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Interview With Sun Sang Nim Hannah Hunt

5/12/2017

Thank for joining us Sun Sang Nim. How are you today?
I am good thanks. How are you?

So tell us about yourself. How long have you been training, how old were you when you started and what style was it in?
Well I have been training for 7 years. I started out training in Taekwon-Do (ITF style) under the Taekwon-Do Association of Great Britain when I was 14-years-old.

When did you move here to the US?
November of 2013.

And you continued training I assume? (Laughing) Did you stay with ITF Taekwon-Do or switch styles?
I did continue my training. Just before I moved, I reached 1st degree black belt in ITF and wanted to experience the Olympic style of WTF Taekwondo. So I found a Kukkiwon school and earned my black belt in there also.

So you're a Kukkiwon Black Belt then?
Yes, I'm a Kukkiwon 2nd Dan (Registration No. 05518736).

And are you still training in Kukki Taekwondo? If not, what style are you training in?
No, I am not currently training in Kukki Taekwondo. I wanted to see what else was out there and came across the American Jidokwan Association. I decided to further my training in Taekwondo through them. Their curriculum is very different from most of what I have experienced and seen before. The AJA is very self defense based, with very old school training techniques and principles. I've also started training in San Budo Sogo Bugei and American Yoshinkan Aiki Jujutsu.

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Not All It's Cracked Up To Be

5/6/2017

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Author: Bret Gordon

Before the pitchforks and torches come out, let me explain that this article has absolutely no bearing on the quality of instruction across the board at Kukkiwon member schools. There are some very good quality Kukkiwon schools, and some low quality schools just like every other martial art. This article is merely meant to shed light to the propaganda spread by the Kukkiwon and World Taekwondo Federation since their inception in 1972 and 1973 respectively. Let me warn you though, you might want to take a seat. This is going to be a long one.

Following the unification of the Kwans and the political in-fighting of the Korea Taekwondo Association, the Kukkiwon was established as the headquarters for the martial art of Taekwondo. It was intended to be the international governing body providing a standard for Dan certification (the Kwans were still in charge of the training). The World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) was established to oversee the sport aspect of Taekwondo and its inclusion into the Olympics. On paper and in theory, this was an excellent system and a great way for practitioners to get the best of all worlds: training through the Kwans, standardized ranking by the Kukkiwon and international competition through the WTF. Unfortunately, they didn't factor in the human element.

When the Kukkiwon was established, each of the nine Kwans were given an office there to give the appearance of unity. However for many of the Kwans, this simply meant a receptionist sitting behind a desk and a Master representative who comes in whenever they feel like. The second problem, is that the WTF was also given an office at the Kukkiwon. Not to mention that Dr. Un Yong Kim, the first President of the Kukkiwon, also simultaneously served as President of the WTF, which is why the WTF only recognizes Kukkiwon certification in international competition. However, this is the only the beginning.

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Still Only Human...

5/6/2017

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Author: Bret Gordon

There comes a point when you reach a certain level in the martial arts, you'll be sitting around the table with your instructor or a group of other instructors who consider you their peer, and you'll notice something for the first time that makes you feel a little uneasy. There's no talk of poetry or wisdom. There's no meditation or talks of loving your enemy. There's usually a lot of alcohol and conversations too explicit for this article.

One of the most conflicting things in the martial arts is learning the hard truth that your instructor whom you've just spent the better part of your life venerating is just a regular person like everyone else. On one hand, it's disheartening that there really is no secret (or maybe that is the secret). There really is no amount of training that turns you into a mystical, all-knowing warrior sage. That no matter how many years you spend in the pursuit of Budo, you still suffer from the human condition. But on the other hand, it's a wonderful thing. As instructors, masters and grandmasters, we put so much effort and energy into this persona that for you to be allowed into the "inner circle" and see who your instructor really is, is a gift that's simply invaluable.

You see, coming up through the ranks we place our instructors on a super human pedestal. This is aided by the complete misunderstanding of Asian culture, and actually stems from our totally incorrect view of the Samurai themselves. Everyone likes to throw around the "Bushido Code," a list of seven virtues for all noble warriors to possess and display in their daily lives. But the truth of the matter is that this concept of Bushido as we know it stemmed out of boredom. After the Tokugawa family came into power and essentially outlawed warfare, you had thousands of highly trained warriors now without work. What happens when you mix together testosterone, alcohol and boredom? Exactly. So the "Bushido Code" was put in place as a means of self-policing among the Samurai, stating that a true warrior would never rape, pillage and murder. Except for the fact that in times of war, those same warriors were first in line to rape, pillage and murder.

But that's not the history we want to remember. The Samurai couldn't have been bloodthirsty killers. They were highly enlightened, nearly divine super humans that drank tea in their Zen gardens while writing poetry, right? Unfortunately, as instructors we get looped into that ideal as well.

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Aiki Jujutsu: The Second Untouchable Martial Art?

5/5/2017

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Author: Bret Gordon

Last year, I wrote an article entitled "The Untouchable Martial Art" which discussed the phenomenon in the Kempo/Kenpo community that allows anyone with even the slightest training to branch out, start their own "Method" and be legitimate. They found the loophole in the normal standards of legitimacy, which allows them to be founders of their own system while not really being founders. Yet they're not exactly a branch or ryuha of a larger system either, because they each maintain their own separate identity. They're on that dotted line, double dipping.

Well, it appears that the plethora of systems claiming to teach "Aiki Jujutsu" were told about this loophole and jumped on the bandwagon. Because no two practitioners define "aiki" or "internal power" exactly the same way, a black hole was created that sucks in any one even remotely connected to Daito Ryu. Aiki Jujutsu has become a blanket term for realistically anyone teaching joint manipulation and throws that favor being on the "soft" side. Let's just ignore the fact that jujutsu itself is the "gentle art" and encompasses all of those throws and locks in their entirety. Yet people still jump on the aiki bandwagon and for what? Well, because they I can.

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In an effort to share information, each year we publish a book containing all of the articles written that year. This book is an excellent supplemental training tool for the beginner and master alike! To order the most recent volume, click the image below. For previous years, please contact our headquarters.

Articles of 2016

USAMA BLOG

Interview With Sun Sang Nim Hannah Hunt

Not All It's Cracked Up To Be

Still Only Human...

Aiki Jujutsu: The Second Untouchable Martial Art?

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