Irishman is first European inducted into MA hall of fame

Hail 2 Da Thief

Just read this article in the Indo.

Is this guy for real?

"In the Guinness Book of Records this is the most lethal form of self defence because it can kill," he said.

"Over the years other martial arts have been watered down a bit but you still do the breaking of tiles and sparring in taekwon-do - you toughen the hands and punch the wall."

LMFAO! :pac:

Zen65

"In the Guinness Book of Records this is the most lethal form of self defence because it can kill," he said.

Riiiight, those other arts are just "Shock & Awe", eh?


Z

arybvtcw0eolkf

A life dedicated to TKD and still training at 72.. Respect.

00MARTZ00

with that Guinness book of records comment aside, i say fair play to him! cant be easy still training at that age and as he says teaching kids to be mannerly and show respect cant be a bad thing.

Barry.Oglesby

72 years young and still training. Fair play. I know he's very highly regarded and it's nice to see he's still coaching. I'm not sure why your intention was to mock this guy? He has a lifetime of coaching and training in what is, when trained properly, a very tough martial art.

Respect to him.

MichaelDevlin

fair play to him although that bit about the late late was funny:)

maguffin

Grand Master Howard deserves all the respect due to him. I trained with him and his fellow black belts back in the 70's in the church hall in Sean McDermot St.
I am happy that he is still training and teaching. A true Dub and a tough one at that!!

Have a look at this link fo more info on him....

http://www.rita-itf.org/

maguffin

Geekness1234

Nice one!

Pride Fighter

Fair play to him, improving the community and pursuing a life long hobby. If I'm still doing martial arts at 72 I'll be a happy man.

Dermighty

I don'tthink you can do anything for forty six years without at least going a little bit .

Good for him,though that comment is funny, I'd say he is slightly biased.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Sid_Justice wrote: »

I have to admit my first reaction was 46 years in martial arts, 72 years of age, and he's still deluded.

****ing rubbish.

Broke his hand smashing slates with his fist and still at it age 72, what a dope.

Respect what? He's old and runs a martial arts club teaching kids how to confirm to communist ideals?

Checked your user history, incredibly you don't have a ban from this forum!..

With that in mind you might want to revisit THIS POST from the forums' charter.

In the mean time take an infraction & stop acting the sack.

**I'm surprised and disappointed in your post, and so I'm taking a leaf from the MMA forum's charter re. fighter bashing and updating this forum's charter later today**

getz

Dermighty wrote: »

I don'tthink you can do anything for forty six years without at least going a little bit .

Good for him,though that comment is funny, I'd say he is slightly biased.

why not i am 70 and i have been in MA for 45 years, as a young schoolboy i also trained in judo,which i am not counting,i no longer run a club ,but i help out [guest] every month or so,and i always make it a point to spar with all [ now i have forgotten what i wanted to say ?]

Barry.Oglesby

Sid_Justice wrote: »

I have to admit my first reaction was 46 years in martial arts, 72 years of age, and he's still deluded.

Any more deluded than the guys who say Helio Gracie was undefeated, or Rickson was never defeated in 4000 street fights or whatever it was?

Broke his hand smashing slates with his fist and still at it age 72, what a dope.

It's what he wants to do. I'm sure there are people aged 72 suffering from conditions they got due to being sedentary most of their lives who envy him.

Unpossible

Wow, well done to him for reaching such heights in his chosen martial art. I would love to be still going at that age.

Charlie3dan

Was reading the article this morning. Firstly, I was delighted to see the article on page 2 of the paper. Martial arts getting the recognition it deserves and all that. Had never heard of the guy but I was impressed to hear he was inducted into the hall of fame, had been training 46 years and still going. So it certainly has to be said, well done and fair play.

Such a shame about that world records comment though.......

maguffin

Just a note about how the 'Press' can manipulate words...in the article on Grand Master Howard they say

"Grandmaster Howard took up the Olympic sport - created by South Korean army General Choi - in 1966 "

Wrong...he didn't take up an Olympic sport...it was much later that TKD was integrated as an olympic sport.....he took up a Martial Art, and in those days the training was very much tougher than it is now (in most cases). I know, I was there....and as for myself...I've been training martial arts now for 44 years, and continue to do so.

maguffin

getz

maguffin wrote: »

Just a note about how the 'Press' can manipulate words...in the article on Grand Master Howard they say

"Grandmaster Howard took up the Olympic sport - created by South Korean army General Choi - in 1966 "

Wrong...he didn't take up an Olympic sport...it was much later that TKD was integrated as an olympic sport.....he took up a Martial Art, and in those days the training was very much tougher than it is now (in most cases). I know, I was there....and as for myself...I've been training martial arts now for 44 years, and continue to do so.

maguffin

i remember those days of punching brick walls [just to build up a thick skin barrier on your knuckles] no mitts or gloves then

Unpossible

maguffin wrote: »

Just a note about how the 'Press' can manipulate words...in the article on Grand Master Howard they say

"Grandmaster Howard took up the Olympic sport - created by South Korean army General Choi - in 1966 "

Wrong...he didn't take up an Olympic sport...it was much later that TKD was integrated as an olympic sport.....he took up a Martial Art, and in those days the training was very much tougher than it is now (in most cases). I know, I was there....and as for myself...I've been training martial arts now for 44 years, and continue to do so.

maguffin

It looks like karate and TKD were way tougher back in the day, maybe they watered it down to make it more inclusive for people. I know what you mean about the journalist writing the piece, they obviously did a quick google on TKD and filled in the blanks as the north korean organisation is ITF not WTF. I wouldn't pay too much attention to the world record claim, any time the press mention a martial art they go on about how leathal or deadly it is and I doubt many people object as it helps sell the art. I laughed at the last guy that asked me about deadly techniques or if we would break bones when we hit or kick each other.

Sid_Justice

Chloe Rotten Millipede wrote: »

Checked your user history, incredibly you don't have a ban from this forum!..



**I'm surprised and disappointed in your post, and so I'm taking a leaf from the MMA forum's charter re. fighter bashing and updating this forum's charter later today**

I know, you've been very lenient in the past.

Barry.Oglesby wrote: »

Any more deluded than the guys who say Helio Gracie was undefeated, or Rickson was never defeated in 4000 street fights or whatever it was?

It's what he wants to do. I'm sure there are people aged 72 suffering from conditions they got due to being sedentary most of their lives who envy him.

Not at all, I would think my posting history shows, I am just as critical of delusion in bjj/judo/mma.

getz wrote: »

i remember those days of punching brick walls [just to build up a thick skin barrier on your knuckles] no mitts or gloves then

Posts like this trying to revere a style of training that was completely unintelligent from an era in Ireland where 90% of the population didn't have two pennies to rub together, contraception was banned, people lived under the control of the church.

I am not in the business of praising something just because it's traditional or old. I would find it far more insulting, condescending and patronising and even more disrespectful to says things like "fair play to him, he's auld and still chugging a long", praise him on his merits not on his age.

Obviously from the tone of the other responses (bar the original post mind you) I totally missed the point of this thread and it was inappropriate to put this line of thought in this thread at this time, but as I've already made my bed I may as well lie in it.

Apologies to Grandmaster Howard.

smacl

Sid_Justice wrote: »

Posts like this trying to revere a style of training that was completely unintelligent from an era in Ireland where 90% of the population didn't have two pennies to rub together, contraception was banned, people lived under the control of the church.

My Karate days were mid 80s, and I remember them fondly. You forget to mention the lack of play stations, anything worth watching on the box, and mobile phones. Basically, given there was feck all else to do people tended to put more time into their practice. While the training may have been less sophisticated in some regards, it was certainly rigorous, and the old method of putting in lots of hours and working hard in those hours seemed to be able to make competent martial artists out of most who kept it up. I think this is still a winning formula for those of us that lack much natural aptitude or top end physical attributes.

I suspect that now that 90% of the population once again no longer have two pennies to rub together martial arts will thrive.

antybots

Well done to Grandmaster Howard. After a lifetime spent competing, teaching and promoting his art, I think he deserves the recognition the award gives him. He is one of the pioneers of TKD in this country and considering the amount of people who got into martial arts via TKD, I think he should be congratulated rather than sneered at.

bannermaf

Great respect due to Grandmaster Howard for following through with his dedication to his chosen martial art for a lifetime. He deserves this high level of recognition for all of the time and effort he has given to Taekwondo in Ireland.

It was great to see the media give attention to a martial artists, especially a traditional martial artist. This doesn't happen very often.

I don't think the articles were particularly well written. There were a few lines that didn't come across well, or were even inaccurate, but it just goes to show how far we have yet to go to educate the nation and the media about the martial arts.

Here's to many more great acheivements in the martial arts yet to come from Ireland!

HellsAngel

maguffin wrote: »

Just a note about how the 'Press' can manipulate words...in the article on Grand Master Howard they say

"Grandmaster Howard took up the Olympic sport - created by South Korean army General Choi - in 1966 "

Wrong...he didn't take up an Olympic sport...it was much later that TKD was integrated as an olympic sport.....he took up a Martial Art, and in those days the training was very much tougher than it is now (in most cases). I know, I was there....and as for myself...I've been training martial arts now for 44 years, and continue to do so.

maguffin

My very own thoughts. Grand Master Howard is still International TKD and not World TKD which is the Olympic style of sparring ( all feet, no punching unless it's been changed). General Choi remained ITF all his life, I know it is pedantic, but the claims seem to come more from the journalist than GM Howard.

Here is a picture from when he was part of the Irish team that won the ITF World championships in 1981 ( I won't get into the politics but it was a proper World championship back then). I think Master Howard is on the extreme left, others I know are Gerry Martin 3rd from left, Brendan O'Toole extreme right. I think Christy Fagan is 2nd from the right. I can tell you one thing, any of these guys in stand up would still out class the vast, vast majority of you out there, serious.



"those days the training was very much tougher than it is now" I remember Brendan O'Toole telling me how they used to train in a guy's furniture storage place and were called the Korean Karate club (TKD was unheard of in the late 60's) and their warm up consisted of moving the furniture around to clear some space !!!!

HellsAngel

Unpossible wrote: »

It looks like karate and TKD were way tougher back in the day, maybe they watered it down to make it more inclusive for people. I know what you mean about the journalist writing the piece, they obviously did a quick google on TKD and filled in the blanks as the north korean organisation is ITF not WTF. I wouldn't pay too much attention to the world record claim, any time the press mention a martial art they go on about how leathal or deadly it is and I doubt many people object as it helps sell the art. I laughed at the last guy that asked me about deadly techniques or if we would break bones when we hit or kick each other.

Exactly, the bloody meja' :rolleyes:

panjero

Great to see such dedication.We need more like him.

I am only at year 12.

crazy cabbage

Greatest respect to Grandmaster Howard. It is through him that I (like a lot of people) can trace their tkd roots back to General Choi himself. Although it was Grandmaster Ria that introduced the Martial Art into Ireland, it was because of Grandmaster Howards interest and endless dedication it has become such a success here.

maguffin

Just a small correction....in relation to how Grand Master Rhee, Ki Ha came to Ireland....read it here:

http://www.rita-itf.org/history.htm

maguffin

yomchi

HellsAngel wrote: »

I think Christy Fagan is 2nd from the right.

That's Aidan Walsh who went on to leave the original RITA in 1984 he was the team coach.



From left to right: Robert Howard, Thomas Barry, Gerry Martin, Frank Murphy, Frances Barrett, Aidan Walsh and Brendan O'Toole.

They won the world championships in 1981 in Argentina.

Deise Musashi

Third from right would be Master Frankie Barrett from Waterford, did many a colour belt grading with himself and Master John "Bisto" Jacobs



Master Barrett doing splits kick, Master Jacob on the right.