9/26/07 -

The Tournament of Life

We have seen the enemy and it is (within) us
Pogo

Peace comes not from the absence of conflict, but from the ability to cope with it
Anonymous


I invested years of training for the goal of National Champion. I was zeroing in on this goal in 1988. First winning the State Championships, then advancing to the National Championships in Miami, Florida. My first round match was against a very tall, thin fighter being coached by a seasoned competitor that I had knocked-out at Nationals in 1986. I had a lot of trouble getting in on his long legs, but I was being coached by National Team Coach Dae Sung Lee and he was able to help me to hit the guy with two spinning hook kicks to win the match.

My second match was with the previous years Olympic Sports Festival gold medalist. I was in a really good place for that match. My body was still in good shape from the previous match and I was flying high from the victory! I don’t remember having to think at all during that match. It seemed that what ever I threw, I hit with. It was like a dance with my opponent in which everything was in time and seemed effortless. This was my first strong experience with the concept of Mushim.

My third match was with the current National Team member. I knew that I would not be able to compete with his speed and technical ability, so I used a completely different strategy in this match. My goal was to get him to make the mistakes. I moved patiently not letting my opponent get a good position. I fainted attacks and clinched whenever I could. I could tell this was really frustrating him. I knew it would because I lost to a competitor who used the same tactic on me the year before at Nationals. The three-round match ended with my victory not by points but by his warnings.

Whereas the first matches went closely one after another, I waited a number of hours before my fourth match began. This opponent was young and strong. My foot had taken a pretty good pounding in the last matches, and I was a little slow on my feet. I had a hard time dealing with his relentless counter roundhouse kicks. I had many coaches trying to signal me to try their trick. I tried everything they were suggesting, instead of having faith in myself. I lost the match and a chance for the 1988 Olympic Team Trials!

This was an incredible learning experience. I should not have lost my last match after beating the previous opponents, but I had lost confidence and defeated my self.

Later that same year at the Collegiate National Championships, I was still in peak physical and mental condition for these championships, but I decided to move-up to bantamweight division. I had a large number of competitors and ended-up with five three-three minute round matches! I sprained my knee and ankle in the fourth match and could barely put weight on it, but I did not want to bow-out. The competitor who I faced had a bye, a knockout and a competitor withdrawal from a match. He was also a top Olympic contender.

I showed gear spirit in this match and even received an ovation from the audience even though I did not win. My experiences competing, strengthened my will and focus in dealing with the challenges of the “tournament of life.”

Healthy competition is the natural way to insure we improve ourselves. As long as you are in the world, you must compete, and if you must compete, you must win. I believe in the importance of competition within our selves and to challenge our selves against other’s achievements. In this way, we put pressure on ourselves to change and it encourages us to bring out our best qualities and to compound those advantages into superiority.

The Dojang includes healthy competition as do all sports, but it encompasses a greater system for self-improvement than any other sport. Martial arts have a unique opportunity to train mind, body, spirit, and emotions in harmony through a unique system. This system empowers people for life! Although I though I was training to become the champion in the ring, it was really being a champion at life!

9/19/07 -

Evolution of Martial Arts

Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance
Samuel Johnson

Through a careful observation of life as a whole Asian philosophy developed their construct of the universe. The theory of um-yang ohaeng sol has been understood as the ultimate principle of cosmic order that enables production of all life forms that act and react. Humans have been on a journey to conqueror nature since our beginning. The study of martial arts at its very core is about harnessing our own human nature by bringing harmony and unity to the energy within us.
Senior Grand Master Choi has described the evolution of martial arts historically and how it evolves in each one of us as well. When we are born everything has a primary mission to live happily and reproduce to continue the existence of one’s kind. In primitive times humans protected their territory against each other and other stronger creatures, using their intellect to develop strategies to survive. Hide-and-seek was the most primitive skill against bigger and stronger opponents. Humans then discovered fire and other weapons as well as living in packs to protect themselves.
In ancient times, strong leaders developed who coordinated tribes to defeat opponents and invented effective military systems. Longer range weapons made empty hand combat less prevalent. In modern times, armed forces and law enforcement took over the task of survival aspects of martial arts. Gangs and bullies remained, but those who killed were punished.
In times of peace, martial arts skills were converted to sports ands games. Taekwondo in particular developed into a modern Olympic sport. Sports became a way for communities and nations to develop and show pride.
Martial arts also developed into street defense against criminals, and military and law enforcement hand-to-hand combat and conditioning. As the weapons and tactics of violence and crime have changed so have martial art responses.
As contemporary life has become more complex and stressful, martial arts have stepped-in to help student attain inner-peace. Through an integrative method of training the mind, body, spirit, and emotions (shim-shin-sooryun), students gain life skills to thrive.

9/12/07 - 6th Dan Thesis Continued

My Beginning

The conqueror of men is powerful
The master of himself is strong
Lao Tzu

Pray not for lighter loads, but for stronger shoulders.
St Augustine


My own story starts as a boy who was small, hotheaded, and not very coordinated. I was in constant fights, losing most of them at every school I attended. Then came martial arts training when I was a twelve years old. I was given an outlet for my aggression and guidelines on how to use it.

I was passionate about taekwondo. It gave me a way to harness my energy and help me succeed at life where it had been very difficult before. How was it possible to attribute taekwondo for helping me to become less angry, more focused in school, a better soccer player, and more confident in relationships?


At twelve I was mostly in the “it looks cool stage.” My first teacher was a 2nd Dan and current national lightweight team member. He showed me how cool it would be to kick high and also how taekwondo kicking would make me a better soccer kicker. I started August 30th, 1980 and immediately loved it! I not only became a much better soccer player, because I developed better focus, kicking strength, and less fear to go after the ball, I became calmer and more focused everywhere!

The martial arts helped me develop a strong center by integrating my energy through the exercises themselves, building my confidence through the promotions, giving connection and purpose through the camaraderie that we built at our school and by teaching others.