By Daniel Arimborgo
Brown belt Tatorka Taskova fixed her eyes on the small plank held by her instructor, Joseph Froman, at S.Y. Kim’s Tae Kwon Do school on Horace Harding Boulevard in Bayside last month. Seated at a judge’s table was the school’s owner, Master Sin Yung Kim.
Taskova, 57, did three warmup kicks and snapped the board cleanly in two with the ball of her foot and earned her black belt.
Lower-ranked students also kicked planks in two, but Taskova had executed a flying kick to break hers, both feet in the air.
Tae Kwon Do, which originated in Korea, differs from Karate in that it uses more kicking and close-fisted blows. The blows, when delivered well, are very powerful, as are the kicks, which are also very high, often at or above head level.
In fact, “Tae” means “the art of the feet,” “Kwan” means “the art of the hand,” and “Do” means “the way of life.”
“By doing Tae Kwon Do, you try to achieve total mind and body control through training,” said Bayside instructor Michael Kim.
During the testing, instructors and experienced students held the planks at seemingly impossible heights for the students to kick.
“I hold the wood high because I want them to earn their belts,” instructor Froman said. “You don’t want it to be too easy for them.”
Taskova, who has taken Tae Kwon Do for three years, is a retired musician who still plays the cello and the piano with an ensemble of other retired musicians. They often perform at hospitals, shelters, and retirement homes.
The secret to breaking the wood, she said, is to “concentrate and focus .”
“If you think you are not going to break it, you won’t,” Froman said. “It also takes lots of hand-eye coordination.”
Later that night, a young girl tried three times to break a plank, but couldn’t. She retook her seat with the other candidates, fighting back tears.
“You must have more of a snap to your kick,” Master Kim told her gently.
In the school, a flag with an image of Master S.Y. Kim is draped on a far wall. There are also several photographs of him hanging in Froman’s office, showing him in competition and doing leg stretches to execute those impossibly high kicks.
One shows him doing a perfect high kick, one leg nearly vertical and in line with the other. It is an image that was reproduced and printed on his school flag.
“Tae Kwon Do has helped me a lot,” Taskova said at her school the next day. “Before I started, I was always having chest pains and headaches. When I came here it was so peaceful, and I gained confidence. Everyone respects each other and I feel completely better after three years.”
Physical benefits are not the only good things that come from practicing Tae Kwon Do, she said.
“It goes for your personal life too,” she said, adding that it has improved her thinking and concentration.
“Before I started I was in a deep depression,” she said. “Tae Kwon Do gave me my life back. I am very grateful to Master Kim and Instructor Froman.”
Taskova said she has not had to defend herself but, she added, “I am definitely ready.”
Reach reporter Daniel Arimborgo by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300 Ext. 141.
