American Taekwondo Association

American Taekwondo Association

Type	Private
Industry	Sports organization
Genre	Franchisor
Founded	Omaha, Nebraska
Founder	Haeng Ung Lee
Headquarters	Little Rock, Arkansas, United States
Number of locations	over 2,000
Area served	North America, Europe, Saudi Arabia, India, Nepal, South Africa, South Korea, & Guam
Services	Martial Arts instructional
Website	www.ataonline.com

The American Taekwondo Association (ATA) was founded in 1969 in Omaha, Nebraska by Haeng Ung Lee of South Korea. It is one of the largest taekwondo organizations in the United States, and in association with the Songahm Taekwondo Federation (STF) and World Traditional Taekwondo Union (WTTU), is one of the largest in the world, claiming a membership of 350,000. The ATA is currently headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas and led by In Ho Lee.

ATA-affiliated schools also host self-defense seminars to teach techniques for emergency escape from an attacker.

Songahm Taekwondo is the style of martial arts practiced at ATA affiliated schools. Songahm means "Pine Tree and Rock." According to the organization, the term Songahm itself represents "Evergreen strength the year round, long life and a symbol of unchanging human loyalty" as represented by the pine tree and the rock. Soon Ho Lee gave the name, Songahm, and its meaning to his brother, Haeng Ung Lee years before H.U. Lee founded the ATA. In the ATA, the student is compared to a growing pine tree, from a seed (white belt) to a massive tree (black belt).

According to the ATA, practitioners of Songahm Taekwondo study poome sae (forms, a preset combination of offensive and defensive techniques, designed to simulate self-defense techniques being used upon multiple opponents), gyeo-roo-gi (sparring), one-steps (scripted sparring segments), self-defense, board breaking, weapons, and leadership. The ATA has a leadership program that allows students to work as junior leaders/instructors in junior classes. This helps the trainee instructors become qualified taekwondo instructors and earn the ATA title of Certified Instructor.

The American Taekwondo Association uses a rank system divided into two series: the colored belt series, and the black belt series. The purposes of a rank system include establishing a chain of command, and measurement of student progress. Each series has nine ranks within it due to the significance of the number nine as the highest attainable goal of a measurable endeavor in oriental culture.

According to the ATA each belt has a symbolic meaning that compares the student's growth in taekwondo to the growth of a pine tree: