The big difference between Taekwondo and tang soo doo??

Question

Their both korean martial arts that have alot of kicking. Which is superior, which is better??

Answer 1

That's kind of a ridiculous question - like asking what is better, math or history? It depends on the instructor and the student. There are a lot more Tae-Kwon-Do studios, but that also means that there are probably more substandard instructors out there for it, so your odds of getting a better teacher go up with Tang-Soo-Do.

They both felt like watered-down versions of Hwarang-Do to me - the striking basics were exactly the same, but Hwarang-Do also taught grappling and various other techniques on top of the striking. At equal belt levels, there were no striking techniques taught to TKD/TSD students that weren't also taught to HWD students, but there were many HWD techniques that were not taught to TKD/TSD students. My subjective opinion and experience is that neither one was superior to HWD by a long shot.

Answer 2

There is no such thing as a better martial art. It is the individual not the art.

Without going into a lot of detail Tang-Soo-Do has many joint locks throws, ...etc. in addition  to the kicks and hand techniques.

Edit:  Lara..... you have your facts a little confused here. Tang-Soo-Do is based on older Korean technique.  TKD however was created by General Choi. He modeled it after Japanese Shotokan karate which he had studied. It does however have some techniques that were indigenous to Korea.  FYI in case you did not know there are at least 75 know styles of TKD in Korea.  In The U.S.A there are some TKD dojang that teach one of the recognized korean styles of TKD. Unfortunately, Many of the dojang here are not teaching a legit Korean style of TKD. They are in many cases teaching a sport that has been changed so much that it only resembles the True TKD from Korea.  Many of the schools in American, in my opinion, should not even call what they teach TKD.

Answer 3

Taekwondo is an ancient korean martial art formed when many other korean martial art types formed into one. Tang Soo Doo is not formed from others. I only have Taekwondo experience so it would be biased for me to choose one over the other.

Answer 4

tae kwon do is more smooth and stuff but tang soo do has better punches and more strong rigid movements and in tang soo do u depend on muscle or will in tae kwon do u bepend on speed and velocity

Answer 5

yes, tae kwon do is so old it was formed after world war 2. and yes, there are arts that are more superior than others, don't let the cry babies tell you any different. they believe in what they want to believe. as far as which better, well i have personally found that all korean arts are inferior, also all karate is inferior, and even some kung fu styles. so, might i suggest "vee arnis jitsu", "krav maga", and "pankration", or even "mande muda pencak silat".

Answer 6

The big difference is that TKD is a sport karate and TSD teaches harder techniques power-wise.

As for which is better it depends on how you define better.