Our Tae Kwon Do History

Our Tae Kwon Do History

On April 11th, 1955, the name Taekwon-Do was officially adopted for the martial art General Choi Hong Hi had developed using elements of the ancient Korean martial art of Taek Kyon and of Shotokan karate, a martial art he had learned while studying in Japan.

The philosophical values and the goals of Taekwon-Do are firmly rooted in the traditional moral culture of the Orient. On the technical side, defensive and offensive tactics are based on principles of physics, particularly Newton’s Law, which explains how to generate maximum force by increasing speed and mass during the execution of a movement.

Wanting to share the results of his philosophical reflections and his technical experiments, General Choi planned and wrote a unique reference work, the Encyclopedia of Taekwon-Do. In its fifteen volumes, he explained in detail the rules and practices of this art.

Always striving for excellence, General Choi presented Taekwon-Do as in a state of continuous evolution, open to changes that would improve its effectiveness. He wrote that anyone who believes he has fully discharged his duty will soon perish. Likewise, any undertaking that is perceived to have reached its objectives is likely to lose momentum, stagnate, and die.

Since the beginning, Taekwon-Do has never stopped evolving, driven by the strong will and a lot of hard work by its Founder. The leaders of today also recognize the need to evolve and they are equally passionate about the future of the organization.

Our Dojang History

In 1984 Master Lees opened a dojang in Pennsburg where Mark Cashatt started training.

Mark Cashatt’s Taekwon-Do School opened in Souderton by the Broad Street Theater February 4, 1989. On January 4, 1997 a second location opened at Harley Commons in Harleysville. In April of 2002 the Harleysville dojang moved to Salford Pub Shopping Center until 2007 when both dojangs were closed and moved to 665 Forman Road in Souderton. Indeed a Taekwon-Do dojang palace at 4800 square feet.

On January 22, 2017 Master Cashatt was promoted to 8th Degree Black Belt by the United Taekwon-Do Federation.

On July 1, 2019 it was time to downsize from the dojang palace and so the dojang was moved to the present location, Family Heritage Restaurant Lower Level Banquet Room, 508 Harleysville Pike, Telford, PA.

The relationships we are able to create in TaeKwon-Do strengthens each one of us and ensures true TaeKwon-Do, as General Choi would have liked it, to continue for generations to come.