A Korean guy showed up at the place where i teach beginners. He said he is a 6th dan from "Korea Judo University" (that was how I understood it, very bad English). Said his name is Paul Lee, then handed me a card with the name Jea Kwang (John) Lee.
Last night he came back with his son and asked if they could join the class. I said "sure" and asked him if he would teach the class. He was very polite, so I didn't have any problem with it.
He again introduced himself as Paul Lee.
Anyways, the guy looked very sharp but obviously I wouldn't be able to judge his rank at that level.
Being a 6th dan, I was wondering if anybody ever heard of this guy.
felipe, are you in hamilton, ontario by any chance? if so, i have heard of someone like him, and met a guy matching your description years ago..
No, I'm in Atlanta, GA.
i coudnt find anything when i did a google search of his name. he very might be a very good judo player from korea, then again maybe not. ask him what university in korea he went to. Yong-in is the top university for judo in Korea. there are others with judo teams though.
if he is teaching classes you need to get him covered by either the JI, JA, or JF fast. if you are a JI club you also need to have the background check done--which is a very well spent $14.
id assume that there is some type of judo certificate he'd have somewhere. something that says he is at least a shodan maybe. youll need a copy of that too.
At one time there was a guy in Atlanta who could match your description. He moved to Baton Rouge, LA and opened a donut shop and a dojo. He had been in Atlanta for several years. I got the original scoop on him from Dr. Gary Berliner.
As I've been away from Louisiana for a while, I don't know if he is still in Baton Rouge or not. Could be the same guy.
Ben R.
Perhaps he is referring to the Korea Yudo College, which is now Yong-In University.
Here's an article about training at Yong-In University written by Herb Perez, 92 Olympic Gold medalist in Taekwondo - the article focuses on the Taekwondo program at Yong-In, but mentions the Judo program as well, including the coaches:
http://www.goldmedalvideo.com/kotauntrbe.html
felipe,
in pittsburg, pa i trained under a korean grandmaster in judo and tkd. his name is master kim kyu ha kim. if you really to findout his background email master kim and he might be able to help.
andy from ga
its ludacris to think that some "grandmaster" (which, BTW, the title GRANDMASTER or even MASTER, is complete bullshit and arrogance beyond all things in the world) in PA is going to know of another fella down in atlanta just becuause they are korean.
i promise that not every korean MA instructor knows every MA instuctor in the country, or even the same state/region/coast.
BTW, once more for claification-- judo has NO masters. period. we are not arrogant like some other fellas who demand to be called MASTER and the like bullshit.
From my experience, Goldmedal seems to be correct on the "master" thing. Koreans seem to use it to refer to people that are above 5th dan, regardless of what martial art they practice. Not sure why, must be a cultural thing.
might have to do with what Master translates into in Korean...
I wish FOS read this part of the board
or that Yusul was still posting (he is busy these days).
Thanks everyone for your response.
I just thought that being a 6th dan, someone here would have heard of him, but I understand how it may not be so.
He looked sharp enough to teach me a thing or two, and that is pretty much good enough for me. :-)
He asked to share mat time with me and I said I would accomodate as long as it didn't cause any problems. He says he has some students coming from Korea and needs a place to practice.
He is a little reluctant to teach americans (so I understood) because of the language barrier, but if I helped him by explaining what he was attempting to show, then he would be OK with it.
Of course, that would imply that I knew what he wanted to show in the first place, LOL!
thats why judo is a PHYSICAL sport. he can show something the right way, simply say YES, thens how it the wrong way and simply say NO.
make it basic, people understand basics.
Felipe,
There are some players from Korea at the club in chicago I go to when I'm there. I'll be heading there this weekend. I'll ask.
I'll see you at GSU.
OK. What sta94 said. He is from Korea Yudo University, now called Yong-In University.
He says his goal is to attract the huge Korean population here in ATL to do Judo, and wants me to help him. I don't know why me, but I'll help him anyway.
I'll learn from anyone who has the patience to teach me something. Hell, if Goldmedal can teach me something... (just kidding Ben :-))
But I still consider my instructor and sensei to be Stephen Alphabet.
Oh, and he hasn't yet asked to be called Master.
Brian, you have mail.
I haven't been doing Judo for too long, but what surprises me a bit is that there aren't more Koreans doing Judo in the US, seeing as how Judo/Yudo is pretty big in Korea. My friend does Kendo at a Japanese dojo and half the people there are Korean - it seems to be the same in all kendo places in NYC, and this is not counting the various kumdo schools in Queens, Ft. Lee, etc with almost total Korean student population. Marketing I guess? For 1st generation Korean families (in NYC area at least) the default martial arts choices for their kids invariably seem to be either taekwondo or kendo/kumdo. I think there's a real opportunity here for a Korean Judo guy to open a school in Flushing or similar neighborhood with Korean population and attract a decent student base :-)
FAMILMAN, there was a Korean player at last year's NY Open, 90kg I think - I remember someone saying he trained in Chicago. He had a shoulder injury and dropped his match.
there is an olympic silver medallist teaching judo somewhere out east. he teaches TKD too and has way, way more TKD students than judo, but his true love is for judo. he was good enough to trainw itht he korean national team in TKD, but in Judo he was nearly the best in the work at -65kg at the 88 games.
its a cryin shame that there is a guy like him in our country and he isnt being utilized like he should be. its a cryin shame that a guy like him cant make enough money off of judo alone to really do something with it.
PISSES ME OFF
Josh, do you know how many students Hwang has? Over 1,000 tkd students between 2 locations. He really is not very active in judo unfortunately. A silver medalist in judo in 84 yet he can't make any business out of judo. Guess how much he charges for tkd per month? Last I heard it was about $140. He's a freaking millionaire. Who's going to pay anything close to that for judo when there are clubs out there charging almost nothing. We are losing our best assets because we don't faciliatate a future for our most talented judoka.
One of my TKD instructors in college told me that his dad's (also a TKD instructor) favourite martial art was Judo.
He basically taught TKD because there was no money in Judo.
'Tis a shame.
4th dan or greater = Master btw...