Memories of General Choi Hong Hi

by Matthew Breen, IV dan
Co-editor, Taekwon-Do Talk

General Choi Hong Hi was an extraordinary man.

I have been fortunate enough to attend two of his seminars held in New Zealand; to perform in a demonstration in his honour; to dine with him on several occasions; and even to have a couple of very memorable personal conversations. It is from the perspective of these contacts that I repeat: General Choi was an extraordinary man.

He was short. He was old. His English was imperfect. (In 1991, 3 Sport aired an interview with him, in English. They gave him subtitles.) And yet, he could hold a hall full of black belts spellbound. For hours. Practising Chon-Ji.

There was always an aura of both authority and dignity surrounding him. He rarely raised his voice, expecting his students to listen harder (and we did). During his seminars in New Zealand, he invariably taught in a suit - jacket, tie, dress shoes - although admittedly, he would often take off his tie and roll up his sleeves as his demonstrations grew more physical. A high twisting kick from an eighty-year-old in suit pants and shoes is an impressive sight!

General Choi made five trips to New Zealand; his sixth was planned for earlier this year. He first came here in 1976, a brief visit to meet New Zealand's instructors, and again in 1979 to attend the first South Pacific Taekwon-Do Championships, held in Wellington.

He next returned in 1991, accompanied by then-Master CE Sereff, conducting a seminar for red and black belts. This was a landmark moment for ITFNZ Taekwon-Do, signifying a "return to the fold" after a period of gradually drifting away from the technical standard of the ITF worldwide.

General Choi and Master Sereff again ran a seminar in 1993, and graded ten senior black belts to 5th, 4th, and 3rd degrees.

The next time we saw the General in New Zealand was 1998, accompanied by his son Master Choi Jung Hwa, and by Master Tom MacCallum. One of the seminar participants was David Sutrisna of Indonesia, who graded at the conclusion of the seminar. The General made a presentation at the post-seminar dinner: not only did David receive his result (successful), but the General unclipped his personal ITF dan pin from his lapel, and pinned it on Mr Sutrisna. The moment was profound for those of us watching.

Mr McPhail remembers one aspect of the General with wonder - his eternal focus and dedication to teaching. Following the 1998 seminar, several ITFNZ members accompanied the three Masters on a boat trip to Kawau Island.

"We'd just finished a three-day seminar," Mr McPhail recalls. "Anyone else would have just wanted to relax. We arrived at the island - everyone was fairly quiet. Then, as we walked up the beach, the General turned to me and said, 'Now, when you perform a 9-shaped block...' He was always teaching."

Despite his solemn and serious demeanour, the General was not without a sense of humour. A self defence skit in our 1998 demonstration brought a smile to his face; a similar routine in a demonstration at a World Championships left him streaming tears of laughter. Even so, he was usually so dignified that when he would make a joke during a seminar, it always came as a surprise. During one class, he had a student demonstrate flat and upset fingertip thrusts, and used himself as a target to show the class the appropriate vital spots. He then indicated his assistant. "Very lucky," he informed us. "This only man touch General's head and genitals, same day."

We were... speechless.

His physical prowess, especially at his age, was nothing short of remarkable. He was asked to leave a hotel, for his habit of conditioning his right hand every morning. Early every morning. By bashing it against a convenient solid object, like a concrete pillar; a hundred knifehands, a hundred forefists, a hundred backfists... Unfortunately, this particular concrete pillar sent vibrations through half the hotel, treating guests to a boom... boom... boom... for an hour. (Always the right hand, never the left. We heard two explanations for this. The first - the General was left-handed, and noted for his calligraphy. The second? "Self defence, only need one hand.")

Mr Banicevich, returning from the seminar in Jamaica last year, was in awe of the pressups the General demonstrated.

Mr Niven's voice takes on a tone of fear when he recounts his own seminar experience from 1993. "The General had me demonstrate a W-shaped block, with his own forearm as the target. I controlled it carefully - I didn't want to hurt him," he tells us. " 'Block hard!' the General ordered. So I did." At this point in the story, Mr Niven pauses to rub his arm and wince. "Ow! It was like hitting an iron bar! It felt like I'd broken my arm, and his arm didn't even move!"

And we must always come back to those high twisting kicks. Wow.

The General's teaching style was distinctive. He spent the last several decades travelling around the world running seminars almost constantly - he once pointed out that in any given year, he spent more time in aeroplanes than in any particular country. Teaching so many seminars, he had obviously refined what he considered the vital points into a concise form. Mr Banicevich recalls:

"I had the good fortune to attend five seminars with General Choi (the first as cameraman as a blue stripe). He covered the same material every seminar, but I still picked up dozens of things each time that I had missed in the previous seminars. I am so glad I went to Jamaica.

"My fondest memory is his pearls of wisdom, from which Mr Breen and I love to quote! ('Power. No power, see?')"

Among the most important things the General stressed at each seminar is the Training Secret. I still find that any time I have a "revelation" in my own training as to how or why something works, I can go back to the Training Secret and discover it staring me in the face from one or another of the points. Students - learn, study, memorise, analyse the Training Secret. He knew what he was talking about.

In his interview here in 1991, the General reaffirmed his intention that Taekwon-Do be available to anyone, regardless of race, religion, or ideology, and expressed his happiness that his art was now practised in nearly every country of the world.

"Some day," he said, "I would like Taekwon-Do to travel to the moon, and the stars. But until then, I can say - I can honestly say - I am the happiest, one man alive, see?"

The General is gone, but his art and his teachings remain. It falls to us to see his dream fulfilled.

Some of our favourite General Choi quotes

Power. No power, see?
Bah. Sit down. Who your instructor?
Junbi? What kind of junbi? Junbi for eating? Junbi for sleeping? What kind of Junbi?
You are instructor? You teach him.
No power, nothing, at all, just wasting time.
Doesn't work, cannot; you already dead!
You better than General Choi! Who your instructor?
Hip move same direction as hand does.