POOMSAE

The Origin of Poomsae:
The Taekwondo poomsaes are so designed to cope collectively with the outside threats in that society has already developed into an organized group, weakening the necessity of solitary individual defense measures. For the constituents of community, the practice and transmission of techniques should be convenient and less complicated. In that sense, the poomsae has been gradually systematized through practical experiences togther with the help of philosophical and medical sciences.
It is believed that in ancient times the poomsae was practiced among the ruling class and the first poomsae pattern appearing in the documents or monuments was around the first century, when Koguryo reined the Han (Korean) race.

Definition of Poomsae:
Each poom of the poomsae has been inherited through a long history of about 5,000 years, finally as a product of scientific technique formulated on the basis of the traditional national spirit and practical experiments. From the technical viewpoint, the poomsae itself is Taekwondo, and the basic movements are no more than the preliminary actions to reach the poomsae. The Kyorugi is a practical application of the poomsae and the Taekwondo spirit is manifested not in an abstract mental philosophy expressed in the documents but in the actions of poomsae. Then, what is the Taekwondo poomsae? The poomsae is the style of conduct which expresses directly or indirectly mental and physical refinements as well as the principles of offense and defense resulting from cultivation of Taekwondo spirit and techniques.

Significance of Poomsae:
The poomsae is a series of movements for offense and defense techniques which can be practiced and trained, even without presence of an instructor, in accordance with the fixed patterns. Therefore, the poomsae has the merits, by its practice, to make the trainee enhance the Kyorugi techniques and applied techniques including special techniques which can hardly be practiced by the training of each separate basic movement alone. The poomsae can be trained along the imaginary or drawn poomsae line, which marks the position of foot and the line direction to move along.