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karj
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BEST ANSWER  chosen by asker   |  karj  |  February 23, 2009 06:30 PM
The real difference between I.T.F. and W.T.F.
I.T.F. being traditional adheres to an equal emphasis on patterns, breaking, sparring, & self-defence techniques. W.T.F. has more emphasis on sparring aspect than patterns and self-defence. That is not to say W.T.F. does not have patterns or self-defence. Breaking in W.T.F. however, is not much emphasized as breaking in I.T.F.

I.T.F is based in Seoul, Korea
The unofficial training headquarters of the International Taekwondo Federation is located at the Taekwondo Palace in Pyongyang, North Korea and was founded in the mid-1990s

The World Taekwondo Federation was established in South Korea
W.T.F Headquarters , also known as Kukkiwon, which is a center of learning and research of Taekwondo located in Yuksam Dong, a different part of Seoul.
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thelastsci...
thelastscionspeaks  |  February 23, 2009 06:59 PM
They both have forms that differ from each other in complexity.

The IFT forms to me are simpler. See here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ9oWMnTLsM

The WTF forms are more complex. See here.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=22770856

WTF is accepted by the Olympic committee and it's first medal run was in 2000. Before that it was just exhibition. Having studied both I prefer ITF as it is more practical in the street. Though Tae kwon do is not really an effective combat style in my opinion. It's not useless as a combat style by any means but it is not krav maga. Krav maga is all about put people down and keeping them down. It's also the official martial art of the Israeli army.

Good job both of you and the best answer goes to the most complete.

Thanks for taking the time to answer and I hope you learned something.
bbrookin
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bbrookin  |  February 23, 2009 03:33 AM
My understanding is that ITF is more self-defense oriented and WTF is more sports/competition based (think Olympics). The ITF style is the one more generally associated with breaking. This is probably gross oversimplification (my apologies).
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