My belts:

 

My black belt journey.

I started Tae Kwon do when I was 13 years old in the Spring of 1985. My first belt promotion — to white belt with yellow strip (9th gup) — was June 1, 1985. I continued with Tae Kwon Do at my original school throughout my teenage years in the 1980s. Yellow belt in August 1985; green stripe October 1985; green belt in December 1985; blue stripe in March 1986; blue belt in December 1986; red stripe in March 1987; red belt in June 1987. We were only allowed to test when Master Alvin thought we were ready.  In March 1988 I was promoted to red belt with black stripe (1st gup), the rank just before black belt (1st dan). Sometime in 1989, I think, I took my black belt test with two of my friends and we all failed. Everyone at that school failed the black belt test the first time. I took it again some time later, and passed everything except one board break — 3 boards backfist. Because I couldn’t do one break I “failed” the test again. I was allowed to re-do the break but couldn’t. Keep in mind I was a skinny, scrawny, pencil-thin teenager. (My belts from those days do not fit me today.) Little did I know at my school my teacher had an unofficial policy of his black belts not passing til the 3rd or 4th try, and he was quoted saying as much in this article. By this point college was starting anyway, and I was frustrated. My friends had already quit but I stayed. I eventually quit when college got busy, but then went back for about a month during college only to realize I had no time for both. So that was that, I figured. Then came grad school, moving to Milwaukee, then Scotland, then trying to find an academic job and moving all over every year, then tenure track, then promotions. I always considered during all of this business resuming TKD but I never truly had the time nor the money. I did consider myself black belt level, I mean how could I not? I was not a black belt because of one board break designed to make me fail the requisite number of times and in a test I would have passed anywhere else? I was resentful for perhaps a short while, but I really did learn a lot at my school; it was quite a good school.

Fast forward 30 years (yikes!) to 2020 and covid. By this point I had published 3 books, was working on another, and had been promoted to full professor. I had achieved just about everything I wanted to achieve in academia; unless holding a prestigious job one does hit a ceiling.  I was bored during lock down, so I started to refamiliarize myself with my Tae Kwon Do. I had forgotten all the patterns and one-steps and fighting techniques from not doing them regularly. I had books with all of these in them and, nowadays, we have YouTube! It took me some time but they all came back rather quickly. I learned all of this as a teen, so it was burned into my brain really. After a few months of doing this on my own (which was my original idea) I thought: “It all came back pretty quickly, maybe I should continue formally and formally get that black belt?” So I started searching for schools. I wanted to avoid the “new” Tae Kwon Do style (I didn’t want to learn new patterns or radically different techniques). I didn’t want to go to a school that did year-long contracts (all too common) since I didn’t know how this would go and especially having had several injuries at my age. As it turns out, there was a school just a couple of miles from my house and low and behold it descended from the same Korean master as my original school but down a different branch of the “family tree.” So after six months of formally getting back into the swing of things (as red belt with 2 black stripes which was the equivalent of my red belt with one black stripe back in the day; my old red belt didn’t fit anyway!) I was able to test for my black belt a 3rd time and passed! The thing about martial arts schools is there are those that are “black-belt mills” and just hand them out like candy; there are schools like my original one that go to the opposite extreme with black belts; and there are schools in the middle where they should be. Lesson: finish those things in life you never did but wish you had. Sure, I’m not as spry and nimble as I was doing this as a teen, but I’m working on it. It will take years anyway to get back the level of technique, stretch, and awesomeness I once had, but the knowledge of it all is all still locked in my head.

I’m interested in expanding what I know. I’m currently learning the traditional Okinawan karate bo staff. I’m also using my skills as an academic historian to reconstruct a history of and diffusion of Tae Kwon Do in North America.

I’ve also brought Tae Kwon Do training &the history of martial arts together as two integrative courses I created at Penn State University (KINES 53N & KINES 54N). Student learn TKD and can reach lower belt ranks and learn the history of martial arts (KINES 53N) and learn about & analyze martial arts movies (KINES 54N).

 

My martial arts history, my original teacher’s history, up to my new school:

I started practicing Tae Kwon Do in 1985 when I was 13 at Tae Kwon Do Black Belt Studio in Beaver Falls, PA. Here I am at 15 (a blue belt, I think) participating in a demonstration in the North Hills of Pittsburgh doing some fighting techniques with added take-downs. We decided to go full out, no floor mats or anything! Looking back I’m impressed with young me!

Here I am at 17 years old, 1989, red belt now, doing breaks in another demo in Beaver County.

 

Me doing breaks 32 years (!!) later in my later black belt test (2021). Switching schools, of course this is expected even though I took a black belt test a couple of times before in 1989 or 1990 & failed just because.

 

One-hand held board breaks from a January 2023 demonstration:

 

First time breaking a block since I was 17 in the video above (January 2023).

 

https://sites.psu.edu/dougsite/files/2023/10/IMG_6612.mov

 

BELOW: the back of my uniform from the 1980s, and the patch I recently (2021) had made based on it.

 

Here is a 1982 Beaver County Times Story about my TKD school, run by Master Carl Alvin (1927-2002) , three years before I joined it.

 

 

 

(May 1979, Pittsburgh Press)

 

 

 

My Tae Kwon Do teacher had a pet cobra, in the school no less, and he made the paper once in 1982 when something unfortunate happened (click on image):

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two Pittsburgh region newspaper articles (1982 & 1985) illustrating how my current school descended from Kang’s and how Tae Kwon Do was a family thing, in this case the Meredith family.

I have also created two Penn State courses: History & Practice of Martial Arts, and Martial Arts & the Movies

 

Here are some of my student’s video projects

 

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