Martial Arts World

For Dr. Mitch Goldman of Carmel, earning his taekwondo black belt wasn’t about ego.

The 43-year-old colon cancer survivor called training in the Korean martial art “a celebration of life.”

“(Taekwondo) is a good balance of my family, fun and exercise,” said Goldman, medical director of the Hilbert Pediatric Emergency Department at Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St. Vincent. “It’s something I enjoy and love — along with my career and family. It’s a perfect troika.”

Goldman and his family are among the first black-belt graduates at Carmel Taekwondo, 14931 Greyhound Court. Last month, the three-year-old school of about 190 members presented 14 students with their new ranks. Goldman was the oldest; his 8-year-old son, Max, the youngest.

It wasn’t easy, said Goldman, who lost 80 percent of his muscle mass after chemotherapy six years ago. “It took some time to get back in shape, but I got there,” he said, adding that he lost about 40 pounds during his training.

Goldman dabbled in martial arts in high school, but decided to restart after watching Max in classes. It quickly became a family affair — his wife, Susan, 40, joined “because she felt left out,” he said.

During their two-day test, the Goldmans demonstrated their mastery of weapons handling, Korean terminology, endurance (think lots of sit-ups and pushups), forms, sparring and breaking techniques, the latter based on age and gender (Goldman was required to smash 10 one-inch boards with a knife-hand strike).

To pass, students were judged by two independent martial arts experts, Charles Chae and Dong Min Shin. Chae, 69, Carmel, is an eighth-degree judo black belt and one of the first Korean martial artists to settle in the U.S. Shin, a fourth-degree taekwondo black belt, works as an exchange professor at Indiana University-Kokomo. Shin teaches in the health department at Choong Chung University in central Korea.

“Our masters do not judge our students,” said Jason Oh, 46, a seventh-degree black belt and chairman of Ahn’s Taekwondo USA, the school’s parent entity. “We do not think it is fair for us to train, then pass them. We think it is better” for masters from outside the schools to approve their new ranks.

“We are very confident of our black belt candidates, and we’re not afraid of putting them out there to be judged by those who understand traditional taekwondo,” said Oh, who lives in Fishers.

Oh said high quality instruction is a hallmark of the Ahn school.

“The reason we started . . . was to introduce the area to traditional taekwondo. We have seen many schools lose the original concept of taekwondo — especially when they go after the money.

“Because we push tradition, we have to be very strict. . . . And we push our students. But after we push them, we sit down and talk. It’s like a family. We try to make sure that we’re doing it right and everyone is following it correctly.”

Testing ended with an elaborate certification at the school’s Fishers location, Ahn’s Taekwondo, with students sharing in a traditional Korean tea ceremony. The instructors exchanged deep bows with their students to recognize their accomplishments.

Founded in Seoul by eighth-degree black belt Grandmaster Jae Yoon Ahn, the business includes two schools in Korea and two in New Jersey. The Carmel school opened in August 2004; the Fishers school opened a year later. All told, the U.S. schools have about 600 students.

Between them, the Carmel and Fishers schools have six master instructors, two of whom taught taekwondo at the Korean military academy and for the ministry of defense, and one who was a Korean national women’s sparring champion.

“I just liked they way they did business,” Goldman said. “(Carmel master D.S. Kang)’s so wonderful with the kids.”

Goldman has begun training for his second-degree rank. The drive to continue, he said, has a lot to do with camaraderie.

“We love the workouts. We love the people,” he said. “We’ve been with (Ahn’s) for the past four years, and they’ve become almost like family.”