Last Fearner
2nd Black Belt
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2006
- Messages
- 712
- Reaction score
- 17
I'll post this here since it mostly has to do with use Taekwondo people.
This past weekend (June 9, 2007), I took some students from southwest Michigan (Benton Harbor, and Sawyer) to compete at the "Great Lakes Cup Invitational Taekwondo Championship" in Lansing, Michigan. I was invited to participated as a referee and judge since I have known the tournament host, Master D. Steven Shinn, for many years. I have been away from tournaments for awhile, and it was nice to see some familiar faces.
One of those faces was one that I had not seen before, but have been fortunate enough to meet here on Martial Talk. Master Ron Southwick (or MSUTKD, as he is known here) heads up the Taekwondo program at Michigan State University, and has been involved with the Great Lakes Cup for many years.
I got the chance to speak with him directly, and he is an very nice gentleman, and outstanding instructor and referee. I had the opportunity to watch him coordinate ring activities throughout the day while I judged and refereed in one of the rings. Master Southwick was very gracious and checked on me often with a friendly smile. Near the end of the event, I enjoyed watching Master Southwick officiating as the center ref for the Black Belt Sparring while I did some judging in the same ring.
An interesting conversation during the day revealed that we have a connection before MT, and might have crossed paths over the years without even known it. I had taken an advance TKD class while attending college at LCC and MSU back in 1981 (I was a 2nd Dan at the time) from Korean Grandmaster Kim, Jongoon, who Master Southwick has studied with for so long.
http://www.msu.edu/user/taekwon/instructors.html
http://www.msu.edu/~spock/instr.html
Grandmaster Kim taught me the Palgwe forms, and although I was a student in his class, he put me in charge for a few days while while he went on an important business trip. During the 1990's I helped Master Shinn with judging and refereeing at the annual Great Lakes Cup just after a time when Master Southwick was the MSU Team Captain. It is likely that we were present at the same event on more than one occasion in the past.
This is the second person that I have had the pleasure of meeting in-person after having made a connection here at MT. The first was IcemanSK, who flew from California to Florida for the U.S. Chung Do Kwan Spring Conference in 2006, where I met him and we had a good time getting acquainted IRL. Some of you might recall that Iceman returned to the conference this year and tested for 3rd Dan (and passed!).
Master Southwick used his talents and knowledge in translating Korean Hangul to help me with a Newspaper article here on MT sometime back:
http://martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34862&highlight=newspaper
It's nice to see the real human beings behind all this thread weaving!
CM D.J. Eisenhart
This past weekend (June 9, 2007), I took some students from southwest Michigan (Benton Harbor, and Sawyer) to compete at the "Great Lakes Cup Invitational Taekwondo Championship" in Lansing, Michigan. I was invited to participated as a referee and judge since I have known the tournament host, Master D. Steven Shinn, for many years. I have been away from tournaments for awhile, and it was nice to see some familiar faces.
One of those faces was one that I had not seen before, but have been fortunate enough to meet here on Martial Talk. Master Ron Southwick (or MSUTKD, as he is known here) heads up the Taekwondo program at Michigan State University, and has been involved with the Great Lakes Cup for many years.
I got the chance to speak with him directly, and he is an very nice gentleman, and outstanding instructor and referee. I had the opportunity to watch him coordinate ring activities throughout the day while I judged and refereed in one of the rings. Master Southwick was very gracious and checked on me often with a friendly smile. Near the end of the event, I enjoyed watching Master Southwick officiating as the center ref for the Black Belt Sparring while I did some judging in the same ring.
An interesting conversation during the day revealed that we have a connection before MT, and might have crossed paths over the years without even known it. I had taken an advance TKD class while attending college at LCC and MSU back in 1981 (I was a 2nd Dan at the time) from Korean Grandmaster Kim, Jongoon, who Master Southwick has studied with for so long.
http://www.msu.edu/user/taekwon/instructors.html
http://www.msu.edu/~spock/instr.html
Grandmaster Kim taught me the Palgwe forms, and although I was a student in his class, he put me in charge for a few days while while he went on an important business trip. During the 1990's I helped Master Shinn with judging and refereeing at the annual Great Lakes Cup just after a time when Master Southwick was the MSU Team Captain. It is likely that we were present at the same event on more than one occasion in the past.
This is the second person that I have had the pleasure of meeting in-person after having made a connection here at MT. The first was IcemanSK, who flew from California to Florida for the U.S. Chung Do Kwan Spring Conference in 2006, where I met him and we had a good time getting acquainted IRL. Some of you might recall that Iceman returned to the conference this year and tested for 3rd Dan (and passed!).
Master Southwick used his talents and knowledge in translating Korean Hangul to help me with a Newspaper article here on MT sometime back:
http://martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34862&highlight=newspaper
It's nice to see the real human beings behind all this thread weaving!
CM D.J. Eisenhart
