Legacy
Today, I'm not writing about me. I'm writing about somebody else. I will call him out by name. Grandmaster Yong Chin Pak.
I've known GM Pak for quite a while now. Let me do some quick math. 26 years? Somewhere in there. I cannot claim to know him as well or intimately as others, but his footprints have been a part of the fabric of my life for over a quarter century.
Those of you who are hunters and have studied how to track animals are fully aware that you don't have to actually "see" an animal to be able to study them and have a good understanding of them simply by looking at their tracks -- the trail they leave behind. If you really take the time to study that trail, you see how the animal tends to move, what they tend to favor for food, whether they tend to walk a bit, then pull a half-circle to stop and check their back-trail, their pace...you find that you can learn a lot about something by studying its trail and the path it takes, and the evidence of its passing.
Last night was the 42nd Annual Iowa State University Martial Arts Banquet. GM Pak has been retired from being the martial arts instructor at ISU for 4 years now. Master Matt Hamann is the instructor for the program now, and has been doing an excellent job. but GM Pak comes back to Ames, Iowa, every year for the Annual Black Belt Reunion and the Martial Arts Banquet. I mean, he spent 40 years at the helm of the ISU program, built it from nothing into one of the better collegiate programs in the country. But even more so, he built this network...this "family" of martial artists...of people...that are connected. by one factor...they all have some relationship, however, tenuous, to this man's "trail".
I haven't sat down and spoken with GM Pak about this, but as Carrie and I were driving home from Ames last night, I was thinking to myself...I wonder if GM Pak had any idea, 40+ years ago, what kind of trail he was leaving...what kind of legacy he was building.
Let me try and give those of you not familiar with this phenomenon a bit of perspective. Friday night was a social event we call the Black Belt Reunion. Those of us who are black belts within the Pak Family of Martial Arts get together and socialize, swap stories, share memories, and generally get reacquainted. It's like a family reunion, or a class reunion. It's held every year, the night before the Annual Martial Arts Banquet. It doesn't matter of you're a brand-new 1st Dan who just got promoted within the past year, or one of the most senior members of the family, who have been with GM Pak and the ISU program since the beginning.
(Quick aside: HUGE shout out to those "most senior" members of the Family -- and a huge congratulations to Masters Steve and Carol Schied who have been promoted to 6th degree black belt in Judo, and to Grandmasters Udell Cason, Ron Rice, Doug Marks, Tony Marlow, Wes Grieme, all promoted to 7th Dan in Taekwondo).
These are the folks (along with thousands of others) that came through the program as college kids, graduated, went out and got jobs, got married, had careers, and continued to teach their martial art to others, and stayed "connected". At Reunion on Friday night, and Banquet on Saturday night, there were people from as nearby as a couple blocks away, and as far away as Kyoto, Japan. All connected by that common thread...they were all a part of the trail, of the legacy, of the martial arts program at ISU, and either directly or indirectly, GM Pak.
Driving home last night, I was struck by the enormity of that thing I like to call "the ripple effect". 45 years ago, here is this scared kid (GM Pak was only about 25 when he came to ISU), recently transplanted from Korea, trying to make his way, doing what he knew...martial arts. He had graduated from the Korean Judo College (now Yong-In University), and came to the US to share his knowledge and build his life.
45 years later, there are brand-new white belts in Des Moines, Iowa...and all over the country...that are being taught Taekwondo (or Judo or Hapkido, because he is a master of all three), simply because this one man has left this trail, this legacy.
He jokes that he comes back to Iowa to visit his "grandchildren". When asked how many grandchildren he has, he smiles and says, "About 500". Because he looks at all of his martial arts black belts as his children, and all of the students that we have as his grandchildren. Well, I'm here to tell you, the number of "grandchildren", and great-grandchildren, and great-great-...well, you get the picture. It was once estimated that over 25,000 students have gone through the ISU martial arts program. By extension, if you look at the downline from that, the numbers of people impacted by this one man is in the millions.
Let me give you an example.
I started my martial arts training 35+ years ago in North Dakota under a local instructor by the name of Cheryl Duckett. At the time, I had no clue, but her older sister was a lady named Brenda Sell. This Brenda Sell was married to some guy by the name of Ed Sell. At the time, this meant absolutely nothing to me. My only concern was with learning my stuff so I could improve my skills and successful complete my next promotional test. Well, Cheryl and her husband, Jim, ended up moving away before I could get to black belt. I also moved to another state where there wasn't a Taekwondo club nearby. So, I petitioned to continue training (at a long distance) with this Professor Sell guy. Fortunately for me, he was the head of the association, which made it a tad easier. I promoted to 1st Dan under this gentleman, and during the course of my training under him, I started to get a glimpse of this whole "connectivity" concept. This Professor Sell wasn't just some guy that had learned Taekwondo while in the Air Force and stationed in Korea, then decided to teach it on a whim when he came back to the States. His was a well-thought-out plan to spread Taekwondo instruction throughout the country. His plan was to create an association based on an extended family of Taekwondo programs.It took me a while to figure all this out (even thought it was right in front of me), but Senior Grandmaster Edward B. Sell, and his wife, Grandmaster Brenda J. Sell, and the US Chung Do Kwan Association were my initial foundation in the Art and Science of Taekwondo. Sr. GM Sell has since passed away, but GM Brenda is still rocking the US Chung Do Kwan Association. You can likely find a USCDKA-affiliated club in most every state in the union now.
After moving to Des Moines in the early '90s, I was looking for a place to further my own practice and training. I visited a local program, liked what I saw, and signed up for classes. Master Lance Farrell was very accepting of me, and soon I was included into this new "family". At the time, he had about 15 black belts under him, and I continued my training, and got back into teaching the art. This was when I was introduced to GM Pak, and the ISU/Pak family (as that is where Master Farrell had gotten his training).
Within a couple of years, I was approached with the opportunity to start my own program again, through the city's Park and Rec department. So Voorhees Taekwondo began on February 1, 1994. My training and affiliation with GM Pak continued, and along the way I ended up training/promoting black belt students of my own. Just like the black belts as ISU, these students moved away, started programs, promoted black belts...
And it's like looking at a family tree in a genealogy study. In about a month, we have a couple students that will be testing for 1st Dan. One of them, Tracy, is a mom, recovering from a cancer scare. She started taking classes in Osceola because she had brought her kids, Amanda and Mike, to class, and figured she might as well get into class, so maybe she could "help her kids practice at home. Well, Amanda is now in college, has her 2nd Dan. Mike is in high school and is still training, and helping to teach classes. So Tracy is going to test for 1st Dan next month. Her instructor, Master Brooks, started as a white belt when he was in high school, in a program in a nearby town that was run at a church there by the local pastor, Randy Cormeny. Randy is a student of mine, and is now pastoring another church in a differing part of the state, and has started yet ANOTHER program there. All of those black belts are part of the trail I've left behind me, and the trail I've left behind is HUGELY influenced by the trail that GM Pak has left.
I don't know if it boggles anybody else's mind like it does mine, but...the "ripple effect". One man who decided to take a teaching job at ISU 45 years ago is indirectly responsible for this middle-aged cancer-surviving mom to step up, put on the white jammies, and test for 1st Dan in Taekwondo. Now for those of you that haven't figured it out, it's NOT about the kicking and punching and cool white jammies. It's about the personal growth, the overcoming of obstacles, the building of the individual's character. THOSE are the benefits we martial artists derive.
But even more so, last night, it was really hammered home to me. The trail we leave. The legacy. The impact that we have on SO many lives, most of whom we will never, ever meet.
Now you don't have to be a martial artist to leave a legacy. All of us are, at this very moment, contributing to the trail we leave behind, to the ripples we create in the water, to the legacy we will leave for others. Is it necessarily important that people "know" the origin, or the "why"? I don't know. Maybe. Sometimes. I do remember GM Sell telling me once, "First, learn to do. Then, you will discover the 'why' on your own."
As I grow older and am watching my grandsons grow, I think it will be important (at least to me) that I am able to share some of our family legacy with them. Maybe one of them will decide they want to go back and "work out the trail" on their own. See where this family has been, discover their ancestors on the Voorhees side of the house, who knows...maybe even try to become martial artists, or musicians, or...whomever God has them be.
But my prayer is that they...and all of us...take the time to see what trail, what legacy, we are leaving in our path.
I am grateful for the legacy of my parents and grandparents, and also for the martial arts legacy of which I'm fortunate to be a part.
Once again, I'm reminded... "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, who is in heaven."
My two cents worth today.
I've known GM Pak for quite a while now. Let me do some quick math. 26 years? Somewhere in there. I cannot claim to know him as well or intimately as others, but his footprints have been a part of the fabric of my life for over a quarter century.
Those of you who are hunters and have studied how to track animals are fully aware that you don't have to actually "see" an animal to be able to study them and have a good understanding of them simply by looking at their tracks -- the trail they leave behind. If you really take the time to study that trail, you see how the animal tends to move, what they tend to favor for food, whether they tend to walk a bit, then pull a half-circle to stop and check their back-trail, their pace...you find that you can learn a lot about something by studying its trail and the path it takes, and the evidence of its passing.
Last night was the 42nd Annual Iowa State University Martial Arts Banquet. GM Pak has been retired from being the martial arts instructor at ISU for 4 years now. Master Matt Hamann is the instructor for the program now, and has been doing an excellent job. but GM Pak comes back to Ames, Iowa, every year for the Annual Black Belt Reunion and the Martial Arts Banquet. I mean, he spent 40 years at the helm of the ISU program, built it from nothing into one of the better collegiate programs in the country. But even more so, he built this network...this "family" of martial artists...of people...that are connected. by one factor...they all have some relationship, however, tenuous, to this man's "trail".
I haven't sat down and spoken with GM Pak about this, but as Carrie and I were driving home from Ames last night, I was thinking to myself...I wonder if GM Pak had any idea, 40+ years ago, what kind of trail he was leaving...what kind of legacy he was building.
Let me try and give those of you not familiar with this phenomenon a bit of perspective. Friday night was a social event we call the Black Belt Reunion. Those of us who are black belts within the Pak Family of Martial Arts get together and socialize, swap stories, share memories, and generally get reacquainted. It's like a family reunion, or a class reunion. It's held every year, the night before the Annual Martial Arts Banquet. It doesn't matter of you're a brand-new 1st Dan who just got promoted within the past year, or one of the most senior members of the family, who have been with GM Pak and the ISU program since the beginning.
(Quick aside: HUGE shout out to those "most senior" members of the Family -- and a huge congratulations to Masters Steve and Carol Schied who have been promoted to 6th degree black belt in Judo, and to Grandmasters Udell Cason, Ron Rice, Doug Marks, Tony Marlow, Wes Grieme, all promoted to 7th Dan in Taekwondo).
These are the folks (along with thousands of others) that came through the program as college kids, graduated, went out and got jobs, got married, had careers, and continued to teach their martial art to others, and stayed "connected". At Reunion on Friday night, and Banquet on Saturday night, there were people from as nearby as a couple blocks away, and as far away as Kyoto, Japan. All connected by that common thread...they were all a part of the trail, of the legacy, of the martial arts program at ISU, and either directly or indirectly, GM Pak.
Driving home last night, I was struck by the enormity of that thing I like to call "the ripple effect". 45 years ago, here is this scared kid (GM Pak was only about 25 when he came to ISU), recently transplanted from Korea, trying to make his way, doing what he knew...martial arts. He had graduated from the Korean Judo College (now Yong-In University), and came to the US to share his knowledge and build his life.
45 years later, there are brand-new white belts in Des Moines, Iowa...and all over the country...that are being taught Taekwondo (or Judo or Hapkido, because he is a master of all three), simply because this one man has left this trail, this legacy.
He jokes that he comes back to Iowa to visit his "grandchildren". When asked how many grandchildren he has, he smiles and says, "About 500". Because he looks at all of his martial arts black belts as his children, and all of the students that we have as his grandchildren. Well, I'm here to tell you, the number of "grandchildren", and great-grandchildren, and great-great-...well, you get the picture. It was once estimated that over 25,000 students have gone through the ISU martial arts program. By extension, if you look at the downline from that, the numbers of people impacted by this one man is in the millions.
Let me give you an example.
I started my martial arts training 35+ years ago in North Dakota under a local instructor by the name of Cheryl Duckett. At the time, I had no clue, but her older sister was a lady named Brenda Sell. This Brenda Sell was married to some guy by the name of Ed Sell. At the time, this meant absolutely nothing to me. My only concern was with learning my stuff so I could improve my skills and successful complete my next promotional test. Well, Cheryl and her husband, Jim, ended up moving away before I could get to black belt. I also moved to another state where there wasn't a Taekwondo club nearby. So, I petitioned to continue training (at a long distance) with this Professor Sell guy. Fortunately for me, he was the head of the association, which made it a tad easier. I promoted to 1st Dan under this gentleman, and during the course of my training under him, I started to get a glimpse of this whole "connectivity" concept. This Professor Sell wasn't just some guy that had learned Taekwondo while in the Air Force and stationed in Korea, then decided to teach it on a whim when he came back to the States. His was a well-thought-out plan to spread Taekwondo instruction throughout the country. His plan was to create an association based on an extended family of Taekwondo programs.It took me a while to figure all this out (even thought it was right in front of me), but Senior Grandmaster Edward B. Sell, and his wife, Grandmaster Brenda J. Sell, and the US Chung Do Kwan Association were my initial foundation in the Art and Science of Taekwondo. Sr. GM Sell has since passed away, but GM Brenda is still rocking the US Chung Do Kwan Association. You can likely find a USCDKA-affiliated club in most every state in the union now.
After moving to Des Moines in the early '90s, I was looking for a place to further my own practice and training. I visited a local program, liked what I saw, and signed up for classes. Master Lance Farrell was very accepting of me, and soon I was included into this new "family". At the time, he had about 15 black belts under him, and I continued my training, and got back into teaching the art. This was when I was introduced to GM Pak, and the ISU/Pak family (as that is where Master Farrell had gotten his training).
Within a couple of years, I was approached with the opportunity to start my own program again, through the city's Park and Rec department. So Voorhees Taekwondo began on February 1, 1994. My training and affiliation with GM Pak continued, and along the way I ended up training/promoting black belt students of my own. Just like the black belts as ISU, these students moved away, started programs, promoted black belts...
And it's like looking at a family tree in a genealogy study. In about a month, we have a couple students that will be testing for 1st Dan. One of them, Tracy, is a mom, recovering from a cancer scare. She started taking classes in Osceola because she had brought her kids, Amanda and Mike, to class, and figured she might as well get into class, so maybe she could "help her kids practice at home. Well, Amanda is now in college, has her 2nd Dan. Mike is in high school and is still training, and helping to teach classes. So Tracy is going to test for 1st Dan next month. Her instructor, Master Brooks, started as a white belt when he was in high school, in a program in a nearby town that was run at a church there by the local pastor, Randy Cormeny. Randy is a student of mine, and is now pastoring another church in a differing part of the state, and has started yet ANOTHER program there. All of those black belts are part of the trail I've left behind me, and the trail I've left behind is HUGELY influenced by the trail that GM Pak has left.
I don't know if it boggles anybody else's mind like it does mine, but...the "ripple effect". One man who decided to take a teaching job at ISU 45 years ago is indirectly responsible for this middle-aged cancer-surviving mom to step up, put on the white jammies, and test for 1st Dan in Taekwondo. Now for those of you that haven't figured it out, it's NOT about the kicking and punching and cool white jammies. It's about the personal growth, the overcoming of obstacles, the building of the individual's character. THOSE are the benefits we martial artists derive.
But even more so, last night, it was really hammered home to me. The trail we leave. The legacy. The impact that we have on SO many lives, most of whom we will never, ever meet.
Now you don't have to be a martial artist to leave a legacy. All of us are, at this very moment, contributing to the trail we leave behind, to the ripples we create in the water, to the legacy we will leave for others. Is it necessarily important that people "know" the origin, or the "why"? I don't know. Maybe. Sometimes. I do remember GM Sell telling me once, "First, learn to do. Then, you will discover the 'why' on your own."
As I grow older and am watching my grandsons grow, I think it will be important (at least to me) that I am able to share some of our family legacy with them. Maybe one of them will decide they want to go back and "work out the trail" on their own. See where this family has been, discover their ancestors on the Voorhees side of the house, who knows...maybe even try to become martial artists, or musicians, or...whomever God has them be.
But my prayer is that they...and all of us...take the time to see what trail, what legacy, we are leaving in our path.
I am grateful for the legacy of my parents and grandparents, and also for the martial arts legacy of which I'm fortunate to be a part.
Once again, I'm reminded... "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, who is in heaven."
My two cents worth today.
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