School of CHUNG MOO DOE® The CHONG SU NIM "IRON" KIM Style 8 MARTIAL ARTS TAUGHT AS ONETM Other Chung Moo Doe Sites

Dr. Vincent Coll, Ph.D., 35 (Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science)

In seeking diversion from the monotony of lifting weights and jogging, I came to Chung Moo Doe by mere chance. A school had recently opened on the street adjacent to the college that I teach at. I stopped in one day and decided to give it a try. When I began I thought I was reasonably fit, although not very flexible; for example I could not touch my toes. I also had a serious injury to my left shoulder - a rotator cuff problem, and an occasional, but recurring, spasmatic back.

Soon after my training began I noticed that my physical limitations were diminishing and I am now pleased to say that not only can I touch my toes but I can tough the floor with the palm of my hands. My shoulder and back problems are now a distant memory. Moreover, as my body began to adapt to the movements that I was learning, the confidence in my own abilities began to grow. So too was my determination bolstered as the instructors, gently, but firmly, helped me to push my way through, what seemed to be, difficult lessons. I am only now becoming aware of the process that was taking place. By getting into and maintaining positions, I was using my body to train my mind to become more disciplined. The process is, of course, reciprocal. As my mind became more disciplined I could push my body into even more exact positions requiring still more concentration and discipline to maintain them.

The instructors that I have met through my training are good people, interested in improving themselves and those around them. While the instructors are very caring individuals, capable of superior physical movement, I do not believe that they were born extraordinary. The abilities and skills that instructors possess is a tribute to the system in which they were trained and the art whose philosophy and movement has been so carefully preserved and transmitted from generation to generation.

I have learned that I am responsible for who I am and what I become, exercising more direct influence and control over my own fate than I had previously imagined.

Our families usually teach us to be kind and caring of other people. It is curious that I turned to a martial arts school in order to discover how to care for myself.

Thank you instructors!
Dr. Vincent Coll, Ph.D.