The I.M.A.
The International Martial Arts Association is an organization of individuals whose goal is to further the art of Tang Soo Do while preserving the unique heritage and traditions of this time honored art. Members of the IMA work toward the proliferation of the art throughout the world.
Founded by Grandmaster Ki Yun Yi in New Jersey, USA, in 1984, the organization now spans four continents. Although the IMA is a dynamic and growing organization, there is a unity and brotherhood throughout the member schools.
Each year the association grows stronger not only in members that train in our current schools but with new schools joining the I.M.A. because of its reputation and goals. The association is not looking to be the largest Tang Soo Do group but one that is respected for its students tradition, attitude, spreading of this Korean Martial Art and support of each gyms community. Grand Master Yi's desire is that each school give back to each community they are in as much as they receive in support. For the true martial art thought is ; "We are thecommunity and so it is part of your code to share the skills and support that area to build and grow together.
Dae Kwan Jang Nim Yi
Dae Grandmaster Ki Yun Yi, a native of Yong In, South Korea, spent his childhood in a country devastated by the Korean War. At the age of nine, shortly after the war ended, he began training in Tang Soo Do as a means of survival and self-protection. His early instructors included Master Song Si Kim, founder of the World Dang Soo Do Union, and Master Jae Chul Shin, founder of the World Tang Soo Do Association.
Dae Grandmaster Yi excelled in martial arts, earning his first-degree black belt at the age of twelve. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he taught Tang Soo Do at Osan Air Force Base in South Korea. He also distinguished himself in national competitions, winning the Korean National Championship in 1970. With limited educational and economic opportunities in his homeland, his martial arts career became the means through which he emigrated to the United States in 1974.
At the request of the Korean Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan Association, of which he was then a member, Dae Grandmaster Yi traveled to the United States to teach Tang Soo Do. He founded the first Yi's Martial Arts Institute in Woodbury, NJ, in 1975. Having dedicated his life to the art of Tang Soo Do, he strives to share it with practitioners around the world. In 1984, he established the International Martial Arts Association (IMA) to preserve the traditional values essential to the true spirit of Tang Soo Do.
