Chuck norris & tang soo do

[Kwan Jang]

Just out of curiosity, what dan rank did Chuck end up earing in TSD?

 

[Omar B]

Just out of curiosity, what dan rank did Chuck end up earing in TSD?

What rank is the intestines of your enemies wrapped around you?

 

[JohnASE]

you saw Bernie?

wow, I havnt seen him in like 15 years.

Yeah. He dropped in to pick up some boxing gloves or something. Don't know what for. I don't think he's really involved in martial arts right now, but last I heard, Mouse Krasnoo was teaching some kind of fitness program or something at a gym. Could have been for her or something she's doing.

Close, it's "UFAF" (United Fighting Arts Federation) -- No, the Machado training is not required, but highly recommended. A couple of years ago, he started a program for the instructors to be able to get training, working alongside the Machados. It does not give the UFAF instructors an "instructor" rating in with the Machados, but it does give them workable basics, that they can pass on under the UFAF umbrella.

It's a pretty smart move, actually, it opens the door for legitimate BJJ training, and integrates it into UFAF, but still very clearly keeps the credit where it is due.

UFAF? Ha! I rotated the U to make a C!

The only UFAF instructor I know of near us was training pretty extensively with Jean Jacques Machado. Well above and beyond what was required, if I remember correctly.

 

[AmericanTangSooDo]

I am amazed that it is so difficult to find information on who his REAL instructor was and what his true TSD history was. My instructor has a picture of him as an Ee dan in the US at a US TSD Fed event. But his time in Korea is pretty hard to get at. If you talk to the older Koreans, I've found that just about every one of them says that they trained him or with him. Especially those near US areas, such as Military bases. I've seen plenty of pictures of Koreans standing with him that they use to build their credibility to Americans.

From what I've read in Black Belt magazine and in his own books, during his time in Korea, Norris' main instructors were Jae Chul Shin in Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan and someone named Mr. Ahn in Judo. There are many publications that have written that Norris was a student of Jae Joon Kim, Chun Sik Kim, Ki Whang Kim, etc. But only Shin's name comes up during his interviews.

Years later in the mid to late 1960s, he would eventually earn his black belt in Judo under Gene LeBell. Norris has also written that he trained with Fumio Demura, Hidetaka Nishiyama, Tsutomu Ohshima, and Ed Paker to improve his punching and footwork skills.

 

[AmericanTangSooDo]

Just out of curiosity, what dan rank did Chuck end up earing in TSD?

The last rank Norris tested under the Moo Duk Kwan was for his fourth degree black belt in 1970. From what I once read, something at that particular testing caused him and Pat Johnson to leave the MDK soon after.

He would go on to found the National Tang Soo Do Congress in 1973, then in 1980 founded the United Fighting Arts Federation. Since the early 1980s, Norris has been recognized as a tenth degree black belt in his system of Tang Soo Do. He would eventually drop the name TSD and in 1990 began referring to his art as Chun Kuk Do.

To this day there are still a lot of high ranking ex-Norris black belts who still refer to their style as TSD. Some of the highest ranking are ninth degrees Pat Johnson, Bob Wall, and John Natividad.