Tae Kwon Do Black Belt Essay
(June 3, 2000)

Comparison

Tae Kwon Do is not the only sport out there in this world. It’s not even the only martial art to exist in the world. To compare Tae Kwon Do to other martial arts would be difficult, because doing that would be like comparing apples and oranges; also because I have never studied any other martial art, I do not know about the differences and similarities that exist between the different arts.

Comparing this with other sports is still difficult. It is obvious that every sport has one thing in common; the person who participates needs to be determined to succeed so they can do well. Some sports are team sports, such as rugby or hockey. There a set number of people work together on a field or playing area and help each other with strategies and plays; where if someone is weak in one area, there will be others on the team who are stronger and make up for it.

Tae Kwon Do is an individual sport, as are others like golf or wrestling. Where the only person you can really count on is yourself, and possibly a coach if one should exist; but these sports still have a team effort. While there’s only one person out on the field, or mat, or in the ring, they still need a support group to cheer them on. Without support of teammates on the sidelines, it would be very hard for anyone to have the energy to do well in the chosen sport because having support from people is a very big energy booster and gives people spirit.

The closest sport I can think of that is comparable to Tae Kwon Do is wrestling, because they are both individual sports, held in a ring and have categories based on ability, size and sex. Wrestling though, is all grappling and floor work, trying to pin the other person so they can’t move, and also getting points for taking your opponent down. Tae Kwon Do is kicking and punching, without the floor work and points are scored for being successful on attack or defending. The points about these two sports are the same would be: the coach on the sidelines giving moves for their student, teammates are cheering the people in the ring and in the end, everyone shakes hands and at all times there is respect for the opponent. There is more that can be said about wrestling compared to Tae Kwon Do, which would apply to many other individual as well as team sports.

All sports may be very different, but have the same goal of respecting each others and just having fun.

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