Don’t ignore the Kukkiwon and taekwondo

Chung Jeh-won

The author is the sports director of the JoongAng Ilbo.

I met taekwondo instructor Do Young Soo in February 2007. He taught at Young Taekwondo Academy in Miami, Florida. Americans called him Master Do. The Korean-American taekwondo teacher warmly embraced a reporter from his home country visiting Miami to cover a sports event there. During my five-day stay in Miami, I became the audience to his epic journey in the United States.

Upon returning from the Vietnam War in the 1970s, young Do got on a plane to the U.S. with the American dream. He carried just a taekwondo suit and $500. He landed in Miami purely out of awe for the spectacle of the city he had once seen on television. As soon as he arrived, he went on a sparring campaign. He toured karate (a Japanese martial art) gyms to challenge its masters in a sparring contest. His winning streak earned him his reputation.

In the end, he was able to open his own martial arts academy in Miami. Pupils increased along with his reputation. He ran his academy for around 30 years. His pupils became police officers, athletes, businessmen or sports agents all over the U.S. One of them was Drew Rosenhaus, the first sports agent to make the cover page of Sports Illustrated. Master Do suddenly called up Rosenhaus and said, “Drew, I have a visitor from Korea. Can you come over to the academy tomorrow?”

“Yes, Sir,” he answered.

The following morning, Rosenhaus walked through the door and immediately knelt before the master. He handed over a book he had written, titled “A Shark Never Sleeps.” On the first page of the memoir looking back at his career as a ruthless agent for NFL athletes, Master Do Young Soo’s name appeared.

“Master Do had trained us ruthlessly. He taught us to fight and combat upheavals no matter how hard they may be. If we lied, we had to practice our kicking twice more. Training had been mostly tough. I had never forgotten the spirit of taekwondo our master had taught us,” he said.

Master Do’s American dream had been inspiring and his story sounded like a legend of taekwondo.

The Kukkiwon taekwondo demonstration team performs a splendid martial art show before Gwanghwamun Gate in central Seoul, Mar. 22. [KUKKIWON]

The Kukkiwon building in Teheran-ro in Gangnam serves as the headquarters of the 200 million global family of taekwondo. But in the building, water leaks whenever it rains and tap water is murky. Although it often hosts taekwondo events for hundreds of practitioners at home and abroad, air conditioning rarely works due to its old pipes. Trainees cannot take a shower after they are soaked with sweat after workouts. Boilers also rarely work in the winter.

The building has never had a proper fix or renovation since it was built in 1972. Although the foundation earns pretty big from the promotion assessments, it has never budgeted for building remodeling. The building is owned by the Seoul city government and the land by the Gangnam District Office. The two administrations have been putting off the work. It is a sad reality of the birthplace of taekwondo.

The government and the taekwondo community are partly to blame for the negligence. Kukkiwon has become a hotbed for factionalism and corruption. There had been constant controversies over promotion tests and issuance of diplomas.

Taekwondo was a sport every boy had to learn in Korea during the military regimes. Every conscript had to earn a 1-dan (senior rank or the black belt). Disciplined form and striking demonstrations had been almost synonymous with school military drills under the military regimes. Many could have fearful memories of taekwondo. With politics blending into the sport and the sport representing the regimes, taekwondo has come to lose its identity.

What does taekwondo mean to us? Is it a sparing or a self-defense skill? Should it be a sport since it is an Olympics event? According to the law on promotion of taekwondo, the sport is South Korea’s national sport. Today, it is merely a pastime that parents habitually send their kids after school to help them grow.

While the birthplace’s rank is shaky, China has emerged as a new center of the sport. There are over 100,000 taekwondo schools across China. Over 50 million Chinese practice the sport. As China claims that kimchi originated from paochai, it could one day claim the same for taekwondo.

The signs already point in that direction. China is campaigning to move the World Taekwondo headquarters from Seoul to China. For your information, the International Judo Federation is based in Lausanne, Switzerland, although the sport originated from Japan. Taekwondo’s rank must be reestablished on its home turf first. Kukkiwon should be the first to be renovated.