Consider Taegeuk to be the levels of progression in Taekwondo then Poomsae would be the set of moves you need to master before you progress to the next level. Each taegeuk comprises of several poomsae or forms which are pre-defined. Generally, the taegeuk in the World Taekwondo is the most popular one with 8 color belt forms and 9 black belt forms. However, the taegeuk in the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) is different. In this blog, we’ll cover poomsae and understand about them in detail.
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Evolution of Taegeuk from Palgwae forms
The Kukkiwon-style Taekwondo, the original style developed by the Korean Taekwondo Association (KTA) integrated palgwae forms based out of nine kwans in Taekwondo. These palgwae forms were widely practiced between the period of 1967-1971. However, post-1971, taegeuk forms were introduced and replaced the palgwae form which was deprecated as time went on. However, you’ll still find some Taekwondo associations teaching the palgwae forms. World Taekwondo (WT) or Olympic Taekwondo uses taegeuk forms and thus these get the mainstream exposure.
What are Taegeuk?
As mentioned earlier, Taegeuks are levels of progression. Under each level, there are certain forms you need to master before you progress. These forms are known as poomsae. Each level of taegeuk signifies the level of a Taekwondo student i.e. it correlates with the geup/gup/kup which means belt.
What are Poomsae?
Firstly, to avoid confusion, poomsae is also known as poomse and pumsae. Now that we have the confusion out of the bag, let’s focus on what it means. Poomsae are generally considered to be an art form, where you learn different movements to improve your consistency and precision as compared to power and speed.
To simplify it further, there are:
Taegeuk i.e. levels signified by Geup i.e. belt which can be achieved if you master poomsae i.e. forms/techniques.
Let us check each Taegeuk levels with respect to Geup and Poomsae through the table below:
World Taekwondo Colour Belt Poomsae
Belt Level (Geup)
Name
Symbol
Techniques
8th Geup (White Belt)
Taegeuk Il Jang
Heaven
· Walking stance
· Front stance (also called long stance)
· Low block
· Inside block (also called middle block)
· High block
· Middle punch
· Front kick (also called front snap kick)
7th Geup (Yellow Belt)
Taegeuk Ee Jang
Lake
· High punch
6th Geup (Green Belt)
Taegeuk Sam Jang
Fire
· Back stance
· Knifehand middle block
· Knifehand neck strike
5th Geup (Green Belt)
Taegeuk Sa Jang
Thunder
· Double knife hand block
· High knife hand block
· Palm block
· Back fist strike
· Spearhand strike
· Side kick
4th Geup (Blue Belt)
Taegeuk Oh Jang
Wind
· Cross stance
· L-Shape Stance
· Outside block
· Hammer fist
· Elbow strike
3rd Geup (Blue Belt)
Taegeuk Yuk Jang
Water
· Outer forearm block
· Double wedge block
· Roundhouse kick
2nd Geup (Red Belt)
Taegeuk Chil Jang
Mountain
· Tiger stance
· Horse stance
· Lower knife hand block
· Double block
· Knee strike
· Double upset punch (i.e., uppercut)
· Crescent kick
1st Geup (Senior-Red Belt)
Taegeuk Pal Jang
Earth
· Mountain stance
· Jumping front snap kick
Once, you’ve covered all the colored belts, it’s time for you to progress towards the black belt. These black belts can be classified in Dans based upon the progression:
Taekwondo Black Belt Poomsae in World Taekwondo
Belt
Form
1st Dan
Koryo
2nd Dan
Keumgang
3rd Dan
Taebaek
4th Dan
Pyongwon
5th Dan
Sipjin
6th Dan
Jitae
7th Dan
Cheonkwon
8th Dan
Hansoo
9th Dan
Ilyeo
As discussed earlier, Taegeuk poomsae are different from Palgwe poomsae. Let us check out the 8 Palgwe forms:
Taekwondo Palgwe Poomsae
Forms
Name
1
Il Jang
2
Yi Jang
3
Sam Jang
4
Sa Jang
5
Oh Jang
6
Yuk Jang
7
Chil Jang
8
Pal Jang
After these 8 forms are completed, students practicing Palgwe form switch to the same black belt forms as Taegeuk forms.
As opposed to Taegeuk and Palgwe forms, different taekwondo organizations have different progression process. In the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) and American Taekwondo Association (ATA), the belt representation and forms are different as compared to World Taekwondo.
International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) Poomsae
ITF
No Belt
Forms
10th Gup
White Belt
No Form, Basic Exercise
9th Gup
White Belt with Yellow Stripe
Chon-Ji (19 movements)
8th Gup
Yellow Belt
Dan-Guri (21 movements)
7th Gup
Yellow Belt with Green Stripe
Do-San (24 movements)
6th Gup
Green Belt
Won-Hyo (28 movements)
5th Gup
Green Belt with Blue Stripe
Yui-Gok (38 movements)
4th Gup
Blue Belt
Joong-Gun (32 movements)
3rd Gup
Blue Belt with Red Stripe
Toi-Gye (37 movements)
2nd Gup
Red Belt
Hwa-Rang (29 movements)
1st Gup
Red Belt with Black Stripe
Choong Moo (30 movements)
1st Dan
Black Belt
ITF - Black Belt Poomsae
Black Belt
Forms
Moves
1st Dan
Kwang-Gae
Po-Eun
Ge-Baek
39
36
44
2nd Dan
Eui-Am
Choong-Jang
Juche
45
52
45
3rd Dan
Sam-Il
Yoo-Sin
Choi-Yong
33
68
46
4th Dan
Yon-Gae
Ul-Ji
Moon-Moo
49
42
61
5th Dan
So-San
Se-Jong
72
24
6th Dan
Tong-Il
56
American Taekwondo Association (ATA) - Colored Belts Poomsae
ATA
Belt
Forms
Moves
No Belt
White
Songahm 1
18
Orange
Songahm 2
23
Yellow
Songahm 3
28
Camouflage
Songahm 4
31
Green
Songahm 5
34
Purple
In Wha 1
44
Blue
In Wha 2
42
Brown
Choong Jung 1
44
Red
Choon Jung 2
46
ATA - Black Belt Poomsae
Belt
Form
Moves
1st Dan
Shim Jun
81
2nd Dan
Jung Yui
82
3rd Dan
Chung San
83
4th Dan
Sok Bong
84
5th Dan
Chung Hae
95
6th Dan
Jhang Soo
96
7th Dan
Chul Joon
97
8th Dan
Jeon Seung
98
The progression is relatively simple. The higher you rise, the tougher it gets. Before you can become a black belt practitioner in Taekwondo, you need to complete the tests of forms 1 to 8. Not just that, you will need to showcase your mental and physical ability in front of the instructor. It’s not a straight-out presentation, rather a test of intuitiveness, alertness, precision, and focus. Because your instructor might ask you to pull off any form between 1 to 8 in random order.
Having learned about Taekwondo Poomsae, let’s discuss how we can improve it.
Beginner’s Guide to improving Taekwondo Poomsae:
Whether you’re up for a demonstration or for regular practice, you want your body to rise to the occasion. In such a scenario, you don’t want to place a foot wrong as it can be detrimental to your progress. When it comes about improving Taekwondo Poomsae, you must keep the steps below in mind:
Basic Stretching: Before you begin with a demonstration, you’d want to spend quality time of about 30-40 minutes doing basic stretching before starting with poomsae. This is an important warm-up which activates your body and prepares it for the next step. By now, you’d know why this is important! It reduces the risk of injuries. (Our in-depth guide about stretching can prove to be really handy here).
Leg Stretch: While the in-depth guide does talk about stretching in details, there’s one particular thing you must make note of and i.e. the importance of leg stretching. Leg stretching is an important part of Poomsae and you must take 20-25 minutes of your spare time to work on your flexibility.
Some of the stretches you can engage in a contemporary way include:
Reading, watching TV or playing Xbox while sitting in full splits
Following the full split by front split with emphasis on each leg for up to 20 minutes
Butterfly stretching with someone pressing down on your knees from behind.
Stance: There are three main stances in Taekwondo poomsae, i.e. cat stance or beom sohgi, front stance or ahp sohgi, horse stance or juchoom sohgi. It’s crucial that you practice the forms with these stances first. You can have someone correct your forms and postures or you can practice it in front of the mirror. Stop at each movement to evaluate its preciseness. Ultimately, precision is what we’re aiming for. Never forget to keep your shoulder square and your back straight in every movement, that is a pre-requisite.
Hands & Leg Movements: Poomsae is a combination of the entire body movement. Thus, once you get a grip on stance, you should emphasize on hands and legs movement. You want to perfect each motion. Thus, you can start off by focusing on the hand movements. Majority of the movements require your hands to be flat and fingers to be together. When practicing leg movements or kicks, don’t get lured by power and speed. What we want to achieve is balance followed by motion and power. Balance is crucial as, without which, no kick can be delivered effectively.
Club it all together & focus: Not only do you need to practice forms but you need to remember them as well. Once you’ve each movement in place i.e. stance, hand movements, and kicks, emphasize on improving the accuracy. Start slowly while maintaining the proper form. The goal is to not lose your balance. Once you achieve control, then you can integrate power and tenacity in your poomsae.
Conclusion
I hope this detailed-guide about Taekwondo Poomsae helped you learn a little more about poomsae, to begin with. We intended to help you learn about the forms and progression through a combination of visual representation and text, where you can actually see how the masters teach poomsae. If you or any of your friends are starting with Taekwondo, feel free to share this blog with them as it will come as a great help to them.
Furthermore, if you’ve already started with Taekwondo and are keen on learning about various Taekwondo kicks in detail, you can begin by choosing from the topics below: