What is the international tae kwon do alliance?

Answer 1

The International Taekwondo Alliance (ITA) is an international Franchising company that licenses taekwondo schools all over the world. The ITA offers instructors which must be certified every year. The style of taekwondo taught at ITA schools is Ho-Am TaeKwonDo. Ho-Am are the Korean words for tiger and rock. They offer special classes for young students age 3 - 6. The ITA also offers classes in HanMuDoo, Jiu-Jitsu, yoga, Korean sword and tactical short stick. HanMuDoo is an Korean martial art which includes thrown and locks (like Judo). Jiu-Jitsu is a Brazilian martial art that includes ground fighting.

The ITA can trace its roots directly to Grand Master Won-kuk Lee, who founded Chung Do Kwan. Chung Do Kwan's was the largest and the only gym whose ranks were recognized by General Choi when civilians became soldiers. On April 11th, 1955, a board of instructors from the different Kwans, historians, and other prominent persons selected Tae-Kwon-Do as the new name of the national martial art of Korea.

Answer 2

The American Taekwondo Association (ATA) was co-founded by Great Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang, and "Eternal" Grand Master Haeng Ung Lee in Omaha, Nebraska in 1969.

Both of these Korean Taekwondo instructors were students of the original Chung Do Kwan in Korea under founder Won Kuk Lee. Grandmaster Kang had come to the United States, and began teaching in Brooklyn, New York in 1969.

(see related links below for GM Kang's bio)

When H. U. Lee first came to America on a visa sponsored by an American serviceman named Richard Reed, who trained at Osan Air Base in Korea, Lee was only a 4th Degree Black Belt. In order to run a major Taekwondo Association in America, Lee needed the higher rank and authority of his senior Grandmaster Kang. GM Kang served as the first President of the ATA from 1969 to 1978, and GM Lee was the Vice-President, and "Chief of Instruction."

By 1978, GM Lee Had been promoted to 8th Dan, and decided to take over the ATA as its President, and subsequently kicked GM Kang out of the position. GM Kang had close ties with General Choi Hong Hi, and later served as Vice-President of the ITF as well as President of the American Taekwondo Federation (ATF), and remains active as a chairman with the World Chung Do Kwan Federation.

In the early to mid 1980's, GM Lee began introducing a new set of Taekwondo patterns he called Song Ahm, to replace the Chang Hon system of Tul (forms) created by ITF founder General Choi. In 1990, GM H.U. Lee formed a panel of senior Black Belt Masters in the ATA, who performed an in-house test for his promotion to 9th Degree Black Belt, and over 100,000 ATA students signed a petition for him to be called "Grandmaster." Upon his death on October 5, 2000, other noted Taekwondo Grandmasters petitioned to posthumously grant H. U. Lee the rank of 10th Dan, and to bestow the title of "Eternal Grandmaster."

(see related links below for ATA History and GM Lee's bio)