By Dr. Theresa Ferg
Years ago in 1993 I had the remarkable opportunity to create the artistic record of General Choi Hong Hi, who is the Founder of Taekwondo (TKD). The sculpture is a heroic size (slightly larger than life size) bronze bust. One of a number of remarkable situations that occurred in the making of his sculpture was during the time he was “sitting” while I was making the original clay artwork.
The location of the event was the personal home of Grandmaster Charles E. Sereff, in Broomfield, Colorado. A chair from the kitchen island was used to place the General at eye level to the sculpture armature, which was on the art stand where I stood next to about 10 feet from the. General in the center of the living room. We had just completed the initial 8 turns of the head position that define the basic composition of the bone structure of his look. At that time we took a break.
General Choi was quite pleased with the process and how the artwork was progressing. When the break was over he walked back into the room and excitedly hopped up into the chair. Due to this extra energy, as he simultaneously jumped up and turned to sit, he and the chair fell over backwards onto the floor. Since General Choi was most agile even in his seventies, he did a backwards roll and quickly landed on his feet. Along with Grandmaster Sereff and myself, there were two of the TKD senior black belt members of Grandmaster Sereff’s dojang in the room. We were all shocked watching the backwards fall and further stunned when the General flipped up and was standing facing us. There was a moment of silence.
Then General Choi did an amazing thing that I had never seen before. He froze in position and closed his eyes for about 10 seconds. When he opened his eyes he had erased the incident entirely from his mind as if it had never happened. There was no mention of his fall. In essence, General Choi did not waste a single breathe or thought on an unnecessary situation. His positive emotional energy was once again apparent. His ability to control a strong inner strength was impressive. We continued on with the artistic process albeit the senior black belts quietly stood about three feet behind him for the remaining session.
This brief example by General Choi demonstrates how TKD training can improve the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of students. There are many times in everyone’s life when having a greater awareness of your own situation builds inner strength. To not lose sight of the task at hand, to stay focused on what matters most or to remain confident to achieve your goals are aspects of this higher consciousness acumen. These characteristics of human ability are not exclusive to TKD or the martial arts but do offer an excellent venue with which traditional unwavering positive behaviors can develop strong traits in children and young adults.
Specifically, the trait of an internal motivation for learning, which is lacking for most K-12 students today. Students can truly benefit from the inspiration of experiencing TKD and the martial arts. It is the experience of building inner strength that supports the development of self-confidence that drives internal motivation. Learn more at https://gallerysanisabel.com/taekwondo
