Hey, Some Good News!

My instructor was finally promoted in both Taekwondo AND Hapkido! He's been at the same rank in both (5th/3rd) since I started & the promotions were long overdue.

He's now 6th degree in TKD - by way of opening & maintaining two schools, designing the entire curriculum & promoting several students to black belt (starting at white belt) - myself included. It's a time-consuming task that often goes unrewarded. I make a point to thank him putting in so much effort everyday by volunteering to help whenever possible. It's nothing compared to his efforts, but maybe it helps him out just enough.

He was also promoted to 5th degree (master instructor) in HKD. I can tell you from my time in HKD there aren't too many folks who have earned this rank. To get there, he promoted no less than seven people to black belt (again, starting from white belt). In an art where we've seen over 90% of the people drop out at various points (mostly during the throw-heavy yellow belt set), that's an impressive number of people to make 1st degree.

Additionally, he developed a Practical Self-Defense course for those who want to learn how to protect themselves but don't want the high impact of a martial art. He has also designed his own curriculum (based on experience in a few martial arts) with self-defense - the concept behind HKD - entirely at the forefront.

He's been in TKD for well over 20 years (25 this year, I believe) & HKD for about 15 years, so the time & effort invested in earning these ranks has been considerable. Upon getting promoted, the first thing he told me was, "I don't want to make a big deal in class about these promotions". That's just his way about things - he knows where his experience places him in martial arts & he's never taught any of his students that rank counts for anything in reality.

We are all definitely fortunate at our school to have such a dedicated, responsible instructor.