The Tae Kwon Do Master

By Alemayehu Seife Selassie

These days many Ethiopian action films that involve martial arts fight scences are increasingly hitting screens. And amizingly enough most of the main actors’ involved in these scenes trace back to one origion; Kiros Tae kwon do club.
This club belongs to one of the handful African 4th degree Dan Internaintal Tae Kwon Do master, Kiros Guebremeskel.

Spending 17 years in practicing tae kwon do, this individual has dedicated half his lifetime studying the various diciplines of the art. But despite having the techinque that would make him stand out, he likes to keep a low profile.
Strating the tae kwon do art at the police force where he later trained for seven years, Kiros opened his own club ten years ago. And it is from this club that action film actors in Ethiopia broke out.

Over his training years, Kiros has seen different types of personalities who come and get transformed into well deciplined tae kwon do specialists. And he explains how the perception of the society has gone along that transformation. “There are two common perceptions in tae kwon do, one is a perception that this is just a skill to fight others. And the other, rehabilitation.” Kiros however seems to agree with the second perception as he also testifies that he has witneesed the transformation of the most difficult holligans to well deciplined personalities the country could proudly refer to. “It is up to us the trainers to give the enlightnement for the public and if the public percives it wrongly, then that means that we have not served our purpose. There are many clubs these days, but few are living up to the moral and dicipline martial art requires.”

As Kiros states martial art is an art that can be done by anyone as 95 percent of the sport is mental, and there is no age limit. The trainers are however requred to give lessons on specific technique for certain persons. “You have to take into consideration the age, health condition, eating habbit and flexiblity of the person, when you train”, Kiros said. Currently Kiros teaches, students aged between six and 40 and he states that the children who start taking lessons at young age, are likely to adopt it quick.

“I have not come across any studnets who try to beat people up after they took some lessons. What I have come across is, some students who have not reached up to a level yet starting teaching others by opening clubs.”
There are nine dan degrees on the international tae kwon do belts category. In order for one to be granted with a degree above the 4th dan one needs to have the abilty to analyse the theory, to be able to write a detailed thesis on tae kwon do, study the physiology and take part in the internaitnal course that are given by the founders.

“To take my studnets to a higher level, I have to get a higher training myself”, Kiros said, now a president of the Ethiopian tae kwon do association. This tae kwon do master is also responsible for handing out 120 students with a 1st , 2nd and 3rd deegree dan black belts. As to the law of the international tae kwon do federation, a person with a 4th dan is only able to hand out up to 2nd dan black belts. “Since there is no one who has gotten over 4th degree dan in Africa, we are handing out degrees up to 3rd dan.”

Kiros has trained over 3,000 students with tae kwon do techniques over the past decade. And he takes pride in one particularss student, Genet Adisu who has become the first African woman with a 3rd dan Black belt. This former student is one of Kiros’s student who has founded her own tae kwon do club.
“The federation hands out trophies after some performances, but the ability to attian the highest deegree dan black belts depend on the trainees themselves.”

Stating what the art of tae kown do is about Kiros said, “In tae kwon do, we do not use weapons we just use our hand and and legs.” As the master explains Tae means leg, kwon-hand and do- technique. “We have self defence techniques, one- to -one fighting techniques, one -to -four combat techniques but it is all about using hands and legs.”
The talent show section of this training includes jumping beyond the limit (two or three meters high), and power show which includes breaking wood piles. When Kiros took his 3rd dan degree, he has broken over thirty wood piles. “For our 4th dan degree the vice president for the International Tae kwon do federation was here and after he saw our performance he was impressed, he said your belt is low but your skills are high. And he only evaluated us half way and granted us with the degree”.

Now 34 this tae kwon do master has 120 students in three training centers located at Old Airport Liyunet Yelm Gym, Autobus tera and Asko.
Benefiting from Kiros’s trainings some have joined universities as sport instructors going as far as Greece and South Africa, and others have starred in highly publicised Ethiopian films such as Jawisaro and Aladankushim. Kiros’s 30 students have become instructors themselves in Addis Ababa and different parts of the country.
Kiros is the only Ethiopian with two different dans; the Internaitnal Tae kwon do’s highest 4th degree dan, and 2nd degree dan from the World Tae kwon do, as far as going for the 5th dan is concerned Kiros said, “not anytime soon”.
February 16, 2007