Swing! Kick! Punch! BAM!!! Chung! Hung! We have a winner. Hung! Applause filled the stadium. And then… silence, and then someone from the crowd shouted… “Is Taekwondo a sport or is it a performing arts?” Well we are here to answer that question!
Did you know that Taekwondo is Korean? In Korean, chung and hung mean blue and red. They use these colours to represent a competitor at a competition. You wear protective gear in that colour on your stomach. Otherwise, you wear your own white gear.
According to sources such as The Korea Herald and Kiddle, Taekwondo is a form of performing art, because you don’t just fight, you learn a pattern. These patterns are made by professionals. It matters what belt you are on. As you get a higher ranking the patterns get harder. These are called poomsaes.
Taekwondo also means the art of the hand and feet, meaning you are making art with all your moves.
So this is just a few of the things that prove taekwondo can be a form of performing arts.
We surveyed the classes in Stage 2 to figure out how many people do Taekwondo. We found that only 12 percent of the students do Taekwondo, but they all insisted that everyone should give it a go.
Weasley in year three said, “I love Taekwondo because it is fun and I get to be active.”
Ava from year 4 said, “ I think more people should join because it’s a fun form of performing arts and I get to do a thing from my country.”
Annie also from year 4 said, ”You get to do fun exercises, learn a lot of new fun things and even learn a few life skills”.
