Celebrating 30 years of high quality martial arts in Portland.
Traditional Taekwon-do opened its doors on March 23, 1993. After a couple of bumpy years (our first location was upstairs in a derelict building that burned down a year after we moved), we hit our stride and as word of mouth spread, grew continuously.
In the past three decades, we have trained over 150 black belts and become one of the largest martial arts schools in Portland. We have welcomed students as diverrse as rock and roll musicians, published writers, corporate attorneys, political activists and runaway kids living on the street, as well as virtually ever walk of life. Plus, of course, hundreds of children attending our surrounding schools.
Some of our students have also gone on to higher education at institutions such as Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, Reed, Knox and OHSU Medical School.
We have survived the financial crisis of 2008 and the Covid pandemic that now is winding down (we hope). Just last year, we undertook a major remodeling of our current location, where we've taught taekwon-do for nearly 20 years.
We have just collected memories from our former and current black belts and will be publishing them in the next several days. So check back soon and read about the people who helped build our school
Rachel and Caleb Atchison are students of the month for September.
It's extremely rare that yellow belts are honored with student of the month, but Rachel and her son Caleb have been attending nearly every class since they started earlier this year. Both have made great strides in their forms and their skills. They absorb new information like sponges. Caleb has displayed a lot of perseverance and indomitable spirit in his brief time in the do-jang.
Criteria for Student of the Month:
1. Strong attendance
2 .Progress in belt rank skills
3. Adherence to the Five Tenets (courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit)
4. Contribution to the do-jang and fellow students.