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제목: Prof. Dr. Min 회고록과 업적
버클리 대학교 국제 무도 연구소
Dedicated to Dr. Min
태권도 보급과 세계화에 한평생 몸바처 노력하신 Dr. Min 의 회고록과 업적 (PDF file) 첨부,
40주년 세계 태권도 연맹 기념 Interview 기사를 올립니다.
It could be a preservation of evidence
for the USA modern history of Taekwondo – Web 등록 by CK
Yu
Dr. Ken Min,
University of California
Berkley, CA
버클리대학교 국제 무도 연구소
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open the documents
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2 - Ken Min and
University Taekwondo
Chronological Activities in the USA
3 - Founding of
the Official United States
Taekwondo National Governing Body
Prof. Dr. Ken Min
This written interview has been published as the Feature Article
in the WTF Annual Magazine of 2013 in commemoration with the WTF 40 Years
Anniversary
1.
How, where, when and why did you get into TKD?
Even
though my main martial art was judo in the 50’s, I was
also interested in other sports and competed in ssireum,
soccer, and track and field. Yes, I also
trained in taekwondo through Moodukwan and Chanmookwan instructors, along with kumdo,
when I was in high school. Unlike many
of those who studied martial arts for self defense in
the middle of the 50’s, post-Korean War era, I considered sports competition to
be my main focus in all martial arts and other sports. I was able to win in
both ssireum and judo while I was in middle school
and high school; in fact, I was able to raise numerous sacks of rice through ssireum competition, (local, regional and national) and
also competed successfully in judo and track and field at the annual Korean
National Sports Festivals. However, I
was serious about taekwondo training while I was in the military and also
preparing to study in the United States in the late 50’s and early 60’s and I
was able to earn my 3rd degree black belt when I left Korea in
1963. In fact, I started my taekwondo
teaching career from the second day I arrived in the US and, ever since, I have
considered taekwondo as my challenging, dedicated martial art in my new
American setting with a variety of martial arts. To tell you the truth, taekwondo was known as
“Korean Karate” until the early 1973 establishment of Kukkiwon
and World Taekwondo Federation under the leadership of Dr. Un Yong Kim. I faithfully followed the technical
guidelines and rank promotion of Kukkiwon and
disregarded the Kwan affiliations. I
still firmly believe that a unified technical leadership of Kukkiwon
by positive support and collaboration of the WTF is necessary for the
successful globalization of taekwondo on all fronts.
2.
What have been your own best and worst moments in TKD?
Like any other commitment and dedication to one’s chosen
profession, my career was an exciting period of transformation in the physical
education and sports field narrowly focused on martial arts. It was an ongoing challenge and positive
struggle to meet the vision and mission for the globalization of
taekwondo. I have had some setbacks but
I always followed the Asian philosophy of Soosungyeosee
(水性如是) follow the
characteristics of water. Water flows to lower ground
with a lot of patience and obstacles, but eventually it flows to the
ocean. I was digging one well during my
entire professional life believing that the collective organizational endeavor
would eventually meet the mission I envisioned to make taekwondo as a highly
respected global martial art through a successful organization. Therefore, my best moment was recognition of
taekwondo as a United States Amateur Sports Governing Body of the AAU (Amateur
Athletic Union of USA) in 1974. AAU
power and authority was transformed to the United States Olympic Committee by
the Amateur Sports Act of the United States Congress in 1978. This was second to Korea’s KASA (Korean
Amateur Sports Association) recognition of taekwondo as an officially
recognized national sport. The other accomplishment was UCMAP Endow
Directorship sponsored by the Korean Government one million dollar endowment
for Taekwondo and other Martial Arts in
Honor of Dr. Ken Min which resulted in a permanent commitment for taekwondo
instruction at the University of California, Berkeley.
As a tenured faculty member of the Physical Education
Department, University of California, Berkeley, I envisioned early taekwondo as
a compulsory sport of the Summer Universiade. The FISU Executive Committee approved
taekwondo as a compulsory program from the 2017 Summer Universiade,
with strong support of WTF leadership, after 12 World University Taekwondo
Championships and five Summer Universiades as an
adopted sport.
As the Founding President of the official US National
Taekwondo Governing Body, I motivated Yongin
University, my alma mater, to initiate a taekwondo major. Yongin
University initiated taekwondo in 1978.
3.
What made you relocate to the USA?
Post the Korean War, I had the
opportunity to teach martial arts at an American military base in ASCOM (Bupyung in Korea) and learned a great deal about America
and its advanced higher educational system.
I had a strong desire to study and pursue the field of sports and
physical education in the United States and began preparations for admittance
and a scholarship from universities in America.
I was very fortunate to have financial support from a former student and
admittance to a university with partial scholarship. This enabled me to relocate
in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
a.
How did you get TKD accepted as part of the curriculum at
Berkeley?
I arrived at the University of California at Berkeley after
teaching two years in the Montana University System. I learned that judo had been rooted at the
university since the 1930’s but there were no other martial arts taught by the
Department of Physical Education. I
implemented taekwondo classes as credit courses with the experience and
credentials I had accumulated at the University of Georgia as a graduate
student, University of Montana and Eastern Montana University as faculty. The courses were highly successful as the
years went by and eventually taekwondo became the most popular martial art
taught at the University of California among judo, karate, yongmudo
wushu, and tai chi chuan.
In fact, I developed the University of California Martial Arts Program in 1969
which is recognized internationally as one of the most innovative and
successful programs in a university setting, as an extracurricular activity
governed by the following mission statement:
It is the purpose of the Martial Arts Program to preserve
the
philosophy,
techniques and traditions of martial arts and to
develop a
scientific understanding of the physical and spiritual
implications of
human performance.
UCMAP is an umbrella structure of different martial arts
disciplines working harmoniously to promote martial arts, not only for students
but also for national and international recognition and competition.
Since 2006, the UCMAP torch bearer has been Dr. Russell Ahn, Endow Director of the University of California Martial
Arts Program.
Berkeley Taekwondo Team won all national titles except four
for the past 37 National Collegiate Taekwondo Championships and I am proud to
say that Berkeley has successfully hosted an Annual UC Open Taekwondo
Championship for the past 44 years by using KTA and, later, the WTF competition
rules and regulations.
If I may single out my most important
contribution, it would be that I taught more than tens of thousands of future
scientists, scholars, engineers and professionals at higher educational
institutions, especially at the University of California, Berkeley from
1969-2006, as a Professor of Physical Education and Grandmaster in taekwondo.
b.
How has the profile of TKD changed in the USA since you moved
there?
Most of the Korean Martial Arts Instructors, including
Korean pioneer taekwondo instructors, promoted their studio (dojang) as “Korean Karate” until taekwondo was recognized
and unified by AAU (1974) and the USOC (1978).
To tell you the truth, American media was unable to pronounce or spell
“taekwondo” properly and still some of the media refer to it as “tai kwon
do”. Today the American taekwondo
movement enjoys the largest number of practitioners perhaps even more than any
other country including Korea. There are
thousands of taekwondo Grandmasters operating their own private studios and
organizations and these leaders have been involved with globalization of
taekwondo with cosmopolitan view of its mission.
After the 1988 Seoul Olympics, many instructors of other
styles of martial arts (karate, kung fu, etc.)
changed their studio’s name to “Taekwondo”, especially the native
American karate instructors.
Every given weekend in the USA there are over 100 different
tournaments with more than 1,000 participants, and taekwondo-related technical
clinics and symposiums.
4.
The Ever-changing TKD
Taekwondo has been transformed as one of the unknown martial
arts from Korea into the best combative sport/art with more than 200 membership
nations of the WTF and approximately 80,000,000 participants throughout the world
by becoming an Olympic sport and martial art.
a.
What have been the key developments in TKD since 1973?
Taekwondo was internationalized through the Korean War by UN
armed forces and the Vietnamese War by American military forces. One of the
factors that contributed to the success of taekwondo, in my opinion, is the
economic miracle developed in Korea by the late President Park Jung Hee and his Village Movement called Saemaul
Undong, characterized by diligence, self-help and
cooperation, which has been adopted by many taekwondo instructors including
myself. Other factors were the
exceptional success of the 1988 Olympic Games and the thousands of taekwondo
Masters who ventured overseas throughout the world to teach and promote Korean
martial arts. Taekwondo was one of the biggest exports from Korea to the world
according to local San Francisco newspapers.
The action philosophy and educational values of taekwondo
coincide with the Olympic movement values of youth, excellence, diversity,
equity, unity and multi-national environment plus a process of extensive
training in confidence and respect with disciplinary character building.
Who
have been the key persons driving these developments?
The superb leadership of Founding WTF President Kim Un Yong not only successfully unified the different Kwans in Korea but also tirelessly pursued Olympic
recognition during his tenure. Since
2004 the WTF leadership has continued with great success by the current
President Choue Chungwon. With innovative and transparent methods, Dr. Choue’s effort transformed the organization for the
advancement of taekwondo as a successful core Olympic sports program in 2020.
From
Korean Martial Art to International Sport
In my
opinion, the ideals, philosophy and value of taekwondo are synonymous to Olympism, Olympic ideals and Olympic philosophy. The purpose, objective and mission of both
are a challenge to elevate human kind now and in the future. The difference, taekwondo emphasizes
traditional values of action philosophy which are inherent in macro philosophy
vs. Western micro philosophy. However,
the ultimate objective of Western and Eastern philosophy is pretty much the
same as filling one’s stomach by a different dietary approach for the healthy
body (Kimchi in Korea vs. salad in the US).
1.
Define “martial art” and “sport.” What have been the most
significant changes from martial art to sport?
Sport is a Western concept of human development of body,
mind and spirit by training under coaches which is based on competition under the
rules and regulations that develops a democratic citizenship. Martial art was developed to discover oneself
through body, mind and spirit by training under masters to harmoniously exist
among nature. However, as we all know,
Western philosophy and Asian philosophy are learning from each other on a daily
basis and the world is becoming one.
2.
What have been the biggest challenges faced in making TKD an
international sport?
The biggest challenge has been to overcome cultural and
language barriers as well as economic imbalance throughout the world, and
especially the narrow minded interpretation of sports and martial arts.
Current Issues
I
strongly believe that current competition rules and regulations of taekwondo
should be re-evaluated keeping in mind several factors: Athlete safety;
becoming TV-media friendly, such as including poomsae
and breaking as a preliminary requirement for the Kyorugi
competition; and developing an ideal route for Olympians and world champions
exposure through public entertainment. Also, taekwondo athletes should
understand the world of entertainment in addition to successful competition.
1.
Do you think the rules and gear we have now are perfect, or do
they need further tweaks?
There is always room for improvement of equipment which is
safer, lighter, dependable, visible, flexible, including the dobok, that
should be looked at in three dimensional viewing of the athlete’s safety, media
acceptance, and spectators through extensive research of professionals in each
field.
2.
Currently, TKD is a participant sport rather than a spectator
sport compared to boxing, MMA, football, basketball, etc,
highly popular televised events, and much are sought after by advertisers.
Should TKD seek to make itself a spectator sport? If so, why so? And if not,
why not? And if so, how does it need to go about it?
There is an expression, “The personal aesthetic performance
of combative techniques will appeal to media and spectators”. Taekwondo has unlimited potential if guided
through flexible and creative rules and regulations based on speed, agility and
ingenuity of coaches and creativity of Masters.
Individual athletes able to challenge and discover their own creative
technical performance will attract the media and spectators. For example, jump kick two feet
simultaneously to body would be five points; back spin jump kick a soft object
attached to the opponent’s headgear would be seven points, etc. This would
depend on changes of competition rules and regulations to make the sport more
popular as a spectator sport.
The Next Steps
The WTF has a 40-year
history. Is it “job done?” If not, what does the WTF need to do in the future
to continue popularizing TKD globally?
In my opinion, no other martial art/sport has been able to
globalize as successfully as taekwondo in only 40 years, especially as a
combative sport, through the consistent leadership of the World Taekwondo
Federation. Even though you are on the
right track, if you don’t move forward faster than the other competing sports,
you will lose the advantage.
Others
you want to share with global taekwondo family
President Choue stated, “Taekwondo
is a gift from Korea to the world. Taekwondo’s
campaign of Olympic value and ideals are inspiration, friendship, fair play,
perseverance, mutual respect, sacrifice, hope, dreams, patriotism, and unity in
effort.”
Honorary Chairman of the Taekwondo Promotion Foundation,
Dai-Soon Lee, emphasized “Taekwondo is deeply rooted in the five tenants of Hwarang, warriors in the early triple kingdom period of
Korea, which have been modernized: Build
myself both physically and mentally to lead a righteous life; be devoted to my
parents and love my family; respect teachers and elders and stay loyal to my
friends; serve the local community and demonstrate my allegiance to my country;
and preserve nature and contribute to the peace and prosperity of mankind”.
I would like to recommend that the taekwondo movement
integrate scientific, technological, economic, socio-cultural and political
development. It should continue to
develop and enhance knowledge and techniques through scientific up-to-date
development of physical, mental and spiritual implications with creative,
harmonious cooperation of the World Taekwondo Federation and Kukkiwon.
February 22, 2013 by Ken Min
Email:
ken_min@msn.com
|
항상 건강(建强)
하시고 좋은일만 있으시길 바랍니다! I wish you have a
healthy and happy day! |