4
****♦,
Thursday, October 4, 1984/The Battalion/Page 9
Cubs 4, Padres 2
Tigers 5, Royals 3
NL, AL pennant series — Game 2
Sports
ae kwon do combines grace and power
Tae kwon do instructor Steve Powell warms-
up with some head kicks on student Carol
Photo by DA VID LEYENDECKER
Dunton. Tae kwon do means literally the
way of the hand and foot.
By JAN PERRY
Sports Writer
True to the name martial art, tae
kwon do combines the strength and
stamina of a demanding sport, and
the beauty and grace of dance.
Tae kwon do is the Korean system
of self-defense that literally means
the way of the hand and foot. It is
sometimes confused with karate,
which means empty hand.
Steve Powell, the president of The
Texas A&M Tae Kwon Do Club,
said the main difference between tae
kwon do and karate is that the Ko
rean’s stress hand and kicking tech
niques while the Japanese stress
hand techniques. The Japanese use a
smaller number of kicking tech
niques than are used in tae kwon do.
“A lot of people know what karate
is because it was here first — because
of the war (World War II) with Ja
pan,” the fifth-degree black belt
said.“The first national organization
(the United States Karate Associa
tion) was set-up in 1949.”
“Then, the Koreans actually came
over in the late 50s,” Powell said. “E-
verybody knew about karate, but not
too many knew what tae kwon do
meant.
“So, a lot of people said, ‘What’s
tae kwon do? I want to take karate.’
Well, tae kwon do is...just a Korean
karate,” Powell said.
Powell practices a system of tae
kwon do developed by Jhoon Rhee.
Powell said Rhee faced some hostil
ity from his Korean associates when
he first came to the United States
when he adapted traditional tae
kwon do to suit Americans.
“It seems silly because what he’s
done is something like what Bruce
Lee has done with his style of Kung
Fu,” Powell said. “(Lee) took the best
out of every system you can think of,
regardless of what self-defense sys
tem it was, and utilized it if it
worked.
“Bruce Lee took ideas from fenc
ing, boxing, wrestling, judo, karate
and tae kwon do,” Powell said. “A-
nything, as long it wtts useable. Mr.
Rhee kind of did an adaption to that
(tae kwon do). He took western box
ing philosophies and tae kwon do
and put them together.”
Powell said he teaches both the
traditional Korean and the Ameri
can aspects of tae kwon do to his stu
dents.
“The traditional aspects of tae
kwon do are the old forms...what the
Japanese call cada,” he said. “Cada is
a combination of gymnastic routines
with karate techniques, only you
don’t do the flips. Some people do
(flips), but that’s a little bit more of a
showmanship-type thing...most of it
is doing kicks and punches in the air
against imaginary opponents.”
Powell, who is working towards a
doctorate in biomechanics, said he
combines the things he learns in his
classes with the tae kwon do classes
he gives to find better techniques to
prepare for competition.
Tae kwon do has two types of
competitions — forms and sparring.
Cada falls under the forms division.
Actual fighting against an opponent
is in the sparring division.
“In the sparring competition,”
Powell said, “they have to have the
foot gear and the hand gear and
other protective equipment. “The
guys have to have groin protectors,
and everybody wears the mouthpie
ce.”
The tournaments are divided into
age and rank categories. The two
most common rank categories are
brown and black belts.
Powell, who also has a tae kwon do
school in Brenham, said he encour
ages his students to compete in tour
naments. Powell said tournament
competition is important because it
helps to teach people how to deal
with stress.
“A lot of instructors say competi
tions aren’t important and that prac
tice is enough,” he said. “That’s not
true.
“That’s like saying Sugar Ray
Leonard could of won his title by just
getting out there and punching a
bag,” Powell said. “You can’t do that,
you have to spar and work on your
timing.
“If you are exposed to stress, like
a street situation is (stressfu-
1)...you’re not going to perform like
you do when you punch on a bag,”
Powell said. “You have to know how
to handle the stress, and tourna
ments will help out.
“Granted, tournaments are not
close to a street situation as far as
contact goes because it (a tourna
ment) is pretty much controlled,”
Powell said.
Powell has applied his classroom
techniques to real-life situations by
working as a security guard in Hous
ton. His job was to protect musicians
during their concerts.
“I protected people like Paul Mc
Cartney, John Denver, Kiss, Neil
Young, and James Taylor,” Powell
said.
“Lots of times you have to get out
there and duke it out with the fans,”
he said. “When they (the fans)
started showing up with knives and
guns, I quit.”
Powell, who has consistently
ranked highly in Texas for the past
10 years, is competing extensively
this year to retain his title.
Powell has won the tae kwon do ti
tle every year since 1974, except the
year he broke his back in a car acci
dent.
In 1982, Powell regained the best
all-around title in fighting forms and
specialty cada.
“Specialty cada utilizes music,” he
said. “That’s where we really get to
be like the gymnasts. But, I don’t do
any flips because of my accident.”
This year, Powell has won five
tournaments. He was named grand
champion four times.
In the grand champion division,
the four winners from the black belt
weapons, specialty, and women’s
forms competitions all compete
against 6ach other. The winner in
this division is named the grand
champion.
A&M’s Tae Kwon Do Club will be
having its own competitions March
30, in G. Rollie White Colliseum.
“It will be a moderate-size tourna
ment,” he said. “Probably moder
ately small because of the location.”
Powell said their are few women
competing in tae kwon do. He said
A&M’s club is probably only 18 to 25
percent women.
“I teach a self-defense course for
the P.E. department, and it aggra
vates me that about 60 percent of the
class is guys,” he said. “The class is
really geared towards women —guys
can’t really use the techniques.
Women ought t,o be out there first,
and make the guys wait.”
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