Nam Tae-hi
Korean taekwondo master of 9th dan, co-founder of Oh Do Kwan and author of the patterns Hwa-Rang, Chung-Mu and Ul-Ji, called the father of Vietnamese taekwondo.
Quick Facts
South KoreaBiography
Nam Tae-hi was a Korean taekwondo master of 9th dan, a co-founder of the Oh Do Kwan school and one of the twelve original taekwondo masters in the Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA). He was born on 19 March 1929 (other sources give 18 March) in Keijo (today's Seoul) in Korea under Japanese rule and died on 7 November 2013 in Garden Grove, California, at the age of 84.
As a captain in the South Korean army he met Choi Hong Hi, with whom he co-founded Oh Do Kwan; in the early days of taekwondo he was his right hand. In 1954, at a demonstration before President Syngman Rhee, as a 2nd dan he broke 13 roof tiles with a punch; the president was so amazed that he ordered martial arts training for all military personnel.
He designed three patterns (hyung) of the Chang Hon system: Hwa-Rang, Chung-Mu and Ul-Ji. He was the founding director of the KTA and president of the Asian Taekwon-Do Federation. In March 1959 he took part in the first overseas demonstration tour of Korean taekwondo to Vietnam and Taiwan, and in 1962 he became chief instructor of the Vietnamese army. He is called the father of Vietnamese taekwondo.
In 1972 he moved to the Chicago area, where in 1973 he opened his own school (dojang); later he moved to Los Angeles. In 2007 he was inducted into the Taekwondo Hall of Fame.
Associated Martial Arts
Kata and forms
Organisations
- Korea Taekwondo AssociationFounder
- Oh Do KwanCo-founder
Ranks and titles
- 9th danITF Taekwondo