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Posted: 09/21/2011 02:32:25 PM MD
If you walk into Sereff Tae Kwon Do in Broomfield on an average weekday afternoon, you
may catch Renee Sereff in a quiet moment of conducting business, with reading glasses perched on her nose, a phone lodged between her ear and shoulder and paperwork generated from the day mounting like Stonehenge on the glass display counter.
As students, parents, and instructors begin to trickle in for afternoon classes, Sereff detangles herself from phones and paperwork to greet each person with the warmth of a mother and the friendliness of a neighbor, all while juggling the multitude of questions, requests, payments, forms and more that come at her rapid-fire from the incoming masses.
Students arriving at the door — single-digit in age to septuagenarians — however, unfailingly stop in their tracks, turn to face Sereff, and bow with respect.
As the first woman in the United States Tae Kwon Do Federation to achieve the rank of Grand Master– that’s Ninth Degree Black Belt, or Ninth Dan as it’s called — this 64-year-old Broomfield native is humble in her demeanor, yet steadfast in her Tae Kwon Do journey that spans more than 40 years.
“Tae Kwon Do has given me a lifetime of opportunity,” said Sereff of the martial art, but adds that the opportunity is really about “teaching and giving back.”
And giving back she has. Grand Master Renee’ Sereff is considered by many to be the “Mother of Tae Kwon Do ” with regard to paving the way for women and girls in this martial art.
A brief look back
Tae Kwon Do is a relatively new martial art, having been developed in the 1940s by Korea’s military General Choi Hong Hi and first recognized as a martial art in 1955. Based on a combination of Japanese Karate and Teak Kyon (“foot techniques”), Tae Kwon Do was developed by Choi as a means of self-defense in military settings that he perfected and codified into a distinct martial art.
Though the U.S. military was introduced to Choi’s Tae Kwon Do in the 1950s and ’60s, the United States Tae Kwon Do Federation was founded as recently as 1973 with the goal of following the traditional form of Tae Kwon Do set forth by Choi. This evolved to include a combination of foot and hand skills, patterns, sparring, HoSinSul (choreographed self-defense) and breaking.
Key to Choi’s form of Tae Kwon Do is not just the visible skills of patterns or breaking, or the ranks from White Belt to Ninth Dan. Choi’s teachings, more importantly, include an introspective focus on the tenets of Tae Kwon Do: Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverance, Self Control, and Indomitable Spirit. Together, the outward skills and the inward focus create athletes that are highly skilled in self-defense and armed with an inner confidence that brings peace, not battle.
The journey begins
Because Choi developed Tae Kwon Do for military self-defense, its early students were almost exclusively male.
“When I started (in the early ’70s), there were not many women in class,” Sereff recalls, having started Tae Kwon Do a few months after she’d enrolled her own children in the martial art.
Sereff, who would later meet and study directly under Choi on numerous occasions, surmised that Choi really had no intention of having women participate, “perhaps because of his culture or because women were really just not invited.”
Of her own beginnings in Tae Kwon Do , Sereff mused, “It was good exercise, and I really did not want to just stand there (watching her kids train) for an hour and a half.”
Sharon Cormier, a Fifth Dan from Washington, also recalls how Tae Kwon Do was much different back then.
“In the old days, (women) were not listened to, nor were we taken seriously.”
Testing requirements to advance to the next rank were not as stringent for women as they were for men. Very few sparring opportunities existed for women.
Men in Tae Kwon Do “did not think we could perform on the same level as them,” Cormier said.
Interestingly, Cormier remembers learning about Choi when studying Korean history in high school in the early ’70s. When she became interested in Tae Kwon Do just a few years later, she sought out the school that followed Choi’s teachings.
“I wanted to be part of an organization that honored the general — the father of Tae Kwon Do.”
By the mid-1970s, many USTF schools had sprung up around the United States, and women, though still small in numbers, were indeed becoming part of the community. When Choi was introduced to some fantastic practitioners that were women and juniors (students younger than 16), Choi wanted everyone to learn Tae Kwon Do,” Sereff said.
Though Sereff asserts that Charles Sereff and Choi were the pioneers who helped women and juniors be accepted in the martial art of Tae Kwon Do, she was a leading example of what women were capable of and of ways women could contribute to and excel in the martial art.
Just as Choi traveled to train others in Tae Kwon Do around the world, so did Sereff. As an international referee, Sereff has represented the United States at world championships in countries such as Russia, Greece, Malaysia, Canada, Argentina, Italy, New Zealand, Ireland and Scotland. Sereff also taught at world camps in Australia and New Zealand, which she said, “helped me establish the fact that women really do have a place in Tae Kwon Do.”
At the time, several of these countries did not have an official Tae Kwon Do organization to set standards and rules. No one had reached Fourth Dan, as instructors “weren’t keen on promoting students.”
And very few opportunities for women existed because of their (traditionally female) home responsibilities.
But Sereff, by example, began to change the perception of what women could achieve in Tae Kwon Do, as well as open the doors for opportunities. At the world championships in Malaysia, for example, Sereff was a referee — the one female referee in a group of men.
“I remember that a North Korean woman competing at the Championships approached me and asked if I was actually a referee. When I said yes, she replied, ‘Next time, North Korea will also have a female referee at the championships.’ And I think they did,” Sereff said.
In 1998, Sereff’s support of women in Tae Kwon Do even reached Papua New Guinea — a tiny country located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, where the justice system was “barbaric” and where women were ranked “below pigs” in their society’s hierarchy.
This mission, which was part of an effort to civilize the country’s justice system, was more than just teaching Tae Kwon Do as a method of self defense. Sereff became the example to the police system that women could be part of the solution. Women could teach. Women could lead. Women were physically capable. And women could be a positive example and influence in the flawed justice system.
“The experience opened the door for shared expertise between Papua New Guinea and the U.S. and opened the door for cultural exchange as well,” said Sereff.
The journey continues
Sereff’s work in the United States and at home in Colorado is just as profound. At a Tae Kwon Do tournament in Colorado just a few years into her Tae Kwon Do training, Cormier met someone she would never forget.
“Her Tae Kwon Do abilities exceeded that of many men in the art. And the way she presented herself, not only in Tae Kwon Do, but in life, too.”
At the time, Cormier said, she needed a role model that she could respect and follow. That woman turned out to be Sereff.
Since then, with Sereff as the example, Cormier said she’s developed her entire life around Tae Kwon Do “raising a family, battling cancer, teaching Tae Kwon Do and pursuing a career.”
Louise Fox started at Sereff Tae Kwon Do not as a student, but as an office employee in the early 1990s. Fox recalls that Choi was her first inspiration to become a student of Tae Kwon Do.
During a visit to Sereff Tae Kwon Do, “The general came out and started to demonstrate in his street clothes and dress shoes. I was so impressed that I knew that Tae Kwon Do was what I wanted to do.”
Yet it was Sereff who inspired her to train over the next 20 years.
“Grand Master Sereff has always told me that you do only what your body will let you do, and to remember that you don’t have to answer to anybody on your abilities.”
Of Sereff’s impact on her, Fox said, “that touched my heart and mind so profoundly that I wouldn’t have ever wanted any other instructor.”
Fox, now 56, is a Fith Dan.
What draws these and other women to Sereff’s example is not just her accomplishments and outreach, but the Tae Kwon Do tenets that Sereff embodies –courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self control, and indomitable spirit.
“These are a good start to becoming a better person,” Sereff said.
Twenty-six year old Fifth Dan Cameo Zugschwert describes the tenets in terms of being “guidelines to help you react in situations. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s what lessons you learn from the Tenets that count.”
Lori Shaffer, 48 and a 5th Dan, said, “No matter how much people want to believe (the tenets) are just words we say, when you say them and repeat them enough, you actually start trying to live them.”
Audrey Farley is a 53-year old family physician, a Fourth Dan, and a cancer survivor.
“When I was diagnosed with cancer, I told the doctor that first I wanted to live and second that I wanted to continue Tae Kwon Do,” she said.
Her Tae Kwon Do training–especially the tenets of perseverance and indomitable spirit — have been key to her recovery.
“Always fight back, never give up, and don’t lose heart.” she said.
“Day-to-day living should always include the tenets that we learn from Tae Kwon Do,” said Sereff.
But what does this mean in terms of self-defense, which, of course, is the root purpose of Tae Kwon Do? Common among the respondents is the theme of Tae Kwon Do helping build self-confidence and inner strength.
“Tae Kwon Do helps me feel empowerment … and has given me inner strength and outer strength,” Fox said of her growth over the years.
Though Zugschwert has never had to use Tae Kwon Do against a physical threat, she has been in situations that “were eliminated because I walked away from the threat.”
Cormier credits Tae Kwon Do for giving her the strength and spirit not to fight an abusive husband, but to take her daughter, walk away and never return.
The physical ability to defend themselves provides confidence, yet it is the tenets that give these women the knowledge that they’re in control.
Another common theme women in Tae Kwon Do describe is the intense sense of family and community.
“The camaraderie is so tight that you feel you are a family,” said Fox of Sereff Tae Kwon Do. “There is nothing better than the feeling you get when you enter the gym door.”
Shaffer describes herself as having deeper friendships than she’s had at any other time in her life.
“I think the respect we show to each other helps to build a very strong foundation,” said Shaffer. “We’re all out there not just learning working out, and having fun, but also really growing strong, hard, solid friendships.”
The journey spans generations
“Every time I see a new girl come in (to Sereff Tae Kwon Do), regardless of age, I get excited because I feel they are in the right place,” said Mildred Fitch of Northglenn.
Fitch began her Tae Kwon Do career when she was “exactly 651/2,” she said proudly, having earned her First Degree Black Belt rank earlier this year.
Fitch is just one of many senior women who have taken up Tae Kwon Do for fitness and self-defense. Not to mention the host of women in Tae Kwon Do who continue to train well into their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond.
But senior women are just one end of the spectrum in Tae Kwon Do; female juniors make up a good portion of incoming students.
Lisa Winker, 41 and a Third Dan, speaks volumes of kids and teenagers in Tae Kwon Do, describing them as the best kids in the world.
“Just like with women in Tae Kwon Do,” she said, “they are learning that they have control over something in their lives … They tend to be very respectful towards adults and their seniors … and working to make the world a better place.”
Winkler refers to the community service component of Tae Kwon Do that is required to advance to certain ranks.
Young students of Tae Kwon Do are not infrequently featured in local newspapers for their work in the community. Along the walls of Sereff Tae Kwon Do, you will find news clippings of students turning in found money to local police, doing donation drives and being innovators at their schools.
Sereff Tae Kwon Do also is home to Rebecca Rosenblum, a 15-year old Second Dan, who at 13 became the 2009 Junior national champion at the national competition in Kelso, Wash.
Of Sereff, she said, “I have always looked up to Grand Master Sereff as such a strong woman who has never feared anything, especially not someone who will push her down.”
Rosenblum feels girls who are in Tae Kwon Do “have better self confidence and a better sense of themselves.”
Though Rosenblum said she has sacrificed a lot of other activities for Tae Kwon Do — especially during her training for the 2009 nationals — she also said she wouldn’t trade anything for the experiences.
She added that Tae Kwon Do is a great way to “stay out of trouble, learn life lessons, have fun, stay in shape, make friends, build confidence
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