Developments in Martial Arts as
I’ve Seen Them
My last blog post, with my 27th
anniversary having just passed, was about my longevity in Taekwondo. In this
post, I am going to highlight chronologically, as best as I can remember, the
major developments I’ve seen in Taekwondo and, in some cases, martial arts as a
whole over the last quarter century plus.
I began my martial arts training
in the early summer of 1985 when I started Shotokan Karate training at the
South China Athletic Association, in Hong Kong. I’ve always been interested in
martial arts and I was exposed to them at an early age with Chinese martial
arts movies, a judo uniform I was given as a birthday present when I was about
ten, and the talk of Bruce Lee and nunchaku demonstrations by family friends at
Christmas parties.
My eventual start in formal
training came to a head when my friend and his cousin and I were spending a lot
of time together during my final two years of living in Hong Kong. During those
years, Bruce Lee films were being re-released in Hong Kong movie houses, the
original Karate Kid movie had just come
out and, on television, there was a short-lived show called The
Master, starring Lee Van Cleef, Timothy Van
Patten and a very young Demi Moore. My friends and I did the things teenage
boys do - hang out, play ball, talk about girls, and play fight with faux
martial arts moves. They also have a friend, a friend of both their dads, who
is also a Gung Fu master and whose name was often bandied about with Bruce
Lee’s and William Cheung’s. It was one of these school friends who brought me
to the SCAA for Shotokan and it’s from that point that my life, for all intents
and purposes, changed.
Here is how Taekwondo and martial
arts have evolved from my eyes since June 1985.
1985
The popularity of martial arts is
probably at its highest since the early 1970s with The Karate Kid, The Master and a surge of other low budget but highly entertaining movies being
produced. Sho Kosugi, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal thank you very much.
1988
Taekwondo becomes a demonstration
sport at the Seoul Olympics.
1990s
1. From footage of Taekwondo
events from the 1960s and 1970s, it’s clear that the v-neck pullover uniform
was already in existence but it became more popular and widespread as the 1990s
progressed. I got my first v-neck uniform from a supplier in California that
had a turtle logo. It was 100% cotton, not too thick and heavy, but hot. I like
the functionality of the v-neck but, overall, I think I still like the look of
a traditional jacket wraparound.
2. All martial arts use physics
concepts - action versus reaction, small giving way to use leverage to win over
large, etc - but in an intuitive sense. Taekwondo, however, appeared to be the
first to put a scientific approach to its training. From teaching traditionally
passed down kicks from the styles that preceded it - Tang Soo Do, Shotokan
Karate - that include wide swinging leg motions, Taekwondo’s use of narrow
motions and generating its power from hip twist seemed to become more
widespread in the 1990s. Hip twist has been around for decades. Bruce Lee cites
it in The Way of he Dragon and Judo uses
it to generate power for its throws but, from my experience in several arts,
the idea of generating the same amount of power with narrow leg movements and
full hip twist versus wider leg movements (essentially a swing) with a pivot at
the hips and with the opposite foot, seems to have originated from Taekwondo.
1992
Taekwondo obtains full medal
status at The Olympics. USA’s Herb Perez won gold in the middleweight men’s
division to become the first winner of a full status Taekwondo medal.
1993 - present
The mixed martial arts (MMA)
spectacle became widespread thanks to the UFC, the Ultimate Fighting
Championship. Some stand up fighters did well in the early years but MMA/UFC
bouts typically are between jujitsu stylists who’ve learnt some kicking and
striking and strikers who’ve studied some grappling. Really, it’s the
widespread realization of the kind of training Bruce Lee espoused. Personally,
I think the MMA guys are fantastic fighters but I suspect that many of them may
not be martial artists. There’s a difference between being a fighter and being
a martial artist. The latter can be both but someone who is merely the former cannot
be the latter.
Late 1990s/early 2000s
1. There was a corruption scandal
involving the World Taekwondo Federation, the International Olympic Committee
and the United States Taekwondo Union (the governing body of Taekwondo in the
United States that has been resurrected and is thriving as USA-Taekwondo). Any
kind of scandal is not a good thing. Any kind of corruption is not a good
thing. They’re made worse when they centre around something you love. In some
way, you almost feel guilty by association like those involved reflect upon you
as a member of that community. That’s how I felt, anyway. Regardless, Taekwondo
and the involved organizations have survived and Taekwondo, as a world sport
and martial art, continues to grow. It was also at this time, and partly
because of this scandal, that I started to accept that martial artists are not
the error-free monks and mendicants, who secretly know the ways of the world,
that are portrayed in the movies. We, simply, are human beings; imperfect
creatures that have chosen to fight against the demons we possess inside.
2. When I started competing, most
of the tournaments around were open, point-scoring ones. After a point was
scored, action stopped, the points tallied and then the bout resumed until time
was over. I suppose the
point-scoring system was popular to lessen injury and to generate more revenue
so people of all styles could compete. It would also, perhaps, settle which
style is the best based on who won but that would invariably add to the
controversy. (Personally, I believe there is no ONE best style. The style has
to suit the practitioner’s personality and the style is the best if the person
conquers his or her demons and achieves his or her goals through its practice.)
Today, those point-scoring open events are few and far between with many more
style-specific tourneys being held. Individual schools typically hosted the
point-scoring events. Nowadays, most Taekwondo events are hosted by state,
regional or national organizations. There a fewer individually hosted ones and
the ones that still exist follow the same format as those run by the
International Olympics Committee, the World Taekwondo Federation and USA
Taekwondo.
2006
I love all aspects of martial
arts but forms practice (poomsae, kata)
has always been my favourite. In the mid 1990s, I wrote a piece about
formalized, high level forms competition. I stated that there should be some
kind of event and that it should be as recognized as, say, The Olympics. In
2006, the 1st Poomsae World Championship was held. I can’t claim any influence
for this but I’m glad it exists. Furthermore, high level poomsae competition
here in the US has emerged in state and national championships that even allow
older athletes, like myself, the opportunity to compete and become state and
national champions.
2010s
Around 2010, I think, Chuck
Norris came up with the World Martial Arts League. Essentially, it’s teams of
fighters (I think most of them stand up fighters) and there’s a round robin of
bouts across the country. I always wanted to run a school-based point martial
arts tournament like this in public schools but with most schools not even
having boxing in their PE classes or as an extra-curricular it’d be a challenge
to promote a Taekwondo/martial arts sparring team. In 2002, I wrote a Taekwondo
curriculum that was added to my district’s overall PE curriculum. I taught it
in the 2002-2003 school year but, being the only qualified Taekwondo
instructor, it was difficult to manage and maintain. I have spoken with my department
supervisor about getting a grant to revisit this and to train instructors but
there has been no further developments or discussions on this. I know of, at
least, one district in Utah that has a full TKD program in its PE curriculum.
With congressional help, perhaps,
this can become a reality across the country. After all, Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee
has trained many congressmen and he has even had a day named after him.
Grandmaster Rhee, nicknamed ‘The Father of American Taekwondo,’ has throughout
his life promoted Taekwondo as a means to attain a better quality of life and
as a way for children to develop character. What more could someone ask for to
be included into a district-wide PE program and to be added to its list of
extracurricular athletics?
2000s
1. There seems to be an abundance
of girls and women doing martial arts and this is a good thing and there isn’t
any real surprise at this. It’s not a surprise in the way a girl playing on a
boy’s gridiron team would be. It’s natural for girls to do martial arts,
especially when you think that the Wing Chun system of Gung Fu was invented by
a nun and how there are Japanese weapons arts that are geared towards woman.
The surge of female martial artists here in the US, though, has to be credited
to women like Master Karen Eden, Kathy Long, Michelle Krasnoo, Diana Lopez, and
Gina Carano. They are all confident, feminine - dare I even say attractive, hot
- as well as being badass modern women who can pack a punch. If I ever have a
daughter, I won’t object if she chooses any one of them to emulate.
2. Taekwondo is now a household
word. When Taekwondo first came into the US, in the 1950s, servicemen who were
stationed in Korea brought it back. The term ‘karate’ was a more familiar one
so many of the Korean masters advertised their art as ‘Korean Karate.’ When
they’d say ‘Taekwondo’ they’d usually have to explain what it is. I found this
to be true even in the 1990s. Today, it’s a common term and, if someone doesn’t
know exactly what Taekwondo is, he or she will surely have heard of it. It even
seems to be the martial art of choice in popular culture. In movies, for
instance, when a character does a martial art it seems to be, more often than
not, Taekwondo. One example is in the movie The Five-Year Engagement in which Rhys Ifans’ character studies and uses
Taekwondo to defend himself against Jason Segel’s character. This is a
romantic-comedy and not an action film. Action films usually won’t name the
martial arts the characters practice. Or, they’ll be named and there will be a
wide array of arts and styles on display. In movies about everyday life,
Taekwondo seems to prevail. I say this not from any kind of scientific research
but from my own observations. It illustrates, on some level, how widespread
Taekwondo really is.
As I enter my twenty-eighth year
of being a Taekwondoist, I‘m sure there will be more developments. For one, I’d
like to see some kind of equal recognition between Kukkiwon Taekwondo and
ITF (International Taekwondo
Federation) Taekwondo, a reunification of sorts, if you will. I’d like to see Taekwondo enter all
public schools in physical education and as an extracurricular sport, the way
wrestling exists. I’d even love to see the Koreas unified, the way East Germany
and West Germany reunited, with Taekwondo having some kind of influence in
achieving that.
Who can tell what’s going to
happen? As a Taekwondo master, I have some say on how the future of Taekwondo
shapes up by how I teach my students and how well I represent that tenets of my
chosen martial art. As a student, and as a master I am probably more of student
than ever before, I look forward to how it continues to shape me.
