History of Southern Tang Soo Do

The Southern Tang Soo Do Association was born with a dream to teach and practice the art of Tang Soo Do, without compromising the art's tradition to the commercialization of Karate which has taken away the true meaning of the martial arts in so many styles that are being taught today.

It was formed by several United Fighting Artists Federation (UFAF/Chuck Norris System) blackbelts in the hope that the art of Tang Soo Do can be taught with the proper emphasis on discipline and attitude. The founding Board of Directors included: Mr.Gary Jones (Eastman, GA), Mr. Skeet Chambers (Augusta, GA), Mr. Ken Ludlow (Augusta, GA), Mr. Eric Hensley (Augusta,GA) and Mr. Butch Nunnely (Atlanta, GA).

The art of Tang Soo Do comes from the ancient art of Soo Bahk Do (Hand Strike Way), which can be traced back many centuries ago. Somewhere in the time frame of 618-935, Soo Bahk Do was developed in Korea with it's bases rooted to the Shaolin's 18 Hands of Lohan, which started off as a group of exercises for the Shaolin to better their health and minds.

Somewhere near 1945, Hwang Kee formed a martial arts school in Korea and called it "Moo Duk Kwan". The school of Moo Duk Kwan took the art of Soo Bahk Do and the Chinese arts and combined them into what is known today as Tang Soo Do (Way of the China Hand). With a mixture of Soo Bahk Do, Northern China Kung Fu and Southern China Kung Fu, Tang Soo Do covers a wide range of defense and conditioning areas.

In 1957, Tang Soo Do was taught to the United States Army, 8th Army Headquarters in Seoul, Korea as a means of hand-to-hand combat training. It's hand techniques combined with the kicking part of the art, allowed excellent responses for some military use.

During the next several decades following World War II, alot of politics took place in various martial art organizations. With this, several different martial art practicioner groups formed their own type of training art from the above base arts. Some of those were Tae Soo Do, Dae Han Soo Bahk Do Hoi, and the Kuk Sool Won.

Tang Soo Do was introduced to the United States around 1962 when Jong Hyan Lee establishes a Tang Soo Do dojo in San Diego, California. Next came Shim Sang Kyu in 1964. Other practitioners followed, some bringing political changes, some just establishing the art in America.

This dojo was opened with the specific intention of continuing and passing on the purest form of the art of Tang Soo Do.