Dr. Sandone receiving a first place trophy in 1988
INTERNATIONAL TAE KWON DO DAY: A Zhang Sah Retrospective
September 5th 2024
Yesterday was International Tae Kwon Do Day. During the morning class, which was well attended by our instructors and staff, I focused the entire lesson on the Korean “way of the hand and foot”. International Tae Kwon Do Day celebrates when the martial art was accepted as an olympic sport on September 4, 1994. At that time, I had only achieved a blackbelt in a Korean style of Karate: Tang Soo Do. Two years prior in 1992 I was the 3rd place world champion in kata and fighting as a black belt candidate, and four years prior to that, in 1988, I was the 1st place world champion in both kata and fighting as a brown belt (see photos) . When Tae Kwon Do was accepted into the olympics, my aspiration, and the aspiration of many of my contemporaries, was immediately for Karate to be included next. I was so inspired by this that I initially named this school Gold Medal Karate. I filed with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to use the name on November 18,1994.
I did not begin formally studying Tae Kwon Do until February 1995. By 1997, I had earned my 2nd degree black belt with straight A’s for test scores under Grand Master Soon Ho Chang in his TKA system (Tae kwon Do, Karate, Aikido). Grand Master would often say “talk is cheap”. So when I performed so well on his most difficult exam it afforded me the opportunity to earn his attention. His ways were grueling but effective and he was generous with his instruction. He made certain that we knew our technical skills, history, terminology, philosophy and how to apply what we were learning. I was fortunate to study with him. On September 7th of this year, Grand Master Chang will be 86 years old. This blog entry is my birthday card to him.
