What is Tang Soo Do?

      Tang Soo Do, being a Korean style, is especially renowned for high, jumping and spinning kicks. Since Tang Soo Do is an art based on classical form rather than on competition or sports form, the repertoire of techniques is far greater than many other arts.

      Although it is widely acknowledged that Korean styles have lifted high kicking to an art form, many styles in which kicking is favored have lost a significant part of their hand attack syllabus. This is not the case with Tang Soo Do - the complete syllabus of hand strikes and blocks is retained.

      Higher ranking belts complement their empty hand knowledge with weapons training, such as short stick, staff, sai, tonfa, knife, nunchaku, tekko and sword. In addition to the large, diverse kicking and striking arsenal, grappling and throwing techniques are also taught.

      The system is scientifically worked out and no prior experience is necessary. The syllabus begins at white belt and moves up through another 9 colored belts to first dan (black belt), which is symbolized traditionally with a midnight blue belt. Students are required to reach certain levels of proficiency in various techniques in order to grade to the next belt level. These gradings occur every 6 months and ensure rapid progress through the belt levels while allowing sufficient practice time for proficiency.