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Grandmaster Ki Yun Yi
9th Dan
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Grandmaster Ki Yun Yi, a native of
Yong In, South Korea, spent his childhood years in a country
devastated by the Korean War. At the age of nine, shortly after the
war ended, he began his training in Tang Soo Do as
a means of survival and self-protection. Among his early instructors
were Master Song Si Kim (# 312), founder of the World Dang Soo Do
Union,
and Master Jae Chul Shin (# 698), founder of the World Tang Soo Do
Association.
Grandmaster Yi excelled in martial arts and received his first
degree black belt at the age of twelve. During the
late 1960's and
early 1970's he taught Tang Soo Do at
the Osan Air Force Base in
South Korea. He also distinguished himself in national competition,
and in 1970 won the Korean National Championship. In a country with
limited educational and economic opportunities, his career in
martial arts was the vehicle that allowed Grandmaster Yi to emigrate
to the United States in 1973.
At the request of the Korean Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan Association,
of which he was then a member, Grandmaster Yi came to the U.S. to
teach Tang Soo Do. He founded the first Yi's Martial Arts Institute
in Woodbury, NJ in 1974. Having dedicated his life to the art of
Tang Soo Do, he strives to bring the art to practitioners throughout
the world and in 1984, he founded the
International Martial Arts Association (IMA) in order to retain the
traditionalism paramount to the true spirit of Tang Soo Do.
Grandmaster Yi is a moving force in
the worldwide Tang Soo Do community and continues to teach in
addition to managing the affairs of his organization and member
schools. In recognition of his work over the years, he has been
featured in several martial arts publications, including Black Belt
Magazine, Tae Kwon Do Times, and the UK's Tae Kwon Do and Korean
Martial Arts Magazine.
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