The Chosun e-newsletter Archive Volume 11 #8 August, 2020

August 1, 2020   Newsletter    News   Events   Updates

Dear Martial Arts Enthusiast,  CHOSUN HAS RE-OPENED Please read the details below about the summer schedule which includes options for all levels of involvement Also learn about the protocols and procedures that have been put into practice to keep our students safe! Welcome to the August 2020 edition and the 129th issue of the Chosun Taekwondo Academy e-newsletter!  ONWARD AND UPWARD...NEVER GIVE UP! View the 2019 Chosun Taekwondo Academy Video Retrospective  Check out all upcoming CHOSUN events on the events page of the CHOSUN website! Please visit the updated and improved CHOSUN Yelp page!   and CHOSUN on Instagram   Kamsahamnida,                                                                                                                                            Patty Cook, Editor www.facebook.com/chosuntkd      Chosun Taekwondo Academy celebrating 23 years! Chosun Taekwondo Academy Newsletter celebrating 10 years! Read the entire newsletter... Subscribe at: www.chosuntkd.com

The Chosun e-newsletter Archive Volume 11 #2 February, 2020

Dear Martial Arts Enthusiast, 

Welcome to the February 2020 edition and the 123nd issue of the
Chosun Taekwondo Academy e-newsletter! 

2020 is officially in full swing and there are a few exciting training opportunities on the horizon. Please see details below about the upcoming the ICHF Combat Hapkido Seminar to be held at the Chosun Taekwondo Academy.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR!

View the 2019 Chosun Taekwondo Academy Video Retrospective 

Check out all upcoming CHOSUN events on the events page of the CHOSUN website!
Please visit the updated and improved CHOSUN Yelp page!  
and CHOSUN on Instagram
 
Kamsahamnida,                                                                                                                                                  
Patty Cook, Editor www.facebook.com/chosuntkd  
 

 Chosun Taekwondo Academy celebrating 23 years!
Chosun Taekwondo Academy Newsletter celebrating 10 years!

Read the entire newsletter...

Subscribe at: www.chosuntkd.com

The Chosun e-newsletter Archive Volume 9 #8 August, 2018

Dear Martial Arts Enthusiast,

Welcome to the August edition of the  Chosun Taekwondo Academy e-newsletter! Summer is halfway over but there are many more extra training opportunities at CHOSUN to take advantage of FREE OF CHARGE! See the list below. The 5th Annual Chosun Picnic is this taking place this coming Sunday... Please join us for day of fun, food and fellowship with other CHOSUN students!  

Chosun 2018 Fall/Winter Schedule will be included with your September invoice and will take effect September 1, 2018

Please take note of the 2018 CHOSUN Test Dates below
All tests will be held at the Warwick Town Hall.

View the 20th Anniversary Chosun Taekwondo Academy Retrospective 

Check out all upcoming CHOSUN events on the events page of the CHOSUN website!


Please visit the updated and improved CHOSUN Yelp page!  


Kamsahamnida,                                                                                                            
Patty Cook, Editor www.facebook.com/chosuntkd 
 
                                                                                                                                       
Chosun Taekwondo Academy celebrating 21 years!

Read the entire newsletter...
Subscribe to the newsletter at: www.chosuntkd.com

The Chosun e-newsletter Archive Volume 7 #12 December, 2016

Dear Martial Arts Enthusiast,

Welcome to the December edition of the  Chosun Taekwondo Academy e-newsletter! As 2016 winds down, we look back over a year of many changes and successes for the CHOSUN Taekwondo Academy. We have settled into our new home and continue our journey as a community of dedicated martial artists. In this spirit, we celebrate our shared achievements at the 19th Annual CHOSUN Awards Banquet & Dinner Dance this weekend! Please take note of the CHOSUN HOLIDAY SCHEDULE and the 2017 CHOSUN Test Dates below...

Check out all upcoming CHOSUN events on the events page of the CHOSUN website!

View the 2015 Chosun Taekwondo Academy Retrospective 

Kamsahamnida,                                                                                                            
Patty Cook, Editor www.facebook.com/chosuntkd 
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah

                                                                                                                                        
Chosun Taekwondo Academy celebrating 19 years!

Read the entire newsletter...
Subscribe at: www.chosuntkd.com

The Chosun e-newsletter Archive Volume 7 #8 August, 2016

August 1, 2016   Newsletter    News   Events   Updates

Dear Martial Arts Enthusiast, Welcome to the August edition of the  Chosun Taekwondo Academy e-newsletter! Summer is halfway over but there are many more extra training opportunities at CHOSUN to take advantage of FREE OF CHARGE! See the list below. We are also looking ahead to September and hosting our 19th Annual OPEN HOUSE in our new location! See details below...and PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD! Kamsahamnida! Check out all upcoming CHOSUN events on the events page of the CHOSUN website! View the 2015 Chosun Taekwondo Academy Retrospective  Kamsahamnida,                                                                                                             Patty Cook, Editor www.facebook.com/chosuntkd                                                                                                                                          Chosun Taekwondo Academy celebrating 19 years!

Read the entire newsletter...

Subscribe at: www.chosuntkd.com

The Chosun e-newsletter Archive Volume 7 #3 March, 2016

March 1, 2016   Newsletter    News   Events   Updates

Dear Martial Arts Enthusiast, Welcome to the March edition of the  Chosun Taekwondo Academy e-newsletter! By the time this newsletter finds you, Chosun will be in its new home...and a new chapter begins. It seems appropriate that we should make this big move in the windy month of March because certainly the "winds of change" are upon us! It is a time of transition and with your continued support we will grow within the bounds of our new space and prosper as a school community. Thank you. Please take note of 2016 Test dates listed below... View the 2015 Chosun Taekwondo Academy Retrospective  Kamsahamnida,                                                                                                             Patty Cook, Editor www.facebook.com/chosuntkd Happy Saint Patrick's Day !                                                                                                                              Chosun Taekwondo Academy celebrating 19 years!

Read the entire newsletter 

and visit the CHOSUN website for in depth information about our programs

Chosun e-newsletter Archive volume 6 #12 December, 2015

Dear Martial Arts Enthusiast,

Welcome to the December edition of the Chosun Taekwondo Academy e-newsletter! As 2015 winds down and we look back over the year, many moments of success and achievement

Chosun students meditating at recent Belt Promotion Test

stand out. Our journey as a community of dedicated martial artists has been a solid one and now 2016 holds much excitement as we embark on the next chapter. Construction of our new home on Galloway Road is in its final stages and the long wait will come to an end... 2016 promises to be a year of new beginnings! Onward and upward!

Read entire newsletter...

The Serendipity of Change

by Master Doug Cook

Totally Taekwondo Magazine March 2015 Issue #73

     Several years ago, my daughter Erin completed a 200-hour instructor training course at the Kripalu Yoga Center located in Lenox, Massachusetts. My wife and I went to pick her up one beautiful, autumn day and while walking up a stairway I noticed a poster on a wall. In it was a photo of a woman sitting on a bus with a caption reading: “I was only trying to get home from work.”

Rosa Parks

      For those of us old enough to remember, the precipitous event that produced this antiquated photograph represented a world of change.On December 1, 1955, in segregated Montgomery, Alabama, USA, after a long, hard day at work, a seamstress named Rosa Parks headed homeward. Dog tired, she took a seat in the front section of a city bus. After a few stops, the bus driver demanded that she give up her seat to a man of European descent - she refused. Shortly after, she was arrested, convicted of disorderly conduct and, subsequently, lost her job. The response of one woman to this unreasonable command inspired the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott. Ultimately, it helped end segregation in Alabama and is a testament to the fact that the actions of one person can have a profound effect on the fabric of humanity at large. Later, when interviewed, Ms. Parks said: “I was only trying to get home from work.”

      Rosa Parks literally changed the complexion of racial discrimination in America without any premeditated intent whatsoever.Today, as martial artists, as modern warriors endowed with an ancient wisdom, we endeavor, by example, to live a life of virtue as dictated by the Five Tenets of taekwondo: Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverance, Self-Control and Indomitable Spirit. We set our sights not on elusive perfection, but on a path to excellence both physically and ethically. As living vessels of these moral principles, we possess the power to influence change for the better whether it be at work, at home or in school. Yet, when we awake in the morning, just as Rosa Parks did one December day in 1955, we never know where our daily path will take us.

      During a recent promotion test at my school, the Chosun Taekwondo Academy, a ten-year old girl rose to read her required essay on the topic of indomitable will. By the conclusion of her reading, there was not a dry eye in the audience. I feel it is safe to say that not many adults could have enunciated this virtue as well as this child did. She is small; a little wisp of a thing, yet she spoke of her confidence and how, regardless of how her peers might attempt to discourage her, she would diligently press ahead with her adolescent dreams and, eventually, with those that will flesh out her adult life. Both she and her parents attributed this sense of self-assurance directly to her taekwondo training. Who’s to say what this youngster might accomplish in the decades ahead? Might she one day change the world simply by returning home from school or work?

      Fortunately for us today, the great martial arts masters of the past chose to imbue their hard-earned disciplines, no longer as viable in a world of advanced weaponry, with meritorious codes of honor in an effort to survive cultural upheaval within their society. Evidence of this trend manifested itself in the creation of Funakoshi’s karate-do and Kano’s

Master Cook (right) training at the Kukkiwon

judo. Rather than teaching techniques primarily intended to devastate an enemy on the field of battle, the original intent of the root disciple was altered, particularly during the early 20^th century, for the benefit of elementary and college level students in Okinawa and Japan. For the first time in memory, martial training methods were instead utilized as a vehicle for physical fitness and character enhancement. Later, following the liberation from Japanese imperialism in 1945 that coincided with the conclusion of the World War II, Korean masters returned to their native land, continuing this tradition. We, as taekwondoists of the 21^st century are the recipients this time-honored practice.

      Granted, practical taekwondo was initially developed as a form of self-defense for soldiers in the theater of combat. However, by recognizing the necessity for an ethical framework intended to govern and balance the destructive power we as martial artists

Chosun Taekwondo Academy Leadership Team

possess, our predecessors fashioned an environment where altruism eclipses apathy. By way of example, the Chosun Taekwondo Academy Leadership Team - a group of active, young students whose mission it is to serve our local community under the and train with diligence – year after year generates a vast amount of revenue for the Lions Club International and provides Christmas gifts for underprivileged children. Likewise, I personally attempt to gainfully influence fellow martial artists of all ages and creeds, by teaching with integrity and by sharing my knowledge of traditional taekwondo globally, through the written word, international seminars and by exposing practitioners to seminal skills by arranging training tours to Korea - the epicenter of the taekwondo.   

      Nevertheless, I am certain that my students are not unique in their pursuit of virtue through the practice of traditional taekwondo even though our comprehensive curriculum clearly emphasizes the philosophical elements of the art. Many of the schools I have visited across America and abroad can easily boast of members equally as devoted to leaving a positive stamp on their communities. A casual glace at the news section included in this magazine will verify this belief. In fact, since the promotion of ethical qualities in the practitioner has become a tradition in taekwondo, we at Totally TaeKwonDo would welcome hearing your stories spotlighting the beneficial contributions you as an individual, or your schools have collectively made within your community.

      Yet, regardless of the source, it is often the deed that occurs unlooked for that resonates most through humankind at large just as in the case of Rosa Parks or my young student who stands ready to create a climate of benevolence whenever necessary. Given the blueprint set down by previous generations of masters and grandmasters, the important work of cultivating an elevated lifestyle wrapped in virtue becomes less a chore and more a gratifying reward. Therefore, as modern day martial artists, we must strive for ethical consistency through the disciplined, virtuous practice of taekwondo so that if called upon by fate, we will be prepared to affect positive change anywhere, anytime or anyplace, as best we can…even if we are just trying to get home from work.

Master Doug Cook, 6^th dan black belt, is head instructor of the Chosun Taekwondo Academy located in Warwick, New York, a senior student of Grandmaster Richard Chun, and author of four best-selling books entitled: Taekwondo…Ancient Wisdom for the Modern Warrior, Traditional Taekwondo - Core Techniques, History and Philosophy, Taekwondo–A Path to Excellence, and Taekwondo Black Belt Poomsae: Original Koryo and Koryo, co-authored with Grandmaster Chun along with its companion DVD. Master Cook can be reached for Korea tours, seminars, workshops or questions at www.chosuntkd.com or info@chosuntkd.com.

Chosun e-newsletter Archive volume 6 #10 October, 2015

SAVE THE DATE...
18th CHOSUN Annual Awards Banquet
& Dinner Dance
Saturday December 5, 2015
6:30pm - 11:00pm
Black Bear Golf Club
138 Rt. 23 N. Franklin, NJ 07416
Get into the holiday spirit and join your fellow Chosun students and families for an evening of celebration and goodcheer for the whole family! This annual event is a time to take a moment to reflect on the past year and recognize the efforts and dedication of the Chosun family. Invitations were sent out in the October invoices and are available at the dojang. Please invite family and friends and make this a night to remember! RESERVED SEATING FOR ALL...
Contact Mary Suleski at:
md2065@cumc.columbia.edu.

NEW THIS YEAR... A silent auction of goods and services to offset the cost of new training equipment for the NEW dojang!

Click image to join event on facebook

Read entire newsletter...

Paying Respect, with Marigolds

The Chosun Taekwondo Academy Leadership Team

There’s a charming wooden gazebo in the Warwick Town Park, surrounded by colorful flowers, with an engraved marble bench next to it that catches many a shade-seeker’s curiosity.“It has long been my dream,” the bench reads, “that one day Americans of all ages, creeds, and colors, will be practicing taijiquan in the parks of this nation as they do in China. The result would be a tremendous improvement in mental health and physical well-being. It is my hope that we can work together to revive taijiquan which is fast becoming a lost art.” What is taijiquan? And who is this enigmatic Master Jou Tsung Hwa, “scholar, teacher, author, dreamer?” Taijiquan, it turns out, is tai chi, the slow-moving martial art you see old folks practicing if you ever take a stroll through Chinatown in the morning. Master Jou was a world renowned teacher of the art, and the creator of the 103-acre Tai Chi Farm on Route 94 – an international mecca for tai chi practitioners and a landmark in Warwick. People came from around the world to practice and live on his property. The era of the Tai Chi Farm came to a close in 1998 when Master Jou died in a car accident. Even though he was in his 80s, Master Jou was still full of life and energy, and his death took the community by surprise. His disciples came together to build a gazebo in his honor. Over time, though, the flowers planted around the perimeter began to wilt. Students from the Chosun Taekwondo Academy, who practiced in front of the gazebo during the summer, took notice. This was a job for the Chosun Taekwondo Academy Leadership Team! The team consists of dedicated young martial artists who are cultivating leadership skills and enriching the lives of our citizens through selfless service to the community. The members of the team worked hard to gather donated plants and set out to fully refurbish the area. It was a huge success and a great way to not only add to the natural beauty of the area but to help honor Master Jou and preserve a valuable part of our local history.“The area was just transformed ,” said director of the team, Chosun 4th Dan Master, Cheryl Crouchen. It’s turned into a tradition to clean up around the gazebo every spring to honor Master Jou. Early on a Sunday morning in May, The Chosun Leadership Team and families happily weeded, raked and planted annuals, keeping this mystical piece of Warwick’s history alive.

A version of this article, written by Ashley Smith appeared in Dirt Magazine July 2014