One of the primary arts taught in our school is the Korean Art of Tang Soo Do.  Tang Soo Do when translated literally means the “Art of the Chinese Hand” or the “Art of the Knife Hand.”  Tang Soo Do was founded by Grandmaster Hwang Khee November 9th, 1945.  Moo Duk Kwan Tang Soo Do was a founding  school for what would become known as Tae Kwon Do.  The Moo Duk Kwan split when Tang Soo Do’s founder Hwang Khee decided to remain separate and not join the new Tae Kwon Do confederation, with some practitioners going with their master and others going on to contribute to Tae Kwon Do’s founding making the new style stronger as it incorporated many of the strengths of Tang Soo Do.  Hwang Khee for his part decided to remain separate in order to retain much of the traditional elements (techniques and forms/hyungs) of martial arts which Tang Soo Do had inherited (feeling it was not necessary to reinvent the wheel so to speak) from the various systems that went into its making.  

Tang Soo Do itself is a mixture of indigenous Korean Styles, Chinese Martial Arts, Okinawan and Japanese Systems.  Our particular system of Tang Soo Do comes to us via Mr. Chuck Norris who brought our system of Tang Soo Do back from Korea and would go on to found the “Chuck Norris System.”  While our style is relatively young in its present format, the techniques and many of the forms have roots that are many centuries old.  Student’s will learn both their lineage and general history of Tang Soo Do and the Martial Arts.

Tang Soo Do (and particularly the Chuck Norris System) as a martial arts is defined by quick agile movements, deep stances for generating power, high stances to facilitate speed, many hand techniques, kicks that range from an attackers foot to the top of his head, as well as throws, joint locks and self-defense techniques.  The variety of techniques and the versatility in which they are deployed makes Tang Soo Do practitioners very well rounded in the art of self-defense.

Tang Soo Do and Shorin Ry have many similarities, which permit us to teach both systems to students.  We have not created a new system, instead by the time a student reaches black belt, ideally they will receive a black belt in both systems.