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11 Year Old from San Antonio wins four taekwondo world titles in one day

Michael Pagan — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 19:33:54 +0000

Original Article from KENS5

SAN ANTONIO — Jade Napier kept trying to find her niche, but it seemed to elude her. Ballet did not hold her interest, and neither did gymnastics or soccer. When she got to an invitational self-defense class, it seemed like love at first fight.

“I learned like ten things within the first 10 minutes, which I really liked,” Jade said.

Her mother, Janna, wanted to support her only child, but was slightly doubtful at the words coming from Jade’s mouth.

“This is so fun, mommy. This is my thing,” Napier said. “And I was like, okay.”

She enrolled her daughter in taekwondo, and Jade excelled.

“It was my goal to get a state title,” Jade said. “I learned about the district title, and that was the highest title that I could get.”

The 11-year-old martial artist’s greatest teaching to date came under Master Andrew O’Hara at Victory Martial Arts.

“As a student, she’s so eager to learn. She’s listening. She’s absorbing everything,” he said. “As a competitor, she’s fierce.”

Jade even got the fighting name of Jade, ‘The Warrior Princess,’ from her mother.

“I always envisioned a ballerina,” Napier said. “Instead, I’m cheering for my daughter; kick her in the head!”

Jade, according to O’Hara, is on an elite team of competitors. She trained this summer to compete against taekwondo fighters from across the globe.

“When we say world, we mean world,” O’Hara said. “There’s South America came in. South Africa was here. Australia was here. Europe was here.”

The young San Antonio fighter said it was the hardest she’d trained to compete in four categories: creative form, creative weapon, XMA Weapon, and traditional weapon.

But when it came time for the match, she found herself battling nerves.

“So many things are going in my head. Like, what if I messed up? Like, what if I didn’t win?” Jade said.

Her parents started to calm her.

“I cried a little bit before worlds. I was so nervous because I’ve been training so hard for it,” Jade said.

The desire to get it right can be overwhelming. It is something O’Hara said his young fighter takes on quite a bite. His prescription: Patience.

“Take a deep breath,” he said. “Sometimes it’s not going to be perfect.”

Jade gained her confidence and won four world titles in August.

“This was her first year of eligibility to even compete for a world title—and she dominated her division, ” O’Hara said.

The victories happened so fast that she and her mother had no chance to bask in the accomplishment until they returned to the hotel.

“I was just looking at her,” Napier said. “I was like, four, four, like, that’s really amazing.”

Since the world bout, she’s been back at her dojo training hard again. She recently won six gold medals at a national championship.

The straight-A student is home-schooled. She also enjoys cooking and drawing and has picked up the ukulele en route to the electric guitar.

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Great Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang (1929-2022)

Michael Pagan — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 19:08:35 +0000

GGM Kang was born and raised in Shineuju, in the northern part of Korea. His lifelong pursuit of martial arts started in 1938 at the age of 9 with Judo; then in 1944 he began training at Chung Do Kwan to eventually become the first 10th Dan Black belt in Taekwondo in 1980. He was educated at Dong Kuk University during a time when access to higher education was rare. This combined knowledge of martial arts and scholarship lead to a career with the Korean military, where he was the Head Instructor of the Korean Military Intelligence Agency and was the Commanding Instructor for the Republic of Korea Army. Having been the highest ranked student at Chung Do Kwan, GGM Kang founded his first school of Kuk Mu Kwan Taekwondo in 1953.

In 1969, GGM Kang and his family immigrated to the US and opened his first TKD school in Brooklyn, NY. Having brought Taekwondo to America, GGM Kang was an organizational force for the art, holding leadership positions as Vice President of the ITF (International Taekwondo Federation, 1977-83), and the first President of the ATA (American Taekwondo Association, 1969-78) before founding and directing the ATF as President (American Taekwondo Federation, 1978-95). His pivotal contributions to Taekwondo were recognized in 2009 via his induction into the Taekwondo Hall of Fame.

Throughout his career, the number of his students is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands, including thousands of black belts promoted under his guidance. GGM Kang’s legacy is continued through his three sons, whom have all achieved Grandmaster status. GM Tae Sun Kang has continued to spread the art of Taekwondo with multiple locations in New York, including the largest Taekwondo school in New York City, where he is currently an active teacher and mentor to his students, both new and experienced, in the Kang Family system (https://www.tkangtkd.com/).

Services for Great Grandmaster Kang will take place Saturday February 5th 2022 at:
Kim’s Funeral Home
1601 Palisade Ave
Fort Lee, NJ 07024
(201) 313-0777

Sahbumnim Mark B. Jones, PhD (5^th Dan Student of GM T. Kang)

Great Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang executes a flying sidekick to a heavy hanging bag.

Great Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang in front of the Chung Do Kwan, the first Taekwondo school in Korea (May 26, 1946).

Great Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang (1970)

Great Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang

Great Grandmaster Suh Chong Kang (right) confers a 10th Dan to his son Grandmaster Tae Sun Kang (left) (2020).

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Would a Proposed Virginia Law Outlaw Martial Arts and Firearms Training?

Michael Pagan — Fri, 27 Dec 2019 17:17:50 +0000

The following story appeared on Snopes website:

An amendment to a law that was already on the books makes no mention of key points raised on junk-news sites.

In late November 2019, conspiracy sites started posting an article originally published by Natural News, that falsely reported the state of Virginia will consider legislation outlawing martial arts and firearms instruction.

Under the headline, “PROPOSED VIRGINIA LAW WOULD OUTLAW KRAV MAGA, BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU, KICKBOXING, TAI CHI, FIREARMS INSTRUCTION AND SELF-DEFENSE TRAINING,” the story reads:

The law would instantly transform all martial arts instructors into criminal felons. This includes instructors who teach kickboxing, BJJ, Krav Maga, boxing and even Capoeira.

It would also criminalize all firearms training classes, including concealed carry classes.

It would even criminalize a father teaching his own son how to use a hunting rifle.

None of this is true, and oddly enough, the story in question includes not only a link to the bill but copy-and-pasted bill language, so readers can see for themselves that the proposed legislation does not say what Natural News claimed it said.

Virginia, like nearly all other U.S. states, already had a law on the books restricting unlawful private military-type activity. The current Virginia law renders it a felony if a person:

1. Teaches or demonstrates to any other person the use, application, or making of any firearm, explosive or incendiary device, or technique capable of causing injury or death to persons, knowing or having reason to know or intending that such training will be employed for use in, or in furtherance of, a civil disorder; or

2. Assembles with one or more persons for the purpose of training with, practicing with, or being instructed in the use of any firearm, explosive or incendiary device, or technique capable of causing injury or death to persons, intending to employ such training for use in, or in furtherance of, a civil disorder.

Senate Bill 64 would amend the current law by also making it illegal to, “[Assemble] with one or more persons with the intent of intimidating any person or group of persons by drilling, parading, or marching with any firearm, any explosive or incendiary device, or any components or combination thereof.” The amendment makes no mention of martial arts or firearms classes.

As the Georgetown Law Institute for Constitutional Law and Protection noted, Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 was the site of deadly violence resulting from a white supremacist rally at which:

Several white nationalist groups arrived outfitted in helmets and matching uniforms and deployed shields, batons, clubs, and flagpoles as weapons in skirmishes with counter-protestors that the instigating groups coordinated under centralized command structures. Meanwhile, private militia groups—many dressed in camouflage fatigues, tactical vests, helmets, and combat boots, and most bearing assault rifles—stood guard as self-designated protectors of the protestors and counter protestors. The heavily armed presence and coordinated paramilitary activities of all of these groups not only increased the prevalence of violence at the rally, but also made it more dangerous for state and local law enforcement to maintain public safety. Moreover, the attire and behavior of some of the self professed militia led to confusion as to who was authorized to lawfully keep the peace.

Although Natural News chalked this amendment up to the fact that voters in November 2019 handed Virginia’s state government over to a Democratic majority for the first time in a generation, that characterization is misleading.

The bill’s sponsor, Louise Lucas, is a Democrat, but Lucas is not part of the new Democratic legislative majority; she assumed her Virginia Senate seat in 1992. Furthermore, as we earlier noted, almost all states in the U.S., with both Democratic and Republican leadership, have some type of law outlawing certain paramilitary activities or at least restricting unauthorized private militias. Virginia’s law predates its new Democratic state majority.

Finally, the laws don’t make it illegal for martial arts or shooting-range instructors to teach students disciplines like “krav maga, Brazilian jiu jitsu, kickboxing, tai chi” or “firearms instruction.” The laws restrict people from various military-like activities that result in violence and civil disorder. The amendment to the Virginia law, specifically, prohibits marching with weapons or explosives for the purpose of intimidation. We therefore rate this claim “False.”

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ATA Moving Its Convention to Phoenix

Michael Pagan — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 15:35:11 +0000

The American Taekwondo Association’s annual World Expo – will be moving from Little Rock to Phoenix in 2021. The Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau reported on Friday (Oct. 25) that the ATA International tournaments would move to Phoenix in two years. In the meantime ATA officials will still bring the 2021 Fall National Tournament to Little Rock. ATA, which was originally founded as ATA Martial Arts in 1969 by Eternal Grand Master H.U. Lee, has been internationally headquartered in Little Rock since 1977. “We’ve been blessed to have ATA’s largest annual event take place in Little Rock since 1978. The partnership between ATA, the City of Little Rock and the Little Rock Convention Bureau has been tremendously positive. ATA is a true asset to this community,” said Gretchen Hall, President & CEO of the Bureau. “For their 50th Anniversary in 2019, ATA used every inch of Little Rock site’s available space, expanding from the Statehouse Convention Center into Robinson Center. While it’s bittersweet to see the World Expo go, we are happy to say the organization will continue to be headquartered in Little Rock where they host additional national and international physical and business training seminars each year. We look forward to bringing the World Expo back to Little Rock when we’re able to expand our meeting and convention facilities in the future.”

According to tourism officials and the ATA, the World Expo now welcomes over 20,000 people annually comprised of competitors and instructors along with their families and friends from across the globe. The event has long been Little Rock’s largest annual convention event. The 2019 event generated a total estimated economic impact of almost $5 million, according to Destination International’s Event Impact Calculator. The World event has grown in participation and the number of competitions, thus creating a need for additional space. The 2020 World Expo event will be the last held in Little Rock.

Little Rock has been home to the ATA since 1977. In 2016, the organisation dedicated it’s new world headquarters just a few miles from Little Rock’s Statehouse Convention Center in downtown. “We simply need more space for the annual World Expo event,” said Neil Morton, CEO of ATA International. “Our goal is to continue to expand our international training seminars at our World Headquarters and, in 2021, ATA is negotiating to relocate its Fall National Tournament from Orlando to Little Rock. Our ties with Little Rock are strong and we will continue to call Arkansas’s capital city home.”

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