World Taekwondo - Haidong Gumdo Academy

World Taekwondo - Haidong Gumdo Academy (founded in December 2008 by Grand Master Choi as Choi's Traditional TaeKwonDo Academy) is a traditional Korean martial arts school at 9001 W Union Hills Drive in southern Peoria, serving families across Peoria, Glendale, and the northwest Valley. The school teaches two distinct but complementary Korean arts under one roof: traditional World Taekwondo (WT) kicking, blocking, and forms, and Haidong Gumdo, the modern Korean sword art rooted in Three Kingdoms-era battlefield traditions and practiced with wooden bokken in the dojang. The kids taekwondo program follows the WT Olympic-style curriculum - stances and basic blocks, the Taegeuk poomsae forms, the full range of kicking techniques from front and roundhouse up through spinning and jumping variations, structured one-step sparring, and controlled kyorugi sparring with proper protective gear as students advance. The five tenets of taekwondo (courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, indomitable spirit) anchor the culture, and instructors weave those values into how children handle setbacks both on the mat and in the rest of their lives. Belt progression follows the standard color-belt path from white through poom/black with stripes between, with tournament participation optional. Grand Master Choi's seventeen-plus years running the academy in the same Union Hills location have built a multigenerational student base across the West Valley. Trial classes are available for new students of any age.