Martial Arts LEGENDS part7: Jhoon Rhee

[BlackDragon]

Born January 7, 1932, Grandmaster Jhoon Goo Rhee, A true Legend in the martial arts world.... is known as the "Father of American Taekwondo." Taekwondo is credited as the most popular martial art style

History
Grand Master Jhoon Rhee, who rose to international fame as the most well-known grand master of Tae Kwon Do in the US first visited the United States in 1956. At this point he was in Officer Training for the South Korean Military. Upon the completion of his military service in South Korea he returned to the United States as an engineering student at the University of Texas at Austin. It was here that he became the first instructor to teach Taekwondo to American students in the United States. At that juncture, he called what he taught Tang Soo Do(tangsudo).

Rhee is largely credited for having popularized Martial Arts in North America. He trained with martial artist Bruce Lee to help him develop his kicks and he also trained Muhammad Ali for several of his fights. Rhee eventually awarded Ali a blackbelt in Taekwondo. In addition, he has also trained many U.S. senators and U.S. congressmen as well as their sons and daughters.

In 1976, he also invented protective gear, Safe-T Equipment, made of foam-rubber for free-sparring. He changed the face of kata as well by choreographing the first kata to music which he called Might For Right.

Grandmaster Rhee was also the first martial arts instructor to put a high importance on education as well as martial arts instruction by demanding that each of his students must carry a B or higher level in school. This is now a crucial part of some martial arts systems in USA, deciding when one is to progress to their next belt level.


Some RheeL Facts

Was in the movie
Tai quan zhen jiu zhou (1973)
... aka Heuggwon (South Korea)
... aka Kickmaster
... aka Sting of the Dragon Masters
... aka When Taekwondo Strikes
http://imdb.com/title/tt0070768/
(I didn't know that, has anyone seen this movie. How was it?)

Jhoon Rhee is a member of the Black Belt Hall of Fame.

He was also famed for being able to execute one-hundred full push-ups in one minute.

He can extend a sidekick above his head and balance a pitcher of water on his head.

[complete]

Here is additional information on the Father of American Tae Kwon Do.

http://www.completemartialarts.com/w.../jhoonrhee.htm

As for the movie, Tae Kwon Do never struck... It was a horrible movie.

[BlackDragon]

Thanks for the info complete. A few more things I didn't know
I'm upset that the movie was horrible as well. I was going to try to find it

[NinjaMaster]

The storyline was horrible, hard to follow, bad acting. I only remember maybe 1 fight scene with Jhoon Rhee where he displays some excellent TKD movies. Hard to say that one scene can make up for the entire movie.

[MMA_Fan]

He was on Wesley Snipes' Masters of Martial Arts, some type of award show for martial artists and at his age, I believe he's way over 60 close to 70, he did 100 push-ups in 1 minute or something. Very impressive.

[BlackDragon]

Another thing I didn't know is that Ali studied TKD!