Natasha Tu
Taekwondo comes from South Korea and has deep ties to the Chinese and Japanese practices, but despite its ancient roots and traditions, Taekwondo chooses its way since the debut in the Olympics 2000 and starts a virtuous cycle of rules and gear modification.
At the beginning of 2019, the World Taekwondo Federation has displayed a redesigned dobok (uniform) in Manchester, the UK, and immediately made quite a splash in the Korean martial arts community.
No kidding, World Taekwondo Executives most likely want to dress both men and women in a formfitting lycra stretch top and skintight leggings for the upcoming Olympics 2020 in Tokyo.
Most of us know a taekwondo uniform (dobok) as a plain, white, v-neck heavy cotton top with pants that have an elastic waist. Its top and pants are both comfortable and allow a lot of movement, a definite necessity of taekwondo.
Everyone wears a uniform of the same style and color so that none of them would shine as being above all the others.
When we put on a plain white dobok, bereft of superfluous piping and trim, we are creating an outward sign of our humility, or should I say “attempted humility”. It is one very small way that bring us closer to the never obtainable perfection that is the journey in Martial Arts.
Extracted from a discussion between Mr. Earl Weiss and Mr. Damian LaVoice
Thus, speaking about history, the Taekwondo uniform has become a historical item that must be honored and kept as it is, without changes, for a lifetime.
But despite the historical meaning of a Taekwondo dobok, the World Taekwondo Federation has decided to redesign it, and in 2013 a new female uniform was presented in Spain for the very first time.
THEY CARE ABOUT WOMEN
In 2013 Juanjo Padrós, director of Andorra Taekwondo Federation and member of the European Union Executive Committee, presented a female version of a Taekwondo uniform to the WTF Expansion Committee in Puebla, Spain during the World Taekwondo Championship.
Padrós proposed several designs of the “female dobok”, however, the original version was created by Tailor & Co with a model Jessica Rovira, a member of the National Taekwondo Team of Andorra.
TOP REASONS TO DESIGN A FEMALE DOBOK
- modern fabrics allow better freedom of movement, creating more definition and clean movements
- renew the female Taekwondo image and make a better difference between the male and female categories
- improve Taekwondo image in the TV and press
- the skintight uniform gives a better image of the body shape and demonstrates a positive impact on the health and body of those practicing Taekwondo regularly
The World Taekwondo Federation intended to test the new uniform during the Under-21 European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.
But the first official display of so-called “female dobok” took place in May 2019 at the World Taekwondo Championships in the UK.
After many years of thinking on how to make a female taekwondo uniform more comfortable and differ women from men, the WTF decided to put them all in a female dobok.
Taekwondo Facebook communities just went crazy, thousands of frustrated taekwondo fans gave their negative feedback on a new design of the traditional dobok.
JUST LOOK AT THESE HILARIOUS MEMES OF A TAEKWONDO UNIFORM FOR OLYMPICS 2020
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