Taekwondo is a martial art that originated in Korea over 2,000 years ago. It came from multiple Korean fighting styles, as well as Karate and Chinese martial arts. In recent years, Taekwondo has become an Olympic sport. Taekwondo has many benefits, physical and mental. It helps with cognitive function, hand eye coordination, and helps maintain and improve physical health. There are also studies that show that Taekwondo has helped improve a child’s academic performance.
Taekwondo is not only just a sport, but it incorporates elements of physics. Taekwondo shows motion and force, more specifically, Newton’s 3 laws. Newton’s First Law, also known as the Law of Inertia, states that if something is at rest, it wants to stay at rest,unless acted on by an unbalanced force. If something is in motion, it wants to stay in motion, unless acted on by an unbalanced force. Newton’s first law applies to Taekwondo, because before punching, the target is at rest, and it will stay at rest unless I punch it. It has inertia. When I punch the target, it is in motion, and it wants to stay in motion, therefore, it also has inertia.
Newton’s Second Law of Motion, also known as F=MA, states that the acceleration of an object depends on the mass of the object and the amount of force applied.During sparring, the amount of force I have to apply on a person while doing a back kick will depend on how tall that person is. If they are relatively tall, then I have to apply a lot of force. On the other hand, I only have to apply some force on a short person to have the same impact.
Newton’s Third Law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Newton’s third law applies in Taekwondo as well. When kicking a target, the target will bounce back onto my foot. This proves that it has an equal and opposite reaction. For example, if I kick the target with 5 Newtons of force, then it will push back on my foot with 5 Newtons of force.
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https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5430278/
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https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/what-to-know-about-taekwondo
