“What taekwondo is the best?”, is a frequent question asked by beginners and advanced taekwondo practitioners alike. Embedded in the question is, of course, the correct assumption that different types of taekwondo exist.

Although there are a variety of taekwondo off-shoots they all relate back to two main streams of taekwondo, namely ITF (International taekwondo Federation) and WTF (World taekwondo Federation). Simplistically stated the question is which is better, ITF taekwondo or WTF taekwondo? But stated like this it is still too broad a question to answer effectively.

Better at what? Best at what? The purposes of ITF and WTF taekwondo are so different that it is impractical to compare the two. ITF taekwondo is primarily a martial art, while WTF taekwondo is primarily a combat sport. The focus in the former include things such as character development, attaining massive destructive power through technical perfection, self-defense practice and so one. The latter (WTF) is focused primarily on tournament sparring – working at improving speed, reflexive counter-attacks, and strategic point scoring. Although ITF also include tournament sparring and WTF also include self-defense practice, their primary goals, and therefore their main foci, are vastly different.

If your question “What is the best taekwondo?” will influence your choice in which type of taekwondo to take up, you ought to first ask yourself what are your reasons for wanting to take up taekwondo?

For instance, if you are highly competitive it might be better to do WTF taekwondo. Your training will focus on (although not exclusively) preparation for tournament sparring. On the other hand, if you are more interested in the martial arts in general, ITF taekwondo might be a better option. Although ITF taekwondo includes tournament sparring, it is only one of a variety of tournament events (others include power destruction, special technique destruction, self-defense demonstration and patterns). Furthermore, tournament events are only a small part of ITF taekwondo training – so the highly competitive individual may get frustrated if sparring training doesn’t happen all the time.

A bigger influence in deciding which taekwondo is the best for you, is the instructor. Instructors differ greatly in their personal ability and interests. You may find a WTF instructor that downplays the sport aspect in his classes, or an ITF instructor who is focused on winning tournaments.

Before choosing which taekwondo is best for you, attend some classes for two weeks or a month, get a feel for the type of training done at that particular dojang and for the focus of that particular instructor. This will give you a much better idea as to which is the better taekwondo for you.