I recall in elementary school, probably about 4th grade (1963-ish), finding a small booklet in my school library called G.I. Judo. It was probably 20 pages, comic book style illustrations of a dozen-ish judo throws and takedowns. I couldn’t find anybody that would let me try them out. Little did I know, that booklet would gnaw at me for another 30 years. For my 38th birthday, I gifted myself with Tae Kwon Do lessons. And so, it began.
I began under the tutalege of Master Instructor Dr Richard Griffith, veterinarian by day, bone breaker by night. His school was associated with Grandmaster Jung Soo Park’s Tae Kwon Do Federation out of Pompano Beach, Florida. Master Griffith had a core team of about ten black belts and ran a school that had about a hundred-plus students. He had a very active childrens program beginning at 4pm everyday, to family classes, to adult and finally, black belt and candidates only classes. I started by going a couple evenings a week. That evolved to a couple classes a night a few nights a week. I was burning pretty hard.
We paid for Grandmaster’s travel and brought him up to Michigan once a year. We also went to his Florida school for a week each year. Grandmaster trained for the South Korean Royal Guard, kind of like our Navy Seals program. Even though he was in his seventies, he was like steel. And indefatigable.
When at his school, he had a program just for us. It began with a 1 1/2 mile jog to the ocean. We would drill for a couple hours in the sand and water, and then jog back. The two that came in last had to clean the studio (water and sand), as well as stay and do everyones laundry for the next day. Serious incentive to hustle! After lunch, we would continue with detailed skills development with him and his sons until dinner. We would have the evening to ourselves, but several of us typically went to one of his other schools to watch and guest teach.
His was a very, very welcoming family of students. I have many fond memories of aching muscles, exhaustion, and fun.
So, over the course of a couple years, I promoted through the ranks to red belt. And stuck there for a couple years. This coincided with Master Griffith selling his school to one of his senior black belts, Steve Whittaker, that had promoted to 4th dan. Master Whittaker ran a good school, and made it his full-time career, adding some morning and early afternoon classes for kids. But, he did not always test people on schedule. We ran with traditional customs and courtesies, and that included that you did not ask to test – you were told to test. Master Whittaker just kind of flowed along with a number of his advanced color belts.
That being said, I was very fond of Master Whitakker, and the whole team of black belts with who I trained. We learned the core principles. We learned korean terminology and vocabulary. We dabbled in Hapkido, Jujitsu, Judo, Wing Chun, Escrima, Canes, Bo and Jo staffs. Several of our black belts took training in other disciplines and shared some with us. We sparred a lot. The black belts would spar with minimal protective gear. Basically mouth and groin. Sometimes we would wear head gear, when we were specifically practicing head shots.
We had a great mix of takedowns and joint manipulations that were part of our testing requirements. They had to work, or we did not promote.
There were times that we trained in street clothes and shoes. To see what worked and what failed on the street. We would also try techniques outside and between parked cars. A spin kick is really hard to do in snow and ice, or between cars. Made us think.
Anyway, I began in 1992, promoted to 1st Dan in 1998, 2nd Dan in 2000, 3rd in 2004. By then, Master Whittaker was married, had one child, and sold the school to a dance instructor that was renting one of the floors, and he got a job in banking. The black belts were mostly a club at that point, and we started to drift apart. I ended up training in several different schools over the following years until my hips gave out.
A few years ago, one of my grandaughters’ signed up for a community education TKD class. She has stuck through it all and recently promoted to her black belt. My hips have both been replaced, so it might be time to restart my training and earn my next rank. If only to keep up with her!
