My Taekwondo Journey

Author: Bret Gordon

About a month ago, I wrote an article detailing my history and experience in the Aiki arts (click here to read). After receiving such positive feedback, I thought it only proper to document my journey in the art I have studied since the beginning: Taekwondo.

​My first exposure to Taekwondo was at 4 years old. The school I joined was originally under a Master Yoo (I don't remember his full name) but at some point when I was 5 or 6 it was taken over by Master Dong Soo Kwak and renamed Ultimate Taekwondo Centers. While Master Kwak ran the school, his assistant Mark Bivens ran the majority of the classes and I consider him my primary instructor during this time.

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Mark Bivens top left in red dobak, Master Kwak top right in the red, white and blue track suit jacket.
​Yours truly in the middle row, second from the left. 

I tested for my 1st Poom on January 29, 2000, and received my Kukkiwon certification a few months later. That summer, I switched schools and began studying Kempo, but I stayed in close contact with Mark. There was even a several month period where he practically lived with my parents, and we'd train in our basement. 

Mark would eventually open his own school, but it was simply too far for me to train with him on a regular basis, and so I stayed with Kempo full time until my family moved to Florida in 2004. 

In 2007, I opened my school Trio Martial Arts Academy, teaching a blend of what I had learned up to that point: Kempo, Nihon Tetsuken-Ryu, and of course, Taekwondo. That was actually the inspiration for the naming of my personal art, San Budo, which can be loosely translated as "Three Martial Arts."

Fast forward to 2011, I reconnected with a gentleman named Bart Pontecorvo. Bart had also trained with Master Kwak and Mark, and was running his own school. It was through Bart that I was tested for my 2nd Dan in Kukki Taekwondo. 

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In 2014, I was tested for 4th Dan in American Jidokwan Taekwondo by Steven Hatfield, based on my total time training and in recognition of my experience in other arts. 

​Three years later, I would become President of the American Jidokwan Association. As we came from a Jidokwan lineage, I wanted to connect with the World Taekwondo Jidokwan Federation, the headquarters of the art in Korea. After contacting Korea, submitting biographies of my training history, copies of my certificates from 1st Poom on up, I was accepted as a member of the WTJF and promoted to the rank of 5th Dan directly from Korea, and my instructor Steven Hatfield was recognized as a 7th Dan. 

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Doing more research into my history, it was interesting to learn that Master Kwak also had connections to Jidokwan. While he was a competitor for, and captain of, the Kyung Hee University Taekwondo Team, his coach was Choi Young Ryul, a prominent Jidokwan instructor. So even going back to my earliest days of training in Taekwondo, Jidokwan has always been in my blood.

Since 2018, I have run the American Jidokwan Association (now known as the US Traditional Taekwondo Federation) as an official representative of the World Taekwondo Jidokwan Federation. My 6th and 7th Dan promotions have also come directly from the Jidokwan Headquarters in Korea. I have earned my 2nd Class International Masters License, been appointed President of Jidokwan Florida, and received an award for promoting the spread of Jidokwan worldwide. 

My detractors like to say that I am in fact not a Taekwondo or Jidokwan practitioner. While it's true that I train and teach numerous martial arts, the most consistent aspect of my history has always been Taekwondo. Without it, I wouldn't be the martial artist I am today...