Going Forward
The need for empty handed combat has been greatly diminished over the last few centuries. Therefore, future Taekwondo practitioners should focus on improving the health of their body, mind, and spirit.
This brings us back to one of the main philosophies of Taekwondo. It is a life-long journey of attaining indomitable spirit through physical and mental exercises. On this journey, one's health, confidence, and situation awareness will improve through systematic physical and mental training.
It is absolutely critical to go through the training in such a way that the slow and steady accumulation of skill sets, body conditioning, and subconscious level empowerment can be attained without any negative side effects and burnouts.
Taekwondo made its debut as an official Olympic sport in 2000. This certainly raised the level of technical excellence of many useful techniques beyond our imagination; however, it also drew an invisible line between the highly practiced Olympic Game techniques and the Form based techniques. But then again, Taekwondoists always find unity in diversity.
Whether the person is a professional instructor, Olympic competitor, hobbyist, ITF member, WTF member, ATA member, or distinguished member of the elite of masters, the devoted practitioner is simply a Taekwondoist. Every one of them figuratively represents a different tree within the forest named Taekwondo.
No matter who you are and what you do, it is the foundation that needs to be strong. Many practitioners may overlook the importance of Taekwondo forms; however, it is extremely important to regularly practice all of 17 forms in a single session to build a strong body and mind. If the person knows only one form, then he or she may do it 17 times consecutively.
In practicing any Taekwondo form, one must apply variable speed, power, and rhythm. One will come to realization sooner or later that Taekwondo forms are the key to the physical health, mental health, and any future development.
Although many martial artists are physically trained to strike the weakest link with the strongest part, Taekwondoists spiritually believe in empowering the weak and humble and planting a seed of hope and encouragement to benefit all mankind.
Good Luck!