Welcome to the Tang Soo Do Union Website
The Origins and Growth of the Tang Soo Do Union.
During 1997 a number of UK branches of traditional Tang Soo Do organisations began discussions on the subject of ‘cross organisational training and competitive events’ for the benefit of their Membership. These discussions lead to a cross organisational training session at Bicester, Oxfordshire later that year.
Time ticked on as various invitations to regular annual competitions and seminars were exchanged with cross organisational communication and co-operation growing from strength to strength.
A clearly impartial approach for the content of such seminars had been reached, in time for the September 2005 gathering. Over one hundred Members, representing a number of traditional Tang Soo Do organisations, met in Manchester for an afternoon of training, knowledge sharing and friendship. The seminar looked at topics that had been chosen for their ‘curriculum neutral’ status. That caveat has served the Union well to this day.
On Sunday the 4th of February 2007 Senior representatives from six Tang Soo Do organisations met at the 'ORO' in 'Henley in Arden' to discuss expanding The Tang Soo Do Union. Prior to that date the Union had been an unnamed contact group for traditional Tang Soo Do organisations here in the UK. The unique nature of that meeting is a pivotal point in the growth of the Tang Soo Do Union. For six traditional organisations to meet, with no agenda, beyond the creation of an umbrella group that would open training and competing opportunities for Members was we believe, unprecedented in the UK. On that day the name Tang Soo Do came into being along with a basic set of operating procedures.
June of that year saw over 270 Tang Soo Do practitioners gathered in Coventry to celebrate their Martial Art by participating in the first Tang Soo Do Union ‘Training with the Masters Seminar’. To date the Tang Soo Do Union has evolved naturally into an umbrella contact organisation for traditional Tang Soo Do organisations, within the UK, whose leadership have the foresight to see a high value in the virtues of cordial and supportive relations with fellow practitioners on a cross organisational basis. These goals are perhaps best summed up in our Mission Statement and Charter.
Mission Statement
The mission of the TSDU is to create a unified body of Tang Soo Do Organizations and Practitioners in the United Kingdom that are dedicated to preserving, perpetuating and promoting the traditional Korean Martial Art known as ‘Tang Soo Do’ and to further its development and growth in line with the original and full concepts of its Founder.
Charter
Our charter requires all Members to preserve and promote the original and traditional techniques, practices, philosophy and principles of the Martial Art known as Tang Soo Do and to create a training environment that not only focuses on intense physical training, discipline and respect (Moo Do), but that also fosters creativity and character development (Ryu Pa) by recognizing the human need to achieve freedom through the development of the human spirit (Moo Do Shim Gong). | 
