What is the difference between TaeKwanDo and Karate?

Can you explain the difference in these two martial arts? Include philosophy, physicality, contact etc鈥?br>




Also, which would you recommend for a beginner?|||TaeKwon Do actually is karate (shotokan), imported to Korea. Your instructor will tell you of the 1000%26#039;s of years of history of TKD in Koera, but it%26#039;s a myth (for marketing).





However, there are tremendous differences.





TKD tends to focus on point-sparring, and also focuses on kicks and flexibility. It can be adapted to be a strong contact system (some very good MMA fighters - like Kimo - hasve TKD backgrounds), but the schools will focus on point, soft spaarring, and flexibility.





Karate is a broad term. Shotokan and Kyokushin emphasise power in kicks and punches (the %26quot;one punch - one kill%26quot; philosophy). Gojuryu uses chi more than the other styles.





For a beginner? Shotokan karate. Most forms of karate (and TKD) came from it, so you should start with it.|||1) Tae Kwon Do is Korean %26amp; Karate is either Japanese or Okinawan.


2) Tae Kwon Do emphasizes foot techniques. Okinawan Karate emphasizes mostly hand techniques. Japanese Karate is in between.


3) Philosophically, Japanese start with offensive moves, Korean start with defensive moves.





As for contact, there are non contact, light contact %26amp; full contact schools in all styles.





Everyone starts as a beginner. Find a good school in your area %26amp; that%26#039;s the style you should choose.|||Neither are completely monolithic but I have done both so I will tell you...





TKD is the one that is relatively unified and it emphasizes the kicking range and sport competition. Unfortunately, the kicking range is very difficult to use effectively so it doesn%26#039;t get too much street cred. In TKD you can expect to be doing a lot of kicking and jumping compared to karate.





Karate has so many variations! I do shito-ryu and it takes a long time to learn all the forms. There%26#039;s about 50 of them. Karate styles generally favor the KO and throws (and THEN KO) over submissions (like jujutsu, another style i%26#039;m in) and is pretty much evenly split between hand, foot, elbow, knee, and even headbutts. Not too much multiple kicks like TKD. Kyokushinkai karate emphasizes building fighting spirit....through full contact fighting though, not meditiation or chi or anything like that.





There is also daidojuku which takes the full-contact idea to a whole new level by adding helmet, headbutts, elbows, knees, clinch, takedowns and submissions to competition.|||TKD is 70% kicks and only a 30% of it involves punching or striking w/ the hands. Karate is mainly about punching or using your hands to strike or block,I%26#039;m not saying that karate does not involve kicking because it does, but there%26#039;re more kicks in tkd that in karate.


There 2 types of tkd:the Olympic style(which is full-contact) and the traditional which is semi-contact.


Some karate schools point-spar and others go full contact.(From my perspective those schools that practice point-sparring are not very good,unless they teach some kind of realistic self defense).


If you are a beginner it doesn%26#039;t matter whether you choose karate or tkd. Make sure that u train in a school in which you feel comfortable with the contact level(full,semi or light contact) when it comes to sparring.|||TKD might be harder to learn first because of its emphasis on kicks - they can be pretty fancy and seem more unnatural than learning to punch. Throwing successive kicks rather than punches is more physically exhausting.


In terms of self defence, both those matial arts pale in comparison to Ju-jitsu or kick boxing.|||Take Kwon Do is from Korea. Karate is from Japan. Take Kwon do is a point fighting system with speedy kicks, Karate has many different systems, and depend on the system, each fighting style is different. Some allow sweep, some do not. Some allows contact some do not. Then, there are some joker who starts their own style calling karate or Tae Kwon do to run their business like a fast food chain. I would look into the traditional properly affiliated art from country of its origin, and go to their branch.|||Those who study Korean arts believe that the legs and feet are the most effective weapons of the body. The focus mainly on kicks, generally high kicks with from what I%26#039;ve observed, few hand techniques.





Karate on the other hand, while we kick, they%26#039;re usually not head high-at least, not on the street. Personally, I won%26#039;t kick any higher than waist level. We focus mainly on hand techniques, but I don%26#039;t necessarily believe the hands are a superior weapon to the feet.





I%26#039;m also not saying karate is a superior art to Korean arts. In my opinion, there is no %26quot;best%26quot; martial art. It depends on your body type and preferences, as well as what you want to accomplish. I personally prefer Okinawan karate-do.