New Directions

Volume 16 | Issue 1 Article 3

1-1-1989 The aM gnificent Obsession Of Dong Ja Yang Harriet Jackson Scarupa

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Recommended Citation Scarupa, Harriet Jackson (1989) "The aM gnificent Obsession Of Dong Ja Yang," New Directions: Vol. 16: Iss. 1, Article 3. Available at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol16/iss1/3

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Howard @ Howard University. It has been accepted for inclusion in New Directions by an authorized administrator of Digital Howard @ Howard University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Scarupa: The Magnificent Obsession Of Dong Ja Yang ON THE HILL

“Howard University’s is the top taekwondo pro­ gram in the U.S. No ques­ tion about it. That’s not my word; it’s the word of the taekwondo coaches and instructors in the U.S.”

Dong Ja Yang

THE MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION OF DONG JA YANG

Published NEWby Digital DIRECTIONS Howard JANUARY @ Howard 1989 University, 1 New Directions, Vol. 16 [], Iss. 1, Art. 3

Love in action at the Olympics.

By Harriet Jackson Scarupa sky blue padded walls on the sides. ting for a class in elementary taek­ ong Ja Yang walks into his office His work clothes are called a dobok, wondo, a one-credit course offered in Howard’s John H. Burr physical Korean for the pajama-like uniform through Howard’s physical education education building dressed in a worn in taekwondo, Korea’s tradi­ and recreation department. conservative dark business suit and tional martial art, and his elaborate In the beginning, the class looks lit­ carrying the requisite attache case. He belt serves notice that he has achieved tle different from any calisthenics ses­ checks over some phone messages and almost the highest mastery possible sion with students doing jumping reviews some papers on his desk, (eighth degree) in this art. His work­ jacks, arm circles, push-ups, stret­ looking very much like any mid-level place is called a dojang, Korean for ches, running in place. Then, to the bureaucrat in any office in the nation’s training hall, and it’s here he teaches accompaniment of a medley of gut­ capital. the kicking and punching techniques tural yells and rhythmic counting in Fifteen minutes later, he’s dressed in that are so essential in taekwondo. Korean, they practice kicking and his real work clothes: a loose white But taekwondo isn’t really about punching in the air against imaginary cotton v-neck shirt and white cotton kicking and punching, as he and his opponents as a stoic-faced Yang calls pants worn with a wide black belt. “disciples” will tell you again and out commands, suggestions, observa­ And he’s carried that now incon­ again. It’s about discipline and control tions: gruous-looking attache case into his and patience and persistence and “Hold the position so you can real workplace: a closed-off space on respect . . . But that’s getting ahead of develop balance and form . . . Try to the other side of a basketball court the story. keep your body in a straight line . . . with a thick navy mat on the floor and This morning this dojang is the set­ Try to keep the form . . . Extend your http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol16/iss1/3 NEW DIRECTIONS JANUARY 1989 2 Scarupa: The Magnificent Obsession Of Dong Ja Yang walking stance properly . . . How fast you kick is not important now. You must go through the whole sequence. Speed and power come later.” Occasionally, he demonstrates a movement himself, swooping a leg towards the ceiling with a grace that seems to belie his stocky build, or stops to correct the line of a student’s kick in much the same way a ballet teacher would in a different kind of dojang (a dance studio). After asking the students to review 8 the eight different kicks they have learned, he pauses to review some­ thing else. “At the beginning of class we bow,’” he says. “Why? To show courtesy, respect. Taekwondo means respect. At end of class we bow: stu­ dent appreciates teacher; teacher appreciates student; we appreciate the experience.” That said, he bows to the students and they bow to him. After class, John Butler, a freshman from Los Angeles, practices his back kicks. Glistening with sweat and breathless from exertion, he pauses to speak of why he signed up for the class. “I always liked martial arts,” he says. “I was a Bruce Lee fan from way back when. But I didn’t really have a chance to take taekwondo in L.A. Then I heard Professor Yang was on the Olympic Committee and that he was really good and a lot of people were telling me this was a really good class to get into, so I said, ‘Let me check it out.’ “When I got here and I saw what the class was like I really liked it. And it helps my studies. After I leave here I’m basically all energetic and ready to go to my next class. Normally, I’d be half asleep in the morning. Now my mind’s focused.” Those, like Butler, who enroll in Yang’s elementary taekwondo class learn the basics of punching, kicking, blocking, moving. In the last three weeks of the semester they get the chance to try out these skills in actual matches. Then their doboks will get some new additions: plastic helmets, padded chest, shin and forearm pro­ tectors and, for men, cups. It’s the same type of gear that is worn today in competition all over the world. Taekwondo beginners wear no belts with their doboks. As they increase H o llo w a y in action at the Olympics.

PublishedNEW by DigitalDIRECTIONS Howard JANUARY @ Howard1989 University, 3 New Directions, Vol. 16 [], Iss. 1, Art. 3 their skills, they earn variously col­ leyball with a ball. But they’re all very for competition and authored a frank ored belts, culminating in the prized different. Karate, for instance, uses far report on the status of taekwondo in black belt. more punching than taekwondo.” countries in the Western hemisphere for the World Taekwondo Federation. Sport and Art Championing Taekwondo But it’s been his persistent lobbying Taekwondo, which literally means the Explaining what taekwondo is and for taekwondo to be included in the art of fighting (do) with the feet (tae) how it has expanded from the land of most prominent sports arena in the and hands (kwon), originated in Korea its origins comes naturally to Dong Ja world—the Olympic Games—that has 2,300 years ago. A fighter wins points Yang. most cemented his reputation as a key in a match by delivering “trembling For this ever-polite, low-keyed assis­ promoter/advocate for the sport. shocks” with the feet, and less fre­ tant professor of physical education at “Through his selfless efforts and quently, with the hands. Howard University is one of the devotion to the sport he was instru­ Because 80 percent of the blows in world’s foremost authorities on and mental in having it become on the taekwondo consist of kicks, and 20 popularizers of the sport. program of the Pan American Games percent of punches, it has been des­ Indeed, he has been instrumental in and also an Olympic sport,” says Col. cribed as a kind of Golden Gloves of heightening the visibility of taek­ M. Donald Miller, president of the the feet. wondo and establishing the rules and United States Olympic Foundation Because of the mental concentration standards of the sport/martial art not and a former executive director of the and cunning required, it has been only in the U.S. but throughout the United States Olympic Committee described as a kind of physical chess. Western hemisphere. This he has (USOC). And because of the elaborate rituals done via holding such influential posts Likewise, Alfredo LaMont, USOC of courtesy and respect integrated into as president of the United States division director for international rela­ competition, it has been described as Taekwondo Union, the governing body tions and protocol, credits the Howard “nice” fighting. of taekwondo in the U.S.; president of professor—in concert with Korea’s Un But it is fighting nonetheless. In a the Pan American Taekwondo Union, Yong Kim, president of the World taekwondo bout, opponents start out which plays the same role for 38 coun­ Taekwondo Federation—with being facing each other, their feet in a wide tries in North, Central and South responsible for the International Olym­ stance, their fists at the ready. What America and the Caribbean; a mem­ pic Committee’s decision to include follows: they bounce on the balls of ber of the executive council and chair­ taekwondo in the program of the their feet in a kind of taunting dance, man of the legislative committee of the Olympic Games last September in go into tight clenches to prevent each World Taekwondo Federation, the Seoul. other from scoring, kick and punch international taekwondo governing Taekwondo made its Olympic debut with hurling force as each seeks to organization under the International as a “demonstration sport,” which overpower the other, while the air Olympic Committee; and a member of means that the medals won by com­ resounds with piercing kihaps (yells) the executive board and of the interna­ petitors could not be tallied in coun­ and the drumming of bare fists and tional relations committee of the tries’ totals. But the very inclusion of feet against pad. A typical nine- United States Olympic Committee. taekwondo in the Olympics at all minute fight (composed of three- Among the specifics of his activities marked an important milestone in minute rounds) leaves even the most in behalf of these organizations: Yang’s long crusade to gain the stamp well-trained athlete exhausted. □ He presented lectures and semi­ of international recognition for the Today taekwondo is practiced in nars at 69 U.S. colleges and universi­ sport he first studied—and loved—as a more than 100 countries in the world. ties on how to establish taekwondo five-year-old in Pusan, South Korea’s “In the last ten years taekwondo no programs in physical education de­ second largest city. longer belongs to one nationality or partments and as part of students’ It was a love he carried through ele­ one group of people having the same extracurricular activities. mentary and high school; through physical appearance,” says Yang, a □ He traveled to 35 Pan American Kung Hee University, where he earn­ native of Korea who is now a U.S. countries, some more than once, to ed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees citizen. “It is a universal sport.” provide guidance on developing taek­ in physical education; through the In the U.S., where it was first intro­ wondo programs and to conduct tech­ University of Iowa, which he entered duced in the late 1950s, it has become nical seminars on the sport. in 1966 to do further study; through the most popular of the martial arts, □ He directed and served as the his 21 years at Howard, where he with more practitioners than karate or chief technical authority for the taek­ joined the faculty of the College of judo (which originated in Japan) or wondo competition in the 1987 Pan Liberal Arts’ physical education and kungfu of Bruce Lee fame (which orig­ American Games held in Indianapolis, recreation department to teach inated in China), he says. Elaborating the first time the martial art was taekwondo and judo, and has since put on how these martial arts differ, he included in such games. the university on the map as one of the adds, “It’s like speaking of a ‘ball □ He drafted and edited the consti­ nation’s “premier training sites for game.’ You play baseball with a ball. tution and bylaws of the United States taekwondo,” as journalists are wont to You play basketball with a ball. You Taekwondo Union and its official write. It was a love, too, he passed on play football with a ball. You play vol­ handbook on the rules and regulations to countless Howard students and to http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol16/iss1/3 NEW DIRECTIONS JANUARY 1989 4 Scarupa: The Magnificent Obsession Of Dong Ja Yang his own four children as well. His two daughters are Howard alumni; one son is a Howard junior, the other a high school senior. All hold black belts in taekwondo. Has taekwondo become an obses­ sion for Dong Ja Yang? “Well, it depends on how you use ‘obsession,’ ” observes LaMont. “Most people will use ‘obsession’ in a negative context. I would say, ‘Yes, it is an obsession, but in a positive way.’ ”

10 Producing Champions If it’s an obsession, maybe it’s all the fault of the tiger. Yang talks about the tiger—and a lot of other things—in his trophy-filled Howard office one afternoon. His manner is courtly, his speaking style formal, his accent especially notice­ able whenever he tackles a word beginning with “r” or “v,” his aura one of a man for whom doubt has no mean­ ing. “There is a saying in Korea,” he says, “ ‘The tiger leaves skin when he dies. You as a man what would you leave?’ That’s always in the mind of people of Korea. “I’m a physical education educator and a sports oriented individual. I value very highly what sports can con­ tribute to the betterment of human life. So, as a physical education educa­ tor, I saw taekwondo, this type of dis­ cipline that developed in Korea, as having a great potential to become part of the official Olympic program. “Since 1967 when I came to Howard only one sport that originated from an Oriental culture was in the program of the Olympics. That was judo. There are 25 summer Olympic sports. There are 12 winter Olympic sports. Always I wondered why—out of the collective sports from all over the world—only one sport that originated from an Ori­ ental culture had the privilege of being in the Olympics. “On the basis of my analysis I saw clearly that taekwondo had a future as an Olympic sport and I made a com­ mitment to see that it become one.” “In order to realize this dream,” he adds, “I had to first develop a program here at Howard to exemplify what a taekwondo program can do, what taekwondo is as a sport and how valu­ able it can be.” J e w e ll in action at the Olympics.

Published NEWby Digital DIRECTIONS Howard JANUARY @ Howard 1989 University, 5 New Directions, Vol. 16 [], Iss. 1, Art. 3 Specifically, that has meant teach­ Adds Holloway, “He really wants to The Academic Connection ing about 300 students a year in the help to build a person’s character so Like the true believer that he is, Yang elementary and intermediate/advan- you become responsible, very focused contends that young people can espe­ ced taekwondo classes offered through and develop a certain amount of disci­ cially benefit from taekwondo. For the physical education and recreation pline that allows you to meet different one, he believes taekwondo can help department. It has meant overseeing a challenges.” them academically. “Study, like thriving taekwondo club, composed Obviously, then, Yang believes taek­ taekwondo, requires patience and con­ almost exclusively of Howard students, wondo is about a whole lot more than centration,” he says. For another, he alumni, faculty and staff, which has kicking and punching. He eager­ believes the self-control and discipline about 75 active members a year. And ly details the appeal the ancient art acquired via taekwondo can help them it has meant coaching Howard’s withstand some of the destructive taekwondo team, whose members are forces in society. drawn from the ranks of the most tal­ Indeed, he goes so far as to say, “I ented members of the club. personally guarantee that children Under his tutelage, team members Taekwondo, which literally with about two years experience with have won 105 national championship taekwondo will not be involved in any­ titles, 35 international championship means the art of fighting thing like drugs or any other bad titles—and three Olympic medals. For (do) with the feet (tae) and temptations they may run into in soci­ three of the eight women in the first hands (kwon), originated ety. So this taekwondo is a real drug ever U.S. Olympic taekwondo team fighting weapon too.” had been coached by Yang at Howard in Korea 2,300 years ago. Some might greet such claims with and each carried home a medal. Lyn- skepticism. (After all, how can they nette Love, who has no academic con­ really be proved?) Yet Yang’s is not an nection to Howard but who came to isolated viewpoint. Consider, for Washington especially to study under instance, what Anthony Ferguson, a Yang, won the gold in the heavyweight mathematics instructor for Howard’s division. Alumna Debra Hooper Hol­ Center for Academic Reinforcement loway won the silver in the bantam­ and a four-year member of Howard’s weight division. Alumna Sharon taekwondo club, has to say about the Jewell won the bronze in the middle­ link between taekwondo and academic weight division. [See accompanying achievement: story.] has for those who take up its study: In addition, two members of the “Practicing taekwondo develops “With studying generally—and I’m Ivory Coast’s Olympic taekwondo physical fitness at the highest level. It not just talking about math—what team were Yang protdgds: Patrice involves all the motor areas. It is also a makes some students excel rather Remarck, a Howard junior who was form of self-defense. And it teaches than others is that they have the disci­ predicted to win the gold in the mid­ self-control because if a student aims pline, they set goals and they work dleweight division but injured his leg to kick an opponent with a malicious hard. I don’t believe in ‘bright’ and all two days before the competition and purpose he can seriously injure his that stuff. I believe in hard work. I was unable to participate, and Alain opponent or if his opponent is mali­ believe if you work hard you’ll be able Kouyate, a senior, who lost by one cious he can be injured. So there must to achieve. That’s in taekwondo also.” point to a Korean opponent in the always be the proper courtesy and Despite Yang’s obsession—if it is— lightweight division. supportive attitude and understand­ with taekwondo, he knows that its “Howard University’s is the top ing. place in a university must always be taekwondo program in the U.S. No “In addition, to reach a higher tech­ subordinate to that of academics. question about it,” says Yang. “That’s nical level, students must concentrate “When it comes time for you to be not my word; it’s the word of the physically—and mentally. Without promoted to a new rank—I don’t care taekwondo coaches and instructors in concentration, they cannot perform. In if you’re the greatest kicker and the U.S.” order to perfect the techniques they puncher in the class—if your grade And what kind of coach is he? “He have to overcome many, many difficul­ point average is not up, he will not reminds me a little of my father,” says ties and that develops patience over promote you,” says Sam Alpha, one of Jewell. “He’s a strong father figure in and over again.” the club’s two assistant coaches. [The terms of discipline and repetition- Asked how all these attributes can other is Yang’s son-in-law Kung Young making you do the same thing over be linked to a sport that to the uniniti­ Lee.] and over again until it becomes like ated spectator may well look like a “He always talks about the three breathing. So even if you’re mentally moregraceful,exotically costumedform levels—or three priorities—when you fatigued or physically fatigued you of brawling, he says: “Yes, the actions become a member of Howard’s taek­ automatically do the techniques be­ in taekwondo are aggressive. But wondo club. The first priority is aca­ cause your body has gotten so used to that’s why self-control is developed, demics. The second priority is doing them.” self-control beyond the normal level.” taekwondo. Everything else is consid- http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol16/iss1/3 NEW DIRECTIONS JANUARY 1989 6 Scarupa: The Magnificent Obsession Of Dong Ja Yang ered as miscellaneous. The only excuse for not coming to practice is studying.” Always, too, he adds, Yang empha­ sizes that members of Howard’s taekwondo team must never forget that they are ambassadors for the uni­ versity. “Whether we’re going across town to compete or going to another country, we tell them that they’re not just representing themselves but they’re representing the Howard image,” observes Alpha, a Howard 12 alumnus who works as office manager for the United Black Fund during the day and says he gives [unpaid] “full­ time service” to Yang in the taek­ wondo program in the evening. “Because most of the time when we go places we’re the only Black team and we’re always the one winning, there can be animosity,” he continues. “So it’s especially important for our students to set down a good impres­ sion. That’s why we always say, ‘For success to be appreciated it must go hand-in-hand with the appropriate manners.” Such an orientation has helped the team serve as a valuable, albeit unoffi­ cial, public relations tool for the uni­ versity. This, plus the popularity, value and caliber of the taekwondo program have earned it an important measure of financial and other support from Howard’s Vice President for Stu­ dent Affairs Carl E. Anderson and Vice President for Development and University Relations Roger D. Estep. Because the taekwondo club and team have no budgets of their own (in the early days, bake sales were a chief fund-raising activity), Yang has been especially appreciative of this support. In fact, he is careful to cite it at any available opportunity. Example: When asked what went through his mind in Seoul when three members of the Howard team won medals, he says, “I just bowed my head, I praised the Lord and deep in my heart I appreci­ ated the support I have been given from Dr. Anderson since 1970 and the additional support Dr. Estep has given me the past five years.” As for what else went through his mind on that emotional occasion, he adds: “I felt that it was a fulfillment of the dream that I had in the deeper part of my heart when I first came to H o llo w a y in action at the Olympics.

PublishedNEW by DIRECTIONS Digital Howard JANUARY @ 1989 Howard University, 7 New Directions, Vol. 16 [], Iss. 1, Art. 3 Howard. But at the same time I felt a “And I feel very good about that not greater sense of commitment that I so much for myself so much as I cheer have to fulfill to see that taekwondo for Professor Yang, considering the reach its potential as a full Olympic amount of work that this man has put sport.” in over the years and continues to put In March, the International Olympic in. All the glory that we’re getting Committee (IOC) is to formally decide from this success at the Olympics whether taekwondo should move from really should be given to him. And I being a “demonstration sport” to a think the Olympic athletes will tell you full Olympic sport. Based on that to a man and a woman.” responses Yang has received from IOC Not one to rest on his laurels, Yang members, he’s predicting that by the is already pursuing new dreams. “In 1992 Olympics in Barcelona taek­ the 1992 Olympics,” he says, “it is my wondo will achieve that coveted status. dream that at least 40 percent of the 13 There is sensitivity within the IOC U.S. Olympians in taekwondo come to charges that the Olympics have not from Howard University.” paid enough attention to sports that Another dream: “I would like to originated outside Europe, says the develop a martial arts division in the U.S. Olympic Committee’s LaMont. “I department of physical education and agree there should be a wider repre­ recreation so that students may study sentation of world sports in the Olym­ physical education as a major and pics,” he says. “I’ll give you a good martial arts as a minor. There are a example. Softball is widely practiced great many recreational centers, Boys in the Americas, Asia and Oceania— Club facilities, YMCAs, YWCAs and but not in Europe. So what happens is other community centers in the United that because it’s not well-known to States interested in having this type of Europeans, it has not been received by program to teach discipline and lead­ the IOC as an Olympic sport. Whereas ership to children and to help steer some of the European-originated sports them away from drugs. Many of our that are in the Olympics have very graduates would be able to contribute > very small, very limited participation.” to such programs.” This kind of European bias is on the And still another: “Even though way out, LaMont believes, and he sees taekwondo originated in Korea, I have efforts to make taekwondo a full- a dream to develop Howard University fledged Olympic sport as an indicator as an international center in taek­ of that future trend. “I think [IOC wondo, a place where athletes and President Juan Antonio] Samaranch is especially coaches and instructors very conscious of this situation [the from all over the world can train.” domination of the Olympic sports pro­ Farfetched dreams? Perhaps. But gram by European-originated sports] don’t tell Dong Ja Yang that. He still and will do his best to try to compen­ carries in his consciousness that say­ sate for it.” ing he first heard in the land of his Already the XXIVth Olympiad in birth: The tiger leaves skin when he Seoul has brought taekwondo greater dies. You as a man, what would you visibility than it’s ever had before. So, leave? □ too, for Howard’s achievements in taekwondo. “We used to refer to the taekwondo program as one of How­ ard’s best kept secrets,” remarks Ferguson, who says he was initially drawn to taekwondo for exercise and then became “hooked.” “With the amount of interest that has been gen­ erated by the news media— The Wash­ ington Post, USA Today, Voice of Am­ erica—our Olympic athletes appear­ ing on the “Today” show and making \ it clear they were from Howard—I think the ‘best kept secret’ has been unveiled. http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol16/iss1/3 NEW DIRECTIONS JANUARY 1989 8