Taekwondo Vs. Karate – Difference and History

Martial arts have been around for a long period of time and people perform different kinds of martial arts all over the world. Some of them are even recognized sports in the Olympic games. Two of the most famous martial art techniques are called karate and taekwondo. Although they may sound similar to a layman, there are certain differences between both techniques. Today we will try to explain the difference between the two.

Taekwondo vs Karate

In both of these martial art styles, there are some basic moves and fundamental rules. In the beginning, you will learn a few stances that you need to take before beginning the fight and in the fight. And the stances are for blocking the opponent, punch and kick. 

Karate

It is also very popularly known as shoto uchi or karate chop. This particular fighting style focuses more on using your hands for making the opponent fall. A person performing karate can also easily use his legs but in this style of martial arts legs are only used for backup and the key actions have to be performed using the hands.

Taekwondo

In taekwondo, the key difference is that legs are used as primary body parts for attacking and defending while hands are only used for backup. People training for taekwondo will be more efficient in using the legs for performing different kinds of kick moves including jumping kicks and spinning kicks. Because of this core difference, a stance that is used in taekwondo and karate are also different because they both focus on their key element of attacking like in karate the stance will focus more on the hand movements while in taekwondo the stance will focus on more leg moments.

History

Karate

Karate has been very old and the first form of karate was cited around 500 years ago in Japan. Different sources of the origin of karate have been linked to both China and Japan. Many people in Japan believe that karate was first originated when King Shoha who was the ruler at that time prevented people from using weapons for war. Without the weapons, the fights were held using hand to hand combat which generated this style.

Karate has been detected many times in pop culture using television shows and movies. It has been getting famous all over the world and nowadays women are also focusing on learning karate in order to be proficient in self-defense against any attack that might occur to them.

Taekwondo

Taekwondo is very old as well and it has very ancient roots that originate from Korea all the way back in 50 B.C.E. It must be noted that after its origination Japan occupied Korea in the early 1900s and they banned all of the martial arts techniques used in Korea before that including taekwondo. But a few people continued to practice it. Which led to its succession.