The best piece of advice Mr. Myagi gave Daniel-San in the Karate Kid? “No be there.”  I tell my students all the time, “they can’t hurt you if you’re not there.” Self-Defense is a very ambiguous term. Is it shooting an attacker? Fighting off a bully? Putting a threat into a [...]Read more

If you think of Tae Kwon-Do only as a sport, you’re missing about 90% of what we do.  Tae Kwon-Do is the best way to train your body and to learn how to fight. But it has nothing less to do with personal development and character, not to mention your health and [...]Read more

The original “Karate Kid” is one of my favorite martial arts movies of all time.  Martial arts and Hollywood have a complicated relationship. There have been some very realistic portrayals, and some very unrealistic ones.  The “Kung-Fu Theater” films of the 1970’s [...]Read more

I have a confession to make. I didn’t think I was ready for 8th Dan.  A true martial artist never feels ready for the next rank. Especially as you move through the degrees of black belt. Schools with a decent educational program require 3-4 years to achieve a first degree [...]Read more

I’m no different than anyone else. When someone cuts me off in traffic, part of me would love to teach them a lesson. But I don’t. The same training that taught me how to inflict physical harm on someone taught me when to inflict physical harm on someone. And when not to. We [...]Read more

Taking my first lesson, I was doing exactly that: taking. Teaching my first lesson, I was giving instead. My very first Tae Kwon-Do lesson (I had taken Karate before) was under a gentleman named Wan Jo Lee. He was a great martial artist; he really knew his stuff. Unfortunately, [...]Read more