Getting Artsy
Me and Grandmaster Kwon circa 1997.
Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I saw a lot of martial arts movies. “Kung Fu Theater” was on every Saturday, Bruce Lee was everyone’s favorite and it was the era of the ninja film. We’d play ninja quite often, though none of us knew how to do any real martial arts. At least one of my friends had a couple throwing stars and I’m sure I remember someone had nunchucks.
I think the allure of it was that it was an attainable super power. You could actually go to ninja school (or so we imagined) and get trained and become a ninja.
“The Karate Kid” made it seem even more attainable. Anyone could learn, you just had to find the right teacher.
My first exposure to martial arts training was in college. There was a karate club and I joined with a friend of mine. It was a style called mizu chiki karate. (I’m fairly sure I’ve butchered that name - I couldn’t even get google to help). Costs were covered by the school club program, I just had to buy my gi.
It was eye opening for me. The amount of focus and training needed to do the basics was all new. The style was very compact and punch-oriented. The instructor was an impressive physical specimen and managed to be intimidating and accessible at the same time. I enjoyed it, but then it lost club status and we had to pay for classes so I had to stop.
About five years later, after graduation, I met a Kung fu/Tai Chi master at church and started taking a hybrid training class with him. It was meditation and tai chi, but he also gave me some one-on-one Kung fu lessons. He was an excellent teacher, but had a lot of demons to deal with and those classes ended.
Finally, Kwon’s Black Belt Academy opened in the strip mall where I worked. I signed up and became hooked. This was a combination of Tang Soo Do and Hap Ki Do, which are ancient Korean martial arts. Grandmaster Kwon came to the US in the 70s and started schools in various locations. He was built like a linebacker - solid, tall and muscular. Not at all like the typical martial artist from the movies. But he could move like them. He must have been in his late 40s and was as agile and powerful as a 20-year-old.
Classes consisted of physical, mental and spiritual training. We had to learn the history of Korea and Korean martial arts. We spent portions of classes meditating. Some classes we would sit the entire hour and Master Kwon would discuss one facet of the school code.
One thing he said that really stuck with me was that he wanted us to get addicted to training. He said there are so many dangerous addictions, but it was also possible to get addicted to something beneficial, and he hoped that would be the case. I definitely have an addictive personality, and definitely got addicted to training.
And the physical feats I learned! I remember watching a green belt do a form when I had just started and thinking there was no way I could do that. It seemed so complicated and I could barely do the basic stances. And then I remember when I took my green belt test how easy it was to do that form. The framework of instruction was set up to build on the basics until you could do crazy spinning kicks and ridiculous maneuvers without really knowing how you learned them.
Yet, oddly, I didn’t fully grasp the lesson in that until nearly fifteen years later.
