MY STORY
SGM Koe Woong Choung
by SMaster Guy E. Larke Leading Change in the Tang Soo Do World
By Senior Master Guy Edward Larke By now we have met pretty much all the grandmaster archetypes from the retired champion to the descendent of a system. It gets to be we can guess pretty much which of 3 or 4 personalities the leader of an organization within a few minutes of meeting him (or her). Not saying that is necessarily a bad thing but as someone who researches various systems and methods I am more often than not attracted to those who don’t fit neatly in any one stereotype. When I moved to South Korea 18 years ago one of my goals was to study the Korea art of Tang Soo Do so I could experience it like my childhood hero Chuck Norris did. After a lot of dead ends and brick walls I was introduced to one organization located in the Dong-dae-moon district in Seoul. That afternoon was surprising whereas I met retired HK movie legend Hwang Jung-Lee and my to-be Tang Soo Do master Chang Il-Do (aka Bruce Lai in HK movies). That same day I was introduced to a non-descript grandfatherly gentleman who turned out to be the backbone and the engine that kept the federation going. His name was Choung Koe-Woong (Jung Kway-Oong) and he turned out to be far more important to myself and many other Tang Soo Do exponents across the globe. Over a period of years my wife (who was brought into the now World Tang Soo Do General Federation) and I
12