The poomsae is a series of choreographed movements of offense and defense techniques, which can be practiced and trained, even without presence of an instructor, in accordance with the fixed patterns. It helps students to define Kyorugi techniques using imaginary opponents. It teaches student how to move within seogi and execute each individual technique correctly, using control and precision of each muscle group. It teaches patience and perfectionism.

Within poomsae there is frequent changes of actions and connections of techniques and one must pay attention to the movement of body, eyes, respiration, etc. The steps of paying attention are as follows:

- A complete understanding of the significance of poomsae and the principles of its composition
- a perfect memorization of the poomsae line, movements and direction
- during the practice, the following must be taken into consideration,

the eyes
movement of the centre of balance
low or high speed
strong or weak force
respiration

A completion of poomsae can be achieved through hard training following 5 simple steps:

1. Pattern
The first step of training poomsae is to learn the pattern. Concentration of spirit, eyes, angles of movement must be emphasized in addition to the accuracy of actions.

2. Significance
In the next step, the emphasis must be laid on the balance, strength and weakness, high or low speed, respiration and poomsae line. The significance of movements, connection of pooms and the complete poomsae must be learned correctly.

3. Practical use
One must adapt what he has learned to his practical use, finding out the practicability.

4. Self style
One must evaluate his findings about the effectiveness of what he has learned, comparing with his or her bodily structure, speed, strength, muscle strength, impulsive power, points of emphasis in training etc., and moderate the techniques into his own style.

5. Completion
One achieves a synthetic accomplishment of poomsae training by mastering the art of taekwondo techniques including taekwondo spirit.

The poomsae are categorized by techniques, composition and points of stress.

1. Technique
The technique means the technical patterns of the entire poomsae. The essence of taekwondo is the martial art: therefore, the categorisation of practicable patterns of techniques is important.

2. Composition
The composition of poomsae movement is differentiated according to the proportion of poom and technique, hand techniques and foot techniques, and seogi and its moving directions. Except for certain cases, the poomsae movements are equally distributed among all parts of the body symmetrically between fore and back and between left and right. Therefore, the proportion of foot techniques and hand techniques if divided to decides the composition of poomsae movement.

3. Points of stress
The poomsae is also classified by the extent of emphasis in favor of either strength or softness and of either a slow movement or a fast movement. Strong but slow movement and speedy but soft movement are included in the similar categories

- Soft and slow poomsae
- Soft but speedy poomsae
- Strong but slow poomsae
- Long respiration and slow poomsae
- Poomsae well balanced in strength and softness as well as in slowness and speediness.

However, the above methods or categorisation are not absolute for the advanced course of training.

Each of the Taegeuk represents psychological and physical expressions of a higher meaning than simply “going through the movements”. The first of the Taegeuk represents the beginnings of all the rest, the source. The second and third represents the clear relaxed positive mental attitude and the enthusiasm necessary for good training. This enthusiasm is expressed by the character of fire or "Ri". The fourth Taegeuk demonstrates the need for heroism and commitment, in life as well as in Martial Arts, the fifth is based on the notion of the wind or "Seon" which is prone to sudden changes in force and direction, like a difficult opponent or the circumstances of life; consequently this pattern has a distinctive rhythm, switching from soft, to hard violent techniques. The sixth Taegeuk expresses the fluidity of water or "Gam" which is never rigid or still and that remains untroubled, reflecting things like a mirror, as the mind should in combat. The seventh Taegeuk revolves around the principle of immovability, the mountain or "Gan", and shows the need for static as well as mobile attack and defense. The eighth Taegeuk, returns to the beginning of things, taking as its motif the earth or "Gon", the source of all things.

Let’s take a closer look.

Poomse 1 – 8th Gup
Taegeuk il JANG

Taegeuk il Jang represents the symbol of “Keon”, one of the eight Kwaes (divination signs), which means the heaven and “yang”. As the “Keon” symbolizes the beginning of the creation of all things in the universe, so does the Taegeuk il jang in the training of taekwondo. This Poomsae is characterized by its easiness in practicing, largely consisting of walking and basic actions, such as area-makki, momtong-makki, and ap-chagi. The 8th Kup-grade trainees practice this poomsae.


Taegeuk il JANG - font view


Taegeuk il JANG - back view

In Taeguek il Jang, there are two front stances going up the middle (down block and in place middle punch) and coming back there are two front stances, a down block and then a stepping in middle punch. In order to land on your starting mark, you must move straight on the horizontal branches. However, if you adopt the wide stance you end up hooking around, and actually going backwards (towards the starting position) each time you pivot in the horizontal lines to complete the horizontal sequence. If your pivot is one shoulder width wide, and you do two of those in then the end of your form will end up two shoulder widths behind the starting mark. Some people make up for this by stepping back to the starting mark with the front foot, instead of stepping forward with the back leg. This would work if your front stance is two should widths long, but is of course, incorrect. Using a narrow stance, you can maintain your position on the horizontal lines. If done in this fashion, then landing on the mark becomes incredibly easy and natural since you are now doing the poomsae correctly, as they were meant to be performed.

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