Beneath dozens of fluttering banners striped in primary colors, over 500 students in white uniforms went through the customary stretches that always marked the beginning of the opening ceremonies for Tae Park’s annual Tae Kwon Do tournament.
Last Saturday, over 47 Hillsdale College students, professor’s children, and community members participated in the tournament as students in Senior Master Brian Anderson’s Tae Kwon Do Institute.
“We were one of the smaller groups there, but we did well,” Anderson said.
Hillsdale College students alone won 13 gold medals, 11 silver medals, and six bronze medals in a number of events including form, sparring, and step fighting.
Furthermore, twenty-eight of Anderson’s students earned their black belts in a Friday night ceremony, including seniors Ian Blodger and Daniel Chandler, juniors Brian Vear and Alexi Noble, sophomore Kitty Helmick.
“[The new black belts] did really well,” Anderson said. “They did really well last year as red belts, too. They just tortured people. But it’s like playing high school football versus college football. You have to adjust.”
Noble said that the new black belts were excited to compete in the tournament at a higher level.
“Head kicks are allowed!” Noble explained. “You get to take advantage of flexibility and it’s more realistic.”
“You have to protect your face, so it makes people react differently,” Blodger continued. “It opens up a new dimension to sparring.”
“It’s really fun if you’re tall,” Noble added with a grin. She qualifies as tall.
“And there’s something to be said for seeing really important martial artists here,” Helmick. “There are some truly great fighters.”
Helmick competed against one such fighter in an exhibition sparring round.
Her opponent, Youn Ki Kim, is a professional fighter from Detroit.
“She wouldn’t even be in the same weight class as Kitty,” Anderson said. “She’s a lot heavier than Kitty. I originally thought it was going to be a demonstration between her and Lexi until 5-10 minutes before. If I had more time, I could have helped prepare her to fight a girl like that, but what can you do?”
Grand Master Park, the founder of the Tae Park school of Tae Kwon Do, arranged the match.
“He is looking at Kitty as a person who can be trained to be on the Olympics squad and for the U.S.” Anderson explained. “It was interesting. I learned a lot about how to help her and that’s what I needed.”
Anderson is in a unique position as an instructor, due to the high percentage of college students in his class. Not only are they gone for three months over the summer, but they also have other stringent commitments including academics, debate, and football, he said
“I have most black belts out of everyone else except Grand Master Park,” Anderson said. “But they’re spread out across the world. So, I have a lot, but don’t have any here to help out.”
Vear has an advantage, being a full-time Hillsdale resident, Anderson said. He fought in the Meijer State Games of Michigan last June, passing the first qualifying round for the upcoming Olympics.
Hillsdale College has a long history of exceptionally talented fighters. At least one qualified for the Olympics and others have competed in Korea, China, and most recently, Peru. There, the Hillsdale delegation all won gold or silver, defeating representatives from seven other countries.
“They were all serious fighters,” Anderson said. “In the final round, our guy’s opponent didn’t want to fight him because of how he kept knocking ‘em out with spinning heel kicks.”
Hillsdale’s is also one of the first Tae Kwon Do programs established by Tae Park in the U.S. during the 70s. Anderson was one of Park’s first students, in the dance studio where classes are still held.
“I remember the first tournament we did in Grand Rapids back in the late 80s,” Anderson said. “The history is really deep in our program.”
And it will only continue to deepen, with the talent and dedication of Anderson’s current and future students.