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There are numerous Taekwondo organizations throughout the world, many of which teach different patterns. The following tables identify the pattern sets used by some major Taekwondo organizations (may not be up-to-date since organizations change requirements periodically).

Pattern sets allow students to remember hundreds of combinations of techniques. At a black belt testing where a student must perform all patterns up to and including the current rank, it means the student must remember over 600 individual pattern movements in the correct order. This is similar to taking a test with 600 questions, where one missed question results in failure. This would be almost impossible to accomplish under the stress of testing if all the movements were in one pattern. However, if the movements are broken into 20 individual patterns of 30 movements each, it would be similar to taking 20 separate 30-question tests, which is a much easier task. This grouping of individual movements into a group of integrated movements that function as a whole over and above the sum of the individual movements is called "gestalting."

Differences Between Patterns Sets

Chang-hon Pattern Set

This is the original Taekwondo pattern set developed by General Choi Hong Hi, founder of the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF). The set contains 24 patterns each named for a significant person or event in Korean history. The total of 24 patterns is maintained since 24 represents the number of hours in a day, as described above. Choi originally had only 20 patterns, but later he dropped Ko-Dang and added Eui-Am, Moon-moo, Ju-che, So-san, and Yon-gae. Ju-che is difficult to perform so some organizations either do not use it or allow a substitution for older students.

This pattern set is one of the most difficult for new students since it uses intricate footwork and jumping kicks for color belt rank patterns (most schools using this pattern set use the first nine patterns for color belts). The black belt patterns are long (Yu-sin has 68 movements) with numerous jumping, spinning kicks, which make them physical and mentally demanding, especially during testing and competition.

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