Thanks to the Orient, the world has got such a wide variety of martial arts to practice and benefit from. One of them is the Korean martial art Taekwondo. It basically involves striking with your feet, accompanied by your fists. Akin to other martial arts, this art, one of the most popular in the world, combines self-defense, fighting technique, exercise, philosophy, and meditation. Stances Before the techniques and moves, something called a 'stance' is taught to a Taekwondo practitioner. There are a few stances which are adopted to get into kicking and punching positions. Normal Stance Here, the legs are positioned shoulder-width apart, the hands are in front at chest level, and the palms are made into fists. Horseback Stance This is a position in which the fists are placed at waist level, with the legs a bit more wider than shoulder-width. Back Stance In this stance, the person steps ahead with one foot, and keeps the other one back. It is somewhat a side stance. Hard or Linear Techniques These techniques comprise the attacking arsenal of a practitioner. Kicks, punches, headbutts, and other methods used for striking are included. Hand Techniques There are closed-hand strikes and open-hand techniques involved in Taekwondo. Punches can be executed in several positions, from jumping, spinning, to standing or a forward rushing movement.

• Forefist is where a hand is thrust out to strike with the knuckles.
• Backfist is a clenched hand is swung backwards into the opponent's face.
• Knife hand is a technique where an open hand is hammered down with all power, impacting with the underside.
• Palm heel is amongst the classic defense strikes, where the base of the palm is engaged in a thrusting strike upwards.

These were the most popular, deadly, and basic hand techniques in Taekwondo. Kicks Having practiced Taekwondo a bit myself, kicks is what I like the most. Although they are extremely tiring to practice, they are the crux of this art. Kicks are the base of an offensive against the opponent.

• In front kick, the practitioner raises his knee till his/her waist, followed by pulling back of the toes and immediately extending the foot in the direction of the target.
• Roundhouse kick is where the practitioner lifts his knee, hips turned, gets support on the other foot, and then snaps the kick in a horizontal manner at the target, between an 80- and 90-degree angle.
• Outer crescent kick is where an extended leg is raised as high as possible, a bit across the centerline of the body. Then, it is swept outward to the side in a circular movement.
• Inner crescent is the same as the outer crescent, just that this time, the kick originates outside the body, and comes in.
• Ax kick is where the leg is raised in front of the body, and is pulled down with force, with the heel pointed down. The leg is kept as straight as possible, when it is being raised.

There are many more techniques when it comes to kicks, like the hook kick, side kick, reverse side kick, spin kicks, jump kicks, and many more. These are taught as you go to advanced levels of the art. Soft or Circular Techniques These techniques focus more on manipulating the attacks from the opponent in your defense. They emphasize on manipulation instead of display of strength. These mainly include throws, pressure point applications, joint locks, and freeing techniques (to free yourselves from the opponent's grip). There are a number of throws and grappling techniques which are taught at an advanced level. For achieving an expertise in this, sparring techniques are used by the practitioners. In addition to this, there is a something called breaking, an important ­aspect of Taekwondo. It refers to breaking of boards, bricks, and stuff like that, mostly done in competitions. Power breaking is one type in which the power of a technique used by a person is measured, by breaking of single- or multiple-stacked boards. The other, speed breaking, involves monitoring how fast the person reacts. The board, which is held or tossed in the air, has to be kicked with the correct speed and in the correct area, to be broken.