Totally Tae Kwon Do Magazine - Issue 20 - Usadojo

On Saturday the 26th and Sunday 27th of
June I found myself in Valkenswaard,
Netherlands at a training and grading camp
for United TaeKwon-Do International. This
was quite a major
occasion for me as I
had not seen Grand
Master Van Orsouw
since he graded me to
2nd Degree Black
Belt in TaeKwon- Do
back in 1998. I was
also honoured to be
present at the
presentation of his 8th
Degree Black Belt in
1997 and on this trip it
turned out that I would
have the chance to
see him receive his
9th Degree.
Grand Master Van
Orsouw’s Martial Arts
career has spanned 5
decades, and he has
held many top
positions within the
International
TaeKwon-Do
Federation at Dutch
and European level. I
got a chance to sit
down and speak with
him shortly after he
received the 9th Degree award. Mr. John
Vaughan 4th Degree Instructor from UTI
Blarney also sat in on the interview.
Paul: Grand Master Van Orsouw, it’s a real
honour to have this chance to speak to you,
Exclusive Exclusive Interview
Interview
Grandmaster Karel Van Orsouw
9th 9th Degree, Degree, UTI UTI
By Paul O’Leary
just after the awarding of your 9th Degree
Black Belt. You have had quite a long and
varied history in the martial arts. Could you
tell us about your early training and how
you came to practise
the art of TaeKwon-
Do?
GM Karel: Well, I
started Martial Arts
training in 1963 in
Kyokushinkai Karate,
which is quite a tough
style. It was not a full
contact style back
then, but it was still
quite tough compared
to other styles. My
instructor at that time
changed to Shotokan
in 1964 and in 1965 to
TaeKwon-Do. That
was the year
TaeKwon-Do was
introduced to Holland
by the Korean Master
Kwon Moo Gun.
He gave a
demonstration in our
club and we were
looking at him that
time as Karate-ka’s,
and said this was
much better, much
nicer than Karate in our opinion. So the
school changed from Karate to TaeKwon-
Do. From that day on I practised TaeKwon-
Do, which is now 45 years ago.
Totally Tae Kwon Do - 9