McMinnville Taekwondo

Second Dan hyung Gae Baek performed by Fifth Dan Master April Carothers 00000

One day I noticed a comment on one of our videos which asked, “Where’s the sine wave?” I had no idea what the person was talking about. Recently, I stumbled across a video of General Choi demonstrating the sine wave technique, and my question was partially answered. I felt it would be beneficial for our students to know what this movement is, what its driving philosophy is, and why we don’t practice it. According to a few different sources, in the 1980’s General Choi introduced the sine wave movement, a slight up-down-up motion as one steps or throws a technique. The official ITF site, www.tkd-itf.org , states that the sine wave can be executed in two phases: Phase 1: Relaxing arms, legs, and shoulders to recover your energy after the previous movement. Phase 2: Increase both external and internal energy with the hip motion (gain mass) and the acceleration from the top of the wave, in combination with exhaling at the impact of the movement. Grandmaster Hong Sik Kim,...