Thursday, January 4, 2018

A Unique Force was Upon the Land

Often something get displaced in the mists of time.
 
 
 

 
I believe this has been one of them. Jhoon Rhee one of America’s founding fathers of Tae Kwon Do is such an individual.
 
He taught a very large group of schools in the Baltimore and Washington DC area. Among his other accomplishments he created the first form rubber safety gear that was to become the upcoming world wide standard.
 
He had many accomplished students in Fighting and Forms. He even had a role in a Tae Kwon Do Movie, “When Tae Kwon Do Strikes”.
 
 
I believe it is one of the more unique endings I have seen. This is a clip of the closing fights.
 
 
But I believe one of the things he attempted has been lost in time.
He had the idea to mesh forms with classical music.
 
Some examples:
 
Beethoven Form
 
Theme of Exodus
 
 
 
And here is Jhoon Rhee doing the form Chosang. The name means Ancestors and he created it to honor America’s founding fathers.
 
 
I believe this is worth remembering his driving force was on the face of American Martial Arts.

1 comment:

Victor Smith said...

It WAS Jhoon Rhee who created Safety Gear which became the standard for kumite in almost all styles as time went on. When I began kumite was "naked' using fists and feet almost uncovered.
I remember when safety gear was new and we had to learn how to adjust to it for fighting.

It was not exactly safe, for I have seen more injuries with it, than fighting without it.

But Jhoon Rhee was first all the same.