Master William Laird played
stunt-fighting as a kid, then discovered in 1972 an
authentic Korean martial art instructor, Grandmaster
Shin-Young Kong. From then he realized something
unique in the quality, culture and discipline of his
practice of traditional Korean-style karate in his
hometown of Nashville, Tennessee.
Grandmaster Kong taught "no gimmicks"!
While Master Laird advanced in
Moodukkwan karate skills and techniques, he faired
well in regional tourneys, although Kong's school
only competed 'once every blue moon' - yet Laird
also became fascinated with Asian/Korean thought,
language & cultural studies. During his teens,
Master Laird ranked as S.E. Regional AAU Taekwondo
Featherweight Champion, and in other regional
tourneys, consistently out-performed both junior’s
and men’s division contestants in both forms and
sparring despite his comparatively smaller size.
After high school Master Laird joined
the U.S. Marine Corps, specializing in
communications. He served in Okinawa and frequented
Korea - his most prominent trip was six months spent
for cold weather training near the DMZ, befriending
an obscure Hapkido/Korean gung-fu Senior
Master Shin, Tae-Gyung in remote DongSan
village of Chulwon, to which he gained lots of new
exposure to the essence of various
other self-defense art forms and training
disciplines. Yet, his background of MooDukKwan
doctrine was his true passion.
Between Okinawa, Hawaii and Korea, he
refined what he had learned and started up the club
name called "Kong Dae Won" to honor his original
instructor, Grandmaster S.Y. Kong's teaching. When
then USMC Staff Sgt. Laird was honorably
discharged in 1988, he based himself in California.
Throughout the 90's he became quite prominent in
writing training articles, performing self-defense
exhibitions and teaching his now rather obscured
"old school" demeanor and dynamic, non-sport
oriented techniques in both Northern and Central
California.
Master Laird received his 4th degree
Master rank in 1991, and with his instructor, GM S.Y.
Kong's approval, became a member of the World
MooDukKwan Tangsoodo Fed, under the late Grandmaster
Jae-Joon Kim. He
remained affiliated with WMDKTSDF for recognition of
his traditional practice until the unfortunate
passing of Grandmaster Kim in 2007. On
trips to his hometown for training, fellowship and
testing, Master Laird returned to his mentor,
Grandmaster Kong and senior classmates for his 5th &
6th Dan promotions. His last promotion was in 1998
and although he remains active, yet somewhat
obscured, Master Laird visited China on a scholastic
journey (college trip) and has remained since 2002
(namely in the N.E., Korean Autonomous Prefecture),
teaching both Business English and traditional
Korean karate (Tangsoodo) under his
KongDaeWon
club name. He
has currently been accepted and recognized by the
International Association of Korean Martial Arts (IAKMA),
whose president Grandmaster Chung Il Kim and Laird's
original instructor Grandmaster S.Y. Kong
purportedly had trained together during their
earlier years in Korea.
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