De Witt Martial Arts
Est. 1993

KOREAN CHUNG DO KWAN
KOREAN HO SHIN SUL HAP KI DO
(218) 828 - 8522

Korean Chung Do Kwan	UTB - TKD	I.T.F.	W.T.F.

Central Minnesota's Only Chung Do Kwan *
Hap Ki Do & Weapons Dojang

From The Voices of Wisdom.....

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ROOTS/BASICS + TECHNIQUES + PRACTICE = MARTIAL ART

Mrs. Karmon Keppers - Chief Instructor.
Korean Chung Do Kwan. Tang Soo Do. Kong Shin Bup TM . HoShin Sul Hap Ki Do
June, 2006.

As every Korean martial arts student in this dojang knows, the Tenets of TKD provide the
basics or "roots" of our art. (As Master DeWitt constantly reinforces) If we do not have a
good foundation or solid roots, we have nothing. To verify this all we have to do is to
remember what we have seen at tournaments, the notable differences in attitudes when
others have visited our dojang or comments of our students when they have observed
students/classes at other dojangs. As the old saying goes, "the proof is in the pudding."
In our case,"the proof is in the technique." More than that, the proof is in the attitudes
of our students. You have pride in what you do and you should, you have worked hard
for every belt rank which you have attained and you have the satisfaction of knowing
that you honestly earned your rank. You didn't just pay a fee and get the belt handed
to you. Although everyone within our dojang, at one time or another, has gotten or will
become frustrated with the "instructor's for harping constantly about using better
techniques, longer stances, more power," you wouldn't want a school that was
just going through the motions.

If we, as instructors, didn't push our students to give their best effort, we then would
be extremely disrespectful of Master DeWitt and his Korean martial arts lineage. If Master
DeWitt had not set the highest standards from the very beginning, then this would
(our dojang) be just another "belt mill" or "MacDojang." There are already enough of
those in the community and in our state. This will never happen to our dojang.
Master DeWitt's determination to stay true to the "Old School" Korean Chung Do Kwan,
Tang Soo Do, HoShin Sul and Kong Shin Bup TM, lineage of our art and treat it
with respect is very rare and not found in many higher ranking Black Belt individuals under
the age of forty. If you stay involved with DeWitt Martial Arts and as you attain
higher rank, you will come to understand why we instruct the way that we do and
why our standards and expectations are set so very high.

You might not always like it but you will understand it.


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Sparring Advise.... Mr. Randy Mertes #1
I have been involved at Dewitt Martial Arts for almost seven years. During that time several people (including myself) have expressed frustration with their sparring skills. I suppose this results from several factors.

Let me first say that I understand. I also understand that, even among other black-belts, we are not alone. There was a point as a colored belt that I even considered quitting TKD, precisely because of the sparring issue.

Early on I mistakenly believed that if the staff would just give me the curriculum on paper, I could be a black-belt in a matter of a few months, certainly less than a year. Then Master Dewitt graciously invited me into the late, black-belt class (I think they needed fresh meat).

It wasn't long before I realized that being a black-belt involved much more than just memorizing patterns and one-steps. The climax came one evening while sparring one of the black-belts, a young, petite, bank teller. She front-kicked me up against the wall. It hurt my pride immensely.

I liken sparring to the real world. TKD is a self-defense system and it is only when we spar that we have the chance to apply to 'real life' what we learn during class. There is a reason we go up and down the floor doing combinations of kicks. Not only do we learn the kicks themselves but it gives us something to apply when we are sparring.

In my case, I became frustrated because I couldn't seem to put any combinations together. Anything more sophisticated than a few short round kicks just never came to mind while I sparred. I decided that my problem was that I had set my expectations too high. Those on staff have never belittled me for my lack of skills and they won't do that to you either. I can guarantee it.

I decided to step back and focus on one thing. I set as my goal to do a short round kick followed by a back kick (for whatever reason, I just could not do a back kick while sparring). I didn't care what happened for the rest of the sparring session, I just wanted to learn to do that one combination well. Once I felt comfortable with that, I graduated to other combinations.

My advice is that you do the same. If you want to do a combination, just try and do ONE. Once you have that in hand, try for two. If you fall down in the process, get up and try it again. If your kicks miss their target, then focus on your distance. The point is, RELAX. Try new stuff. We would rather see someone try something new and fail than throw twenty-five round kicks over and over. And don't forget, we have all been there.