Master Kim Myung Soo~1938-1994

Departed 1994

 

 


Thank you for putting up the web page for Master Kim Myung Soo. I had been trying to find information on him for many years. He was the first martial arts instructor I ever trained under at the ISB for three school years from 1966/67 to 1968/69. Your post led me to find the Chang Moo Kwan Green Book, in which he is mentioned and there is a picture of a group of students with him at the end of a rank grading in September 1968. Note: see pages 145, 148, 188

http://changmookwan.net/changmookwanhistory/thegreenbook.html

Since then as I moved around the world and back to the USA, I've trained off and on in Judo, Hapkido, Goju Ryu, Shotokan, Tai Chi Chuan, and Renbukai. I still practice Shotokan, today and am still training to advance in rank in both Shotokan and Renbukai.

Best wishes to you and all other ISB Chang Moo Kwan alumni.

Sincerely,

Kevan Urquhart
I have fond memories of Mr. Kim. I started in his first classes at the YMCA and continued at ISB until we left in '68. He showed us the power of the discipline by breaking a rock he picked up in the garden at the Y. It took him a while to break it with his knife hand but he didn't quit until he did. At the school he worked us very hard. I can remember one episode where we had just run around the track to warm up and then practiced kicks and punches. I was breathing especially hard through my mouth and he told me to keep my mouth closed or a fly would land in it. The rest of the class broke up. 

Steve Duncan '68

Sometimes we regret surfing the net for names.
 
Please pass along to the alumni that Mr. Kim Myung Soo died in 1994.  Many of us were students of Chang Mu Kwan taekwondo and I'm sure we've all wondered what ever became of Sabum-nim Kim.  Apparently he left Bangkok in 1974 and settled in Switzerland, and later attained the distinction of 9th degree black belt.

The Kim School of Taekwondo has a guestbook at http://www.taekwondo.ch/bern/index.php?page=guest
 

I've made an entry and hope other students of Mr. Kim's will join me.  All I could remember was the handgrenade joke he told, and when he ripped the (unauthorized) pocket off someone's uniform jacket sleeve.


Regards,
Guy H. Power

Class of 1971

 

Taekwondo owes its arrival in Switzerland with the meeting  in Bangkok of Master Kim Myung Soo and Mr. Bundeli, current president of the Swiss Association of Taekwondo (Swiss Taekwondo). The first dojang was opened in Bienne in 1974. In 1983, Master Kim opened the Kim's Taekwondo School of Lausanne, where he taught until the year of his death in 1994. Vice-president of the technical committee of the World federation of Taekwondo (WTF), he was one of the pioneers of modern Taekwondo. While working with its development, he always remained faithful to traditional Taekwondo, privileging the research of the harmony of the body and the spirit, in the search of purely technical performances. Following the absence of Master Kim, Master Bundeli ensured the survival of l'école lausannoise by teaching there once per week.
http://www.taekwondo-lausanne.ch/notre_ecole/notre_his.php

Le Taekwondo doit sa venue en Suisse à la rencontre à Bangkok, de Maître Kim Myung Soo avec M. Bundeli, actuel président de l´Association Suisse de Taekwondo (Swiss Taekwondo). Le premier dojang est ouvert à Bienne en 1974.

En 1983, Me Kim ouvrit L´Ecole Kim Taekwondo Lausanne, où il enseigna jusqu´en 1994, année de son décès. Vice-Président du comité technique de la fédération Mondiale de Taekwondo (WTF), il fut l´un des pionniers du Taekwondo moderne. Tout en travaillant à son développement, il resta toujours fidèle à un Taekwondo traditionnel, privilégiant la recherche de l´harmonie du corps et de l´esprit, à la recherche de performances purement techniques.

Suite à la disparition de Maître Kim, Maître Bundeli assura la survie de l'école lausannoise en y dispensant une fois par semaine son enseignement.

 

Please send pictures (old and new), anecdotes, articles, stories and tributes to isbeings at gmail.com

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