Tae Kwon Do & Korean Martial Arts, June 2000
The vast
sports hall echoes to the sound of raucous applause and whistles more
normally associated with a rock concert, but the diminutive man bowing and
blushing is dressed in a gi, not some outlandish concert costume.
Grandmaster Choi has just finished another seminar, and judging by the size
of the crowd and the sustained cheering, a very successful one. Noted as a
genuine giant of the martial arts, Grandmaster Choi combines philosophy and
physiology, science and self defense, with a studious frame that belies a
legendary power and speed. With a new administration in place within this
country, Grandmaster Choi was in buoyant mood, confident that now the time
was right for Choi Kwang Do to make a huge impact on the martial arts
community. TKD-KMA: You received a fantastic ovation at the end of your seminar, are you pleased with the response today and the skill levels displayed by the students?
Grandmaster Choi: Yes, as always, the people here are very warm. Because we have very highly qualified instructors here in the UK, the students learn very correctly. I come here really to motivate and confirm that what the UK instructors are teaching is correct.
TKD-KMA: What are you plans for Choi Kwang Do in the UK?
Grandmaster Choi: All the time we are looking for improvement, since 1988, and I believe now we have the right leadership, matured, learnt from past mistakes. Now the UKCA have newly elected Mr. Peter Wake as the chairman and alongside all the UK instructors he has a strong determination to create a community organisation. In order for this to be successful, I believe we have to have a common goal, a common belief. Then we need a strong administration. Now a sophisticated administration is in place, and I believe this is the best time ever in the UK for Choi Kwang Do.
TKD-KMA: If I can bring you in Peter (Wake) can you elaborate on the aims of the UKCA from a British viewpoint?
Peter Wake: All the UKCA instructors have this common belief system in the art of Choi Kwang Do and we all believe in Grandmaster Choi. He's fifty-seven years old and been training all his life and he is now one of the strongest punchers, hardest kickers, that I have ever come across. If I can become as strong as that, I will have achieved what I've wanted from the martial arts. We're trying to introduce a structure where we do not have a hierarchy like other martial arts. I have done Taekwondo for many years, and originally in Choi Kwang Do we had a very similar hierarchy, but now we see every instructor as a student of Grandmaster Choi and we are all working together to promote Choi Kwang Do and ourselves.
TKD-KMA: And how do you intend to achieve this?
Peter Wake: We are trying to act as a collective, organizing common events, all going to the States to train with Grandmaster Choi, all helping and supporting each other. I've trained for nineteen years now, and this is the fifth organization I've been in and each organization has broken down because various people haven't felt that they were getting fair reward from their system. We have to give ourselves a structure where we can encourage and help any one who wants to learn Choi Kwang Do but by the same token, when they are sufficiently skilled and don't need any more help, we still have to provide a framework they can live within, to partake as much or as little as they want.
TKD-KMA: Grandmaster, what would you say is the difference between the American and British ways of doing things?
Grandmaster Choi: In America the marital arts are no longer just about self defense. For example, in the States the parents bring their children to Choi Kwang Do because it is an education, not an activity. Ninety percent of the schools in the United States are full time, professional, open nine until nine, so the relationship between parent, child, and instructor is strong. Parents will come to the instructor with problems, discipline for example, concentration at school. We then concentrate on the positive aspects of the child's training, encourage him in what he is good at, then when he is comfortable, ask how he is getting on at school, target his problem, and we can redirect him, change his attitude and we see the benefits at school.
TKD-KMA: Do you think we could learn from that attitude here, elevate the art to something more than a hobby for all involved?
Grandmaster Choi: In order to do so we have to educate the public to what we are doing. The concept of the martial arts in the UK is that of a fighting art but once the public realizes that what we are doing is good for their children they will support it because everybody loves to see their children grow up better. Also in the United States, especially Choi Kwang Do, we emphasize martial arts for human health, conditioning, that's why we have an eighty four year old lady as a student and a lot about my age, because it's about health. In general in the UK it is for young people because for many years it's been about breaking boards, fighting, yet mostly martial artists are not trouble-makers, they are disciplined but the public awareness is different.
TKD-KMA: Choi Kwang Do is advertised as easy to learn - does that imply that it is less effective?
Grandmaster Choi: We tell people it's easy to learn firstly for positive awareness. We believe it is easy to learn because the movements we teach are very organized, not necessarily through brute strength or conditioning, or fighting in tournaments for trophies. What we do is we work at their own pace, we tailor the program because each individual is different. For example, when we punch we employ the same principle in terms of biomechanics, we apply the movement so we are not injuring joints or stressing muscles and some will do it a little quicker or slower. The intensity will be different but the learning will be the same. Easier learning means natural movement, we only have front stance and side stance in dynamic balance so we can apply fluent mobility. We teach systematically, in numbers: 1-which part of the body moves, 2-where you impact, 3-how you return, 4 return to position, that's why we say it's easy to learn.
TKD-KMA: You've had a long history in the martial arts, very traditional training, so why did you adapt the very modern principles of sport science?
Grandmaster Choi: I was originally taken to the martial arts school by my father because I was small at that time, eleven years old, and I was dedicated, eventually becoming an instructor. I met General Choi and was a chief instructor in the ITF, demonstrating very hard movements which at that time were recognised as excellent. So I was performing everywhere in demonstrations and in 1967 left for South East Asia, unfortunately all my joints were deteriorating, severe swelling, severe pain, even at twenty-five years old. All the time I was teaching and demonstrating, I was very successful but I could not teach any more because of the severe swelling in my knees. That is the reason I left Malaysia to come to North America, searching for an orthopedic (surgeon). They weren't sure exactly what was wrong, they had to open up my knee, this was my warning. I had been kicking very hard in the air, demonstrating to impress other people. I realized my training methods were causing me pain.
TKD-KMA: And was this when you decided to adapt your training?
Grandmaster Choi: To heal my knees I did therapy exercises and I started going to seminars and universities, most importantly I realized the importance of the stretching exercises and in General Choi's book I am the first one introducing stretching, and I wanted to develop a way of training without injury. I read about the bio-mechanic principles with Russian scientists studying about punching for their boxers in the Olympics. These documents were fascinating, the percentage of force generated from arm movement, the percentage of power from trunk rotation, from the legs. To do it correctly involved sequential movement and isometric principles to develop fast twitch muscle fiber. That made me ask why we martial artists didn't have this. At that time we did not even do weight training because we felt it would slow us down. We had wrong concepts and this was my motivation to create the movement without injury in terms of bio-mechanic principles.
TKD-KMA: Did you look at other sports for inspiration?
Grandmaster Choi: I watched how baseball players hit the ball or how pitchers threw it, and how a player plays golf, all the bio-mechanic principles they apply in that sequential movement. Choi Kwang Do is about improvement through change. Today boxers train differently to the way they did ten years ago. In the past lightweights, featherweights, and bantamweights, we rarely saw knockouts in the championship fights but nowadays whatever the size of the champion there is tremendous impact force because the coach now trains differently in terms of science. Ten years ago the world record in swimming would probably not translate into a high school record now. Every year there are new records, the reason being that they are open minded but with martial arts in the past one man says this and we stick with it. I also studied the principle that over-training degenerates the body, so many sports people, athletes, die early. For example, Sumo wrestlers (die) in their late forties. In order to become champions, athletes exchange their health for money and fame. They look stronger, but they are sicker. As martial artists, we shouldn't do that. We have to enhance our health so that we are productive and live longer. In Choi Kwang Do, the main thing is how we can train more scientifically to enhance our health and conditioning. Now scientists are looking at exercise and linking the psychological with the physiological.
Previous Page Next Page TKD-KMA: Is this why you stress that Choi Kwang Do is non-competitive?
Grandmaster Choi: In the martial arts I have been in, there has been sparring but sparring is not "real" kicking and punching because then everyone would be hurt, but if you control the contact, then that also becomes a habit. Also there is the confidence, the fear of losing. Children go to martial arts tournaments, the parent is frightened the child will be hurt, and then the child loses, it doesn't mean he has lost as a human being but inside he can feel that he is not very good. The competition is a game, but he sees it as a loss and that is the problem. Out of every hundred people only one may be really talented, the rest are not winning. Also there is the talented athlete who is the champion. One day he loses the title and spends his time thinking back saying "I was the champion", - what about now? We at Choi Kwang Do want to go forward, not look back.
TKD-KMA: What about the training for realistic situations, doesn't competition give you that?
Grandmaster Choi: Street fighting is a totally different way to fight. The problem for people who have never experienced a street fight is that he (the opponent) automatically punches, it isn't pulled and then they grab each other and wrestle around. With the taekwondo and karate that I have actually been taught in the dojang, we call this nagative transfer (from dojo to street) for example the tennis player who cannot play badminton properly, although the movements are very similar. If you play tennis then basketball, that's different, two different things and the brain can figure that out and we call that a neutral transfer. So taekwondo and karate are teaching the same kick but it's actually different for knocking people down. That's why we learn Choi Kwang Do scientifically to generate the maximum power and actually practice the tactics, actually hitting the target-hitting moving targets, stationary targets, that is a Choi Kwang Do concept. We have developed a system of long range defense, medium range and grabbing range.
TKD-KMA: I'd like to quiz you on that because the grappling arts are getting a lot of publicity for being most effective, yet you still say that punches and kicks are still effective within a grappling range.
Grandmaster Choi: Absolutely. Again in the (grappling) "match" it is about the best conditioned, that is different to a street fight. Firstly there is the psychological difference between a real fight and a match. Secondly if you do not punch or kick correctly to knock the person out, the natural tendency is to wrestle around. We try to avoid that because even if I have a lot of jiu jitsu technique, if you are 250 pounds (113 kg) for example, and I am 150 pounds (68 kg), there is no way I can handle this. I am a judo black-belt and I like all those sort of things, but it is very limited, especially when you are over fifty years old. Also in the street the trouble-maker is not necessarily disciplined or conditioned, they have a different personality. The jiu jitsu and judo people have excellent technique for what they do, I like it, but "normal" (non-competitive, non-conditioned) people cannot learn this for self-defense.
TKD-KMA: Another criticism is that kicking simply does not work in a street scenario
Grandmaster Choi: Kicking is very powerful. In taekwondo and karate demonstrations, you see kicks very high which is very dangerous because the guy can move in and tackle you, that's why when we kick it is very low, and incorporates a very strong punch. As martial artists we try to avoid a situation, not look for confrontation. Some criminals are not physically excellent, are not athletes, then you can stop them, ladies even, that is self defense. Self defense is not going to the Ultimate Fighting Competitions, those people are already in their best condition and excellent at what they do.
TKD-KMA: With you scientific approach I found it interesting to see that you still do the board breaking. Why is this?
Grandmaster Choi: For student motivation. Let me say though that I don't like the destruction of one board which a tree has spent many years growing. It is painful every time I see a board broken but the student needs motivating, especially children, and it can be very uplifting for them.
TKD-KMA: Overall how would you categories (for want of a better term) Choi Kwang Do within the martial arts framework?
Grandmaster Choi: The emphasis within Choi Kwang Do is on health and longevity. It doesn't mean anything if we live longer without good health. My belief is that our system contributes to health and conditioning, physical vibrancy that stimulates the brain and makes you more productive. Today there is so much stress in daily life and we believe our system relieves stress, the stretching exercises and fundamental movements, in a very unique way for cardio-vascular endurance. Now this cardio kickboxing is only doing what we practice in a few of our movements. We have every single muscle group we move in the proper way, based on self defense techniques but designed for human health in a practical manner. I have never injured myself since developing this system and my flexibility is better than when I was in my thirties. I am still demonstrating all my techniques with power and speed and that convinced me that what I am doing is good for you
TKD-KMA: You have a story about one of your older students to prove this point.
Grandmaster Choi: He was a professional PGA golf player and now he is 67 years old and a PGA instructor. He came to improve his flexibility and health because he had problems. His nickname was "water-line" because he drove so straight and accurate, a good player. He joined Choi Kwang Do with his wife and he told me after three, four months that his body had totally changed and his drive was now thirty yards further due to the sequential movement and that was a very pleasant compliment. We have many people in their forties and fifties who enjoy the training for their physical well-being. That's why we have many people in middle or old age who can still enjoy their training in Choi Kwang Do.
TKD-KMA: Thank you for such an in depth insight into your art Grandmaster.
Grandmaster Choi: You are most welcome.
