Hi!
I'm a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo under the instruction of Grand Master Sun Duk Choi, founder of the International Tae Kwon Do Institute and President of the Arizona Tae Kwon Do Association. For more information about Grand Master Choi, please visit the school's web site at http://www.aztaekwondo.com. For more information about me, please read on.
I started my martial arts training in 1991 as a student of Isshinryu Karate in Rochester, NY. When I moved to Arizona in 1996, I switched to Taekwondo mostly because there wasn't an Isshinryu school nearby but also because I was ready for a change. I'm glad I did! I love training in a real martial art with a real grand master! (Not so incidentally, I met my wife while training in TKD so it has changed my life in more ways than I can imagine!)
Next month, I'll be testing for fourth-degree black belt. While I won't make any predictions about whether I will pass the test, I will state this: Recently, I have started working more closely with colored belts (non-black belts) and have really enjoyed this aspect of my training.
My plan is to use this blog to share more of my thoughts than I normally get to share during a 90-minute class, or a five-minute one-on-one practice session. Ideally, I'll post about once per week. My hope is that Grand Master Choi's other students will gain some benefit from this additional knowledge-sharing, and that non-students will gain some insight into what training with a real grand master is like.
Enjoy!
Matt Jones
