PRECISION MARTIAL ARTS ACADEMY

Poomsae has been growing internationally for the past few years and has been included in major international Taekwondo events such as World Poomsae Championship, Asian Championship, European Championship, World University Championship and starting in 2010, Pan Am Championship.  In addition, it has become an official event in multi-sports games such as Universiade and World Masters Game.

Poomsae is evolving from the traditional core curriculum of Taekwondo into a modern athletic sport. In addition to the modifications to its nature, there has been a big change in terminology. On February 26, 1987 changes were made at the Kukkiwon Technical Committee, with advice from the Korean language scholastic society, to make Poomsae the official spelling in Korean.

Even though Poomsae has diverse meanings and understanding due to its complexity in movements and philosophy, it is only a two-letter word from the letters Poom and Sae in Korean. Before February 1987, Poomse not Poomsae was used. Poomse was made up with two Chinese word and Poomsae is formed from one Chinese letter and one Korean word: Poom which means appearance or characteristics, and Sae which is the authentic Korean word meaning shape, appearance and style.

In English, since Poomsae is a foreign word and not listed in dictionary, is up to the writer to determine the spelling which better describes the original pronunciation. Therefore it can be spelled "Poomsae", or "Poomse" (Lunsford, Conners and Segal, "The Everyday Writer", New York 1997) In other words, Poomsae and Poomse are both grammatically correct; however, from a Taekwondo practitioner's point of view, Poomsae is probably more authentically aligned with the traditional interpretation.

 

By Master Seoungmin Rim,

Taekwondo Canada Poomsae Committee Chair

Taegeuk Poomsae 

PMAA's Basic Poomsae (White Belt/Peewee YS) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkicGuU1ULI

Taegeuk IL Jang (1)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqOaa7sCF1k

Taegeuk E Jang (2) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z4Xyag8xy8

Taegeuk Sam Jang (3) -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvtW_zLjCHU

Taegeuk Sa Jang (4) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaMvd7QXEIE

Taegeuk O Jang (5) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM4RVVL1gpc

Taegeuk Yook Jang (6) -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG3_tvyA8qo

Taegeuk Chil Jang (7) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQH1cOQ6W_Q

Taegeuk Pal Jang (8) -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T2HhRqXoJo