In taekwondo, a Poomse is a pattern of a series of pre-arranged sequences of attack and defence movements against an imaginary opponent or opponents. They are designed to improve power, accuracy and speed. The patterns are designed to make the movements into reflex actions rather than conscious thought. The patterns also contain hidden information for the more senior or mature students which include vital point attacks and pressure point work. Once a greater understanding has been achieved of the forms the student realises the full techniques cannot be done on another student because the result would be serious injury or even worse. The W.T.F. (World Taekwondo Federation) uses the ‘Taegeuk’ Poomse.
These patterns originate from the trigrams of Taoist divination, found in the book ‘The I Ching’. Trigrams consist of a stack of three horizontal lines, either broken or whole to represent yin or yang, and signify each of the eight Chinese elements. ‘Taegeuk’ means universal unity or balance.
