated areas of the body. No punches are permitted to the head
and face.