
Originally Posted by
sly
what is ITF and WTF style of TKD? because if WTF stands for what the fuck TeaKwondo i am a master at it.
Nice bit of comedy there

ITF is the International Taekwondo Federation while the WTF is the World Taekwondo Federation. ITF is the older organization and is based in communist North Korea while the WTF is the World Taekwondo Federation and is based in South Korea. I don't know all of the political history behind it all but the WTF is the organization that regulates Olympic TKD.
I started TKD with Master B.C. Yu who is one of the highest ranking ITF black belts in North America. I was one test away from receiving my black belt when Han Won Lee, who won a bronze medal at the '88 Olympics for the U.S. at bantamweight opened a school in my hometown of Ann Arbor, MI.
From my personal experience ITF was more traditional and self defense oriented while WTF was more progressive and competition oriented. We learned how to punch and kick according to the old ITF way but we didn't learn footwork, distance control, counter kicking, angles, timing etc... on top of that, the way kicks are done in WTF at a high level are different from the way they are done in ITF. I always say that I started training TKD when I was 13 years old but I didn't learn how to fight until I met Han.