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October 5, 2010, was the tenth anniversary of the passing of Haeng Ung Lee (1936-2000), founding father of the American Taekwondo Affiliation. In step with the Korean custom of gije (annual memorial for relations who’ve handed on), we take time to recollect a unprecedented man with a unprecedented imaginative and prescient.
Lee grew up amid the hardships of the Japanese occupation of Korea and China. Within the chaos of post-World Conflict II Korea, he started finding out taekwondo to be taught self-protection. At first he skilled informally, however in time he was invited to coach at a Chung Do Kwan department faculty in Incheon. Since he had pure potential and skilled always, he rapidly earned black belt rank and commenced educating.
Within the mid-Fifties, Lee spent his nationwide service within the South Korean military, hooked up to an intelligence unit primarily based on Baengnyeong Island. His main responsibility was because the martial arts coach for his unit. After his discharge from the military, Lee ultimately wound up in Osan, main a Chung Do Kwan department faculty close to Osan Air Base.
Considered one of Lee’s early college students was U. S. Air Pressure airman Richard Reed. At first, Reed skilled on the air base below considered one of Lee’s assistants, however due to his potential and dedication was ultimately delivered to Lee’s faculty in Osan. Finally, Reed turned considered one of Lee’s first two non-Korean black belts. It was to Reed that Lee first unfolded his imaginative and prescient of educating martial arts in the USA. Lee’s objective was not merely to ascertain a single faculty, however to the touch so many individuals with martial arts that his college students would unfold over your entire nation. Though he was doubtful about whether or not or not Lee’s objective might be achieved, Reed agreed to assist Lee to migrate to the U.S. and to help him nevertheless he may.
Lee first got here to the States in 1962. Reed, nonetheless within the navy, was stationed in Omaha, so Lee joined him there and commenced to show within the small faculty Reed had established. Lee was a charismatic and gifted teacher, and he rapidly attracted a following. Nevertheless, he had solely been in a position to get a customer’s visa, and in 1963 he was compelled to return to South Korea. After a protracted effort, together with intervention by considered one of Nebraska’s senators, Lee was granted a resident alien visa in 1965.
After Lee settled in Omaha, he focused on rising his martial arts faculties. He additionally began the Midwest Karate Federation (MKF), an umbrella group for the rising variety of martial arts faculties his college students have been opening. Attributable to Lee’s onerous work, the MKF grew quickly, and developed a status for being one of many best-organized martial arts teams within the nation.
Lee’s success attracted the eye of Common Hong Hello Choi, President of the Worldwide Taekwon-do Federation (ITF). The Common had established the ITF in 1966 and had been working tirelessly to construct nationwide associates outdoors Korea. He noticed the MKF as a place to begin from which to construct a possible nationwide governing physique for taekwondo within the U.S. In late 1968, the Common met with Lee in Omaha, ostensibly to debate the problem. What precisely was determined was by no means recorded. Nevertheless, the Common did spend 4 days with Lee, educating him the primary 16 of the Ch’ang Hon varieties within the course of.
A couple of months later, in 1969, the American Taekwondo Affiliation (ATA) was shaped as the unique ITF affiliate within the U.S. The MKF shaped the nucleus of this new group. Though he was thought-about the driving pressure behind the institution of the ATA, and due to this fact deserving of the title “founder,” Lee was not permitted to be the primary president of the ATA. This was for cultural causes, principally; in Korean tradition, seniority is essential, and the senior runs the group. As a sixth diploma in his 30s, Lee was not even entitled to name himself “grasp” on the time (within the ITF, you wanted and nonetheless have to be a seventh diploma to hold that title), and there already a number of higher-ranking instructors within the U. S.
The issue was solved when Lee’s authentic teacher, Kang Suh Chong, was persuaded (almost definitely by Choi) to relocate to the U. S. Kang was a senior eight diploma with a big resume: he had martial arts seniority as one of many first Chung Do Kwan black belts, he had spent 14 years working martial arts coaching within the South Korean navy, and he was (on the time) a Choi loyalist. Due to these elements, it was felt he would entice a few of the extra senior Korean instructors to hitch the ATA. Kang settled in New York Metropolis and was put in as ATA president. Lee was named Vice President and Chief of Instruction, along with his Omaha faculty serving because the ATA’s headquarters faculty.
Lee’s place meant he basically ran the ATA’s each day operations. He made it his private job not simply to develop the ATA, however to make it the usual for excellent taekwondo coaching. Additionally, the monetary hardships of the early days in Omaha — in 1962, Lee’s faculty’s month-to-month gross was about $160 — had satisfied Lee {that a} martial artist shouldn’t should dwell in poverty to show full time. Due to this fact, with the help of Richard Reed, he set about constructing a assist construction that will permit martial artists to run faculties full time and make an honest dwelling. Among the many improvements have been enterprise coaching for varsity homeowners, a printed teacher guide, and a standardized teacher certification system.
The Nineteen Seventies have been a troublesome time for South Korea, and for Korean martial arts within the U. S. It’s out of the scope of this text to debate the shifting political panorama and the alliances and loyalties that have been established and damaged throughout that turbulent time. By 1978, the ATA seems to have damaged with the ITF. Suh Chong Kang left the ATA to turn out to be ITF Vice President, taking plenty of the remaining seniors with him. Haeng Ung Lee assumed the workplace of president.
In regards to the time he took over the ATA presidency, Lee bought his faculty in Omaha to considered one of his college students, and moved to Little Rock. When requested why he selected that specific metropolis, Lee replied that the geography reminded him the place he grew up in Korea, however with out the chilly winters. He bought a constructing on the south facet of city that turned what’s right this moment the unique wing of the ATA Headquarters facility.
Within the Nineteen Eighties, Lee’s improvements continued. For instance, he established a computerized database containing the scholar information of all ATA members, which one of many first automated information techniques to incorporate colour belt college students in addition to black belts. Essentially the most important innovation, nevertheless, was the institution of the brand new Songahm kind system. Lee had lengthy felt the Ch’ang Hon system of kind patterns didn’t sufficiently emphasize kicking within the decrease belt varieties, and that there have been too many difficult hand strategies. He additionally needed varieties that might be matched with step sparring and sparring combos that used related kicks; this could kind a unified curriculum for every belt, one thing not potential below the Ch’ang Hon system on the time.
By the late Nineteen Eighties, Lee was eligible for promotion to ninth diploma black belt. Fairly than merely assuming the rank as so many different group leaders had finished, he needed to exhibit that he was worthy of the promotion and the grand grasp title that got here with it. There had been some controversy when he turned ATA president, and he doubtless needed to keep away from the identical difficulties with an elevation to the grand mastership. So Lee outlined a 9 step course of to turn out to be grand grasp. The primary of those steps was acceptance by the ATA membership; and overwhelming share of ATA members signed the petition to grant him promotion. With the membership’s loyalty confirmed, Lee accomplished the remaining eight steps within the course of, and was acclaimed Grand Grasp in 1990.
For the following ten years, Lee presided over an ATA that was experiencing explosive development. The variety of energetic ATA faculties grew from the 200s in 1989 to over 1,000 by the 12 months 2000. Such further improvements as weapons coaching for black belts, an early childhood martial arts program, and a e-book and DVD collection on the Songahm varieties have been examples of the ATA main the trade with its improvements.
Sadly, by the late Nineteen Nineties Lee started to expertise well being issues. He was ultimately recognized with most cancers, and underwent therapy. For a time, his well being improved, however the most cancers returned in March 2000. This time, the prognosis was poor, so he started to set his affairs so as, together with planning for a transition in ATA management. On October 5, 2000, Lee misplaced his battle with most cancers.
In June 2001, Lee was memorialized with a posthumous promotion to tenth diploma black belt, with the title “Everlasting Grand Grasp.” The promotion paperwork have been signed by plenty of legendary practitioners of Korean martial arts, equivalent to Jhoon Rhee and Bong Soo Han.
The legacy of this extraordinary man is a testomony to the taekwondo tenets of perseverance and indomitable spirit. Within the area of forty years, his imaginative and prescient of a large number of colleges within the U. S. grew from a mere thought to the truth of the trendy ATA. The politics of martial arts and post-war Korea and fluctuations within the U. S. financial system didn’t forestall him from bringing that imaginative and prescient to actuality. On this, he was properly served by his extraordinary charisma and humanity. He had the flexibility to make full strangers really feel as if he had recognized them for years. Due to the good private loyalty he had constructed with so many, he was genuinely mourned on a deeply private stage by these he had touched.
And so to honor the tenth anniversary of Haeng Ung Lee’s passing, we are saying, “Suseung-nim, khamsa hamnida.”
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Source by Craig Willits