AMK Newsletter Volume 6, Issue 1

January 1995 © 1995 American Moo-Do Kwan

Where have you been? It has been a year since my last newsletter. Did you wonder what happened? Well, it was just a simple matter of priorities. I tried to salvage the class after it completely collapsed last year. That was further augmented, or perhaps initiated, by the loss of my regular career occupation. Suddenly, for the first time in twenty years, I became an unemployment statistic. Finally, the loss of the California State Taekwondo Association (CSTA) election, as reported last year, meant that my skills were needed to help organize the new United Taekwondo Fellowship (UTF). I reorganized the AMK in the last year. I had to re-learn business administration skills, and I had to become more active in teaching classes. The economy made those efforts quite a challenge. Fortunately, adversity proved to be a motivation. I attended business seminars and worked hard to bring our AMK team together. The school did come together thanks to the efforts of a dedicated staff and enthusiastic group of students. Unfortunately, it was not possible to make the school profitable, and it closed in December. I believed that losing my high paying engineering/sales position would be the end of my AMK dream. It was not. When the closing of the school became inevitable, I again thought that it would be the end of my AMK dream. That, too, was not true. We will move forward and wear a

new face. I know that it will be a struggle to earn every penny, but it is worth it just to be able to do that which I love−teaching. Of course, there is no guarantee that I will become rich or even survive in this business, but I have always lived by the martial art tenet of indomitable spirit. Indomitable spirit, alone, cannot guarantee success for our school. I needed to change some aspects of the AMK to engender growth without sacrificing traditional martial arts training. I think that I have found the right direction. There are many courses available today that teach martial arts professionals how to be successful. Those programs usually emphasize sales and marketing techniques. While there is certainly value in improving those areas of the business, I do not accept the central concept of doing whatever it takes to make money. Those courses seem to be a bit Machiavellian for my taste. During final struggle to hold on to my former career, I discovered an enlightening work by Dr. Stephen Covey called The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In that book, Covey outlines the steps necessary to become successful in any area. He outlines three phases of personal development and growth: dependence, independence and interdependence. The transition from dependence to independence is called the private victory, and the transition from there to interdependence is called the public victory. Dr. Covey transcends the simplistic cookbook guides to quick success by advocating moral integrity as the central concept of his strategy. According to Covey, there are two kinds of ethics, personality and character. People who advocate the personality ethic are those who use behavioral skills to manipulate others. Believers in character ethics have a moral code and learn behavioral skills to remove roadblocks to interpersonal communications. That concept was the key to the metamorphosis necessary for my personal growth. I came to understand that success is based on concepts that I have long understood through martial arts training−personal responsibility, integrity, proactivity and a sense of community. So, as I write this commentary, I am also making a commitment to grow and change. Our beloved dojang is now closed, and we are preparing to start anew in a new place. We spent the last two years in a kind of purgatory. We have learned to be more pragmatic. We have learned the virtue of proactivity. It is easy to live the role of victim and seek to blame others for our own shortcomings. We must adopt the courageous role of a warrior. I have always advised others to reach beyond mediocrity. I must do so also. The slate is clean. There are no shortcuts. It is time for the AMK to rise from its own ashes as does the Phoenix.

News Briefs ...

Best Attendance Thao (Ava) Doan Linda Tsai Anh Le Tom Tsai Lionel Yzaguirre Eric Roberts John Wachsmuth Leonardo Tongko Truly Tsai Armando Tongko Jr. AMK on the Move FINALLY! We have a new home. We will be moving to the La Habra Market Place in January. I received many recommendations from our members before selecting this new site. It took six months of searching and negotiating before we found the right place. The Market Place is a new development, and it is centrally located on the north east corner of Beach Blvd. and Imperial Hwy. between the cities of Whittier, La Mirada, Brea and Sunny Hills. It is a popular, safe and accessible location. If everything goes as planned, we should be able to begin regular classes on Monday, February 27. Most of our current members are eager to try out the new location. We are sure that we will be able to continue to attract many more high quality students. The phone number will change as we move from Pacific Bell to GTE, however the old number will remain in effect until the new number is established.

Student of the Year Each year, we give recognition to the student who makes extraordinary contributions to the class. Last year, our choice was very difficult. Regardless of how we tried to define best, we came out with three different, yet strong contenders. Master Amsell made mention several times throughout the year that 1994 was a year of severe hardship for the AMK. In such times, the best qualities in people rise to the surface. The AMK wants to recognize that kind of character in its students. Therefore, we have decided to award the the Student of the Year to all three. Congratualations to Hong-Anh Le, Linda Tsai and Tom Tsai. Black Belt News 1994 was a very productive year at the AMK for Black Belt promotions. Four of our members received instructor credentials. Rod Carrasco and Lisa Amsell received well deserved promotions to 2nd Dan and Daren Palugna and Leonardo Tongko received 1st Dan. Mr. Carrasco and Ms. Amsell have both worked very hard to enhance the AMK training curricula. Mr. Carrasco has been instrumental in bringing high quality Aikido, Jujitsu and Judo training to AMK members. Ms. Amsell has demonstrated a broadbased technical knowledge of all of our disciplines, and has received high praise from the Referee Chairman of the United Taekwondo Fellowship for her refereeing skills. Leonardo Tongko and Daren Palugna were recently awarded Black Belt. Each contribute dedicated support as assistants and demonstrators. All of our instructors are dedicated participants in the Women’s Self-Defense program. That program is very demanding, and each contributes a tremendous amount of time and energy to the growing program. Black Belt instructors attend weekly classes on advanced topics of study such as kinesiology, physics, psychology and instructional theory. We are very proud of the calibre of our instructional staff. California State Games The 1994 California State Games (CSG) were held for the second year in Ontario, August 12 to 14. The Taekwondo venue was again held in Ontario High School on Saturday, August 13. There were about 180 competitors. The event ran very well using the popular Match Numbering System. Participants were very pleased with the event. Refereeing was handled superbly by Mr. Martin Marcus and his team. A special feature was the continuing joint cultural exchange between the Judo and the Taekwondo venues. Taekwondo spectators were treated to a comprehensive overview of Judo training and competition presented by Goltz’s Judo Club of Claremont. Judo spectators were offered an exciting Taekwondo demonstration by the American Moo-Do Kwan of Fullerton. It featured presentations of poom-seh, competition sparring, breaking and self-defense. Next year’s Games will be held in the city of Irvine in Orange County. The Games are scheduled for August 3 to 6. The director News Briefs (cont.)

News Briefs (cont.)

for the Taekwondo venue is Stephen Amsler. Information will be distributed beginning in January. Hayward Champs The popular Hayward Championships will take on a different flavor this year. The tournament, scheduled for Saturday, February 25, 1995, will feature team competition. Each team will be composed of three people. There will be four categories: Peewee, Junior, Intermediate and Adult. The event is designed to make the competition fun for all. There will be no poom-seh competition at this year’s championship. Please contact Professor Zambetti at (510) 881-3067 for further information Grandmaster Kang Grandmaster Chang-Jin Kang, founder of Il-Do Taekwondo Association, has captured the media spotlight quite a bit during the last six months. Last May 22, Kang, 50, tested along with his students for his ninth-dan. On October 23, Kang earned his second entry into the Guinness Book of World Records. Grandmaster Kang performed his ninth-dan test before Supreme Grandmaster Byung Jik Ro. Kang decided to test in front of his students because he wanted them to see that the primary element that distinguishes a master is humility. Many masters are promoted away from the inquiring eyes of students and the public. Kang, who began his studies at 12, has endeavored to share his love for the martial arts with the world. Therefore, a public test and promotion ceremony were consistent with his philosophy. Also, in the same context, Kang has performed some

Promotion Board Results for 1994 Name Rodrigo G. Carrasco Lisa S. Amsell Daren P. Pallugna Leonardo A. Tongko Armando Tongko Jr. Hong-Anh N. Le Tom Tsai Linda Tsai Eugene Kim Mary M. Sorensen Scott Dunham Don Kim Jason Kim Tony Saba Joseph Tongko Fulgencio Moreno Ian L. Sorensen Truly Tsai Juan Casas Thao (Ava) Doan Janet Mc Kee Michael D. Smith John Wachsmuth Lionel Yzaguirre Edson Villegas Augustine Castaneda Eric Roberts Alberta Salmeron Allanjay Bondoc Jake A. Bondoc Ted Varela Amy E. Sorensen

New Rank 2 Dan 2 Dan 1 Dan 1 Dan 1 Kub 1 Kub 1 Kub 1 Kub 1 Kub 2 Kub 2 Kub 2 Kub 2 Kub 2 Kub 2 Kub 4 Kub 4 Kub 4 Kub 5 Kub 5 Kub 6 Kub 6 Kub 6 Kub 6 Kub 7 Kub 7 Kub 7 Kub 8 Kub 8 Kub 8 Kub 9 Kub 10 Kub

Belt Black Black Black Black (Prob.) Red/Black Red/Black Red/Black Red/Black Red/Black Red Red Red Red Red Red Blue Blue Blue Green/Blue Green/Blue Green Green Green Green Green Yellow/Green Yellow/Green Yellow Yellow Yellow White/Yellow White

extraordinary feats of physical and technical skill. Two years ago, Kang broke 500 boards with his hands, setting a world record. Last year, he topped that by breaking 1,068 boards in 13 minutes and 52 seconds, earning an entry in the Guinness Book. This year, he broke 506 boards with his bare feet and earned his second Guinness record. Each of his demonstrations was done as a charity benefit with proceeds going to the Irvine and Santa Ana DARE programs. Grandmaster Kang has been a long-time friend and counsel to many of our UTF members. We would like to send our best wishes for continued success in the future. Also, we would like him to know that he is an inspiration to our membership. His senior instructor, Stephen Amsler, of the Il-Do Taekwondo, in Santa Ana, serves as Secretary of the UTF. Amsler will be adding a new school in Fountain Valley in January 1995.

Women’s Self-Defense: A Different View The brutal attack against Leanora Wong, last May, and the Nicole Simpson murder, has, focused public attention on the reality of violence against women. People ask, “Could she have prevented the attack?” Suddenly, there is a resurgence of interest is selfdefense classes for women. The question is, “Do selfdefense classes really help?” Jack Amsell, chief instructor at the American Moo-Do Kwan, located in La Habra, is not confident. Amsell states, “We hold a special women’s self-defense class each quarter. In that course, we spend about 75% of the time emphasizing the psychological component of self-defense.” Amsell notes that a course that focuses primarily on techniques will not prepare the student for successful defense. Amsell feels that the main problem is that many programs are taught by martial arts instructors who try to apply their techniques to defense. Amsell notes that there are several reasons why martial arts techniques fail. First, attackers, whether muggers or acquaintances, are not honorable people. Martial arts technicians learn to fight in an honorable way. Second, many techniques learned in a martial arts school are too complex to be perfected by the occasional self-defense student. Third, women are not socialized to be able to hurt another person. Cultural biases are very difficult to change. Finally, and most important, the majority of courses taught currently are not realistic. Amsell does not accept the concept of “model mugging”, the wearing of padding and protection by attackers, as

being a valid training method. He comments, “The padding is not for realism. It is to protect the attacker.” Pressed on that point, he continued, “I know that it seems like a good idea. The attackers wear protection, so the women can go all out. In fact, that is a misconception. Yes, the women will go all out on a padded attacker. What about an attacker who is not padded? I know, from experience, that most women freeze up. Training with a padded attacker does not give the right visual cues to a potential defender.” He added, “In our program, the attackers wear nothing but a groin cup. They push the women around, choke them, wrestle them to the ground and hold them until they escape. Our attackers are trained to take a beating without hurting the women. That kind of training is very hard but it is effective. Each session we have returning students who report that the training worked for them.” Equally important to realism is the fact that any attack against a woman is an act of violence. According to Amsell, “Few people understand the psychology of violence. Violence is about control. People use violence to either control another person, or it is an emotional reaction to the feeling of a loss of control. Violence becomes the great equalizer to the perpetrator.” In his training program, Amsell’s instructors, all women, use techniques more often used by therapists. Mary Sorensen, one of the instructors, notes, “Several years ago, we discovered that about fifty-percent of the women in our class were trying to work through some past abusive experience. As a result, we modified the course to give psychic support to those attendees. As it happened, the other students benefited from knowing about the trauma experienced by their classmates. Today, our course is more about empowering women than advocating self-defense.” Amsell advocates several key concepts: One, don’t be a victim. All law enforcement authorities recommend avoiding trouble rather than having to extract yourself from it. Two, have a sense of self sacrifice. If you plan to defend yourself, then you must be prepared to get injured or even killed in the effort. Three, if you must defend yourself, have full commitment. Similar to point two, once a person has decided that selfdefense is necessary then the effort cannot be stopped until the defender escapes or the attacker is disabled or killed. Four, each woman has the right to defend herself. This is one of the more difficult points for women to accept. There is a multitude of stories about women who allowed their partner to abuse them, even to death. Finally, no one has the right to touch you without your permission. This is a very difficult cultural bias for women to overcome. Amsell’s next Women’s Self-Defense clinic will be held the weekend of March 25-26, 9:00 AM-6:00 PM. There will be a new advanced class held on the following Saturday. That class is only available to former graduates. His martial arts training facility is located at 1921-C Imperial Hwy., in the La Habra Market Place. Further information can be obtained by contacting the American Moo-Do Kwan (714) 526-2816 for information or to sign up.

Practice Random Kindness . . . It’s a crisp winter day in San Francisco. A woman in a red Honda, Christmas presents piled in the back, drives up to the Bay Bridge tollbooth. “I’m paying for myself, and for the six cars behind me,” she says with a smile, handing over seven commuter tickets. One after another, the next six drivers arrive at the tollbooth, dollars in hand, only to be told, “Some lady up ahead already paid your fare. Have a nice day.” The woman in the Honda, it turned out, had read something on an index card taped to a friend’s refrigerator: “Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” The phrase seemed to leap out at her, and she copied it down. Judy Foreman spotted the same phrase spray-painted on a warehouse wall a hundred miles from her home. When it stayed on her mind for days, she gave up and drove all the way back to copy it down. “I thought it was incredibly beautiful,” she said explaining why she’s taken to writing it at the bottom of all her letters, “like a message from above.” Her husband, Frank, liked the phrase so much that he put it up on the wall for his seventh graders, one of whom was the daughter of a local columnist. The columnist put it in the paper, admitting that though she liked it, she didn’t know where it came from [sic] or what it really meant. Two days later, she heard from Anne Herbert. Tall, blonde, and forty, Herbert lives in Marin, one of the country’s ten richest counties, where she house-sits, takes odd-jobs, and gets by. It was in a Sausalito restaurant that Herbert jotted the phrase down on a paper place mat, after turning it around in her mind for days. A man sitting nearby said,

“That’s wonderful!” and copied it down carefully on his own placemat. “Here’s the idea,” Herbert says. “Anything you think there should be more of, do it randomly.” In Portland, Oregon, a man might plunk a coin into a stranger’s meter just in time. In Patterson, New Jersey, a dozen people with pails and mops and tulip bulbs might descend on a run-down house and clean it from top to bottom while the frail elderly owners look on, dazed and smiling. In Chicago, a teenage boy may be shoveling off the driveway when the impulse strikes. “What the hell, nobody’s looking,” he thinks, and shovels the neighbor’s driveway, too. It’s positive anarchy, disorder, a sweet disturbance. A woman in Boston writes “Merry Christmas!” to the tellers on the back of her checks. A man in St. Louis, whose car has just been rear-ended by a young woman, waves her away, saying, “It’s a scratch. Don’t Worry.” Senseless acts of beauty spread: A man plants daffodils along the roadway, his shirt billowing in the breeze from passing cars. In Seattle, a man appoints himself a one man vigilante sanitation service and roams the concrete hills collecting litter in a supermarket cart. In Atlanta, a man scrubs graffiti from a green park bench. They say you can’t smile without cheering yourself up a little. Likewise, you can’t commit a random act of kindness without feeling as if your own troubles have been lightened if only because the world has become a slightly better place. You can’t be a recipient without feeling a shock, a pleasant jolt. If you were one of those rush-hour drivers who found your bridge fare paid, who knows what you might have been inspired to do for someone else later−Wave someone on in the intersection, smile at a tired clerk, or something larger, greater? Like all revolutions, guerrilla goodness begins slowly, with a single act. Let it be yours. from Prodigy (R) Martial Arts BBS

Get Paid in Full and On Time − Our Goal −

GET YOUR FUNDS AND RETAIN YOUR STUDENTS

√ √ √ √ √ √

Receive your funds twice each month. Your funds are deposited directly into your account. Full monthly and annual reporting of your activity. Payments handled electronically or with coupons. Attorney assistance with problem accounts. Automatic escalation to collection services. We are equipped to handle billing for more than 300 different kinds of businesses. You owe it to yourself to talk to us. We will even pay for the call.

Martial Arts Services a division of One Plus One, Inc.

Call TODAY!

(800) 899-3057

write us at: 2530 Beryessa Rd., #707 San Jose, CA 95132

Our California State Games Winners Ontario High School - Ontario, CA August 13, 1994 Lisa Amsell ................................. Gold Medal - Kyoroogi Anh Le ......................................... Silver Medal - Kyoroogi Armando Tongko Jr. ............... GoldMedal - Poom-seh Joseph Tongko .......................... Gold Medal - Kyoroogi Leonardo Tongko ..................... Silver Medal - Poom-seh Linda Tsai .................................. Silver Medal - Poom-seh Bronze Medal - Kyoroogi Tom Tsai ..................................... Bronze Medal - Kyoroogi Truly Tsai ................................... Silver Medal - Poom-seh Bronze Medal - Kyoroogi

Liven Up Your School with a

Fabulous Wall Plaque Series!

Absolutely free of charge to your school!

For more information, give us a call.

And many other benefits!

Home of Martial Arts Photography

L.A. Photo Press 1621 Venice Boulevard, Venice, California Tel: (310) 390-1336 Fax: (310) 390-5299

AMK Activity Calendar January

1-28 .......... MOVING ... 30 .............. Open at La Habra Market Place

February

1-18 ........... Registration for Classes 24-25 ......... Hayward State Team Championships, Hayward, CA, Contact: Robert Zambetti (510) 881-3067 27 .............. Classes Begin

March

18 .............. White Belt Testing 25-26 ........ Women’s Self-Defense Weekend

April

1 ................ Advanced Women’s Self-Defense 15 .............. All Belts Testing

May

20 .............. White Belts Testing

June

17 .............. All Belts Testing 24-25 ........ Women’s Self-Defense Weekend

July

15 .............. White Belts Testing 29 .............. Beach Training

August

3-4 ............ California State Games, Irvine, CA, Contact: Stephen Amsler (714)775-1771 26 .............. Summer Sleepover

September

16 .............. White Belts Testing

October

7-8 ............ Women’s Self-Defense Weekend 14 .............. Advanced Women’s Self-Defense 21 .............. All Belts Testing

November

18 .............. White Belts Testing

December

16 .............. All Belts Testing & Christmas “Pot Luck” Party 31 .............. New Year’s Sleepover

American Moo-Do Kwan Newsletter Editor: Jack L. Amsell La Habra Marketplace 1921-C Imperial Hwy. La Habra, CA 90631 (310) 690-4347

BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE

PAID LA HABRA, CA PERMIT NO.0000

American Moo-Do Kwan Traditional Oriental Martial Arts

Special Activities „ Private Instruction

N La Habra Marketplace

„ Technical Clinics

Fashion .L Sq

„ Referee Training „ Tournaments „ Outdoor Training

American Moo-Do Kwan

Idaho St.

Blvd. Beach

„ Women's Self Defense

n.

„ Children's Classes

Bullocks

Imperial Hwy.