Tony Geldmacher
Staff Writer
Photo Courtesy Kevin Park
Pepperdine’s Taekwondo program has a new leader this semester. The students attending Taekwondo classes are now under the care of Edwin Cahill, director of student administrative services at OneStop. Cahill teaches students of many different levels with the help of freshman Kevin Park. The two said they hope to develop the program into a club sport.
The purpose of the Taekwondo classes, which take place every Tuesday and Thursday from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., is to give students another option to get in shape. Students have the weight room and other intramural sports, such as flag football, soccer and basketball at their disposal. Pepperdine simply wanted to provide the student body with another alternative.
Cahill is the one responsible for developing this class into a club sport. The program has already reached an intramural level, but Cahill said there is only room for growth. Cahill has the experience in Taekwondo to take this small program, which consists of 5 to 15 students each session, to a more competitive stage.
Every session begins with a warm-up followed by the curriculum. The course allows students to practice their punches and kicks. Following the curriculum, they do forms, which consist# of putting what was achieved in the curriculum into combinations. Next, the sparring drills focus on developing target accuracy and speed. The more advanced students will then participate in sparring. The students end every lesson with a cool down.
A native of Deerborn, Mich., Cahill is now in his fifth year at Pepperdine working for OneStop. He has been doing Taekwondo since the age of 8 and is a second degree black belt. He has won the Michigan state tournament once and the California state tournament twice.
From Nov. 4 through Nov. 7, Cahill competed in the 30th U.S. National Taekwondo Championship. He won a silver medal in creative forms and a bronze medal in second-degree black belt forms. Cahill said he had competed twice before but hadn’t won a medal. He said this year was exciting because it was the last year he could compete as a second degree black belt because he is going to test for his third degree black belt soon.
“It was very exciting to be at the top of the sports side of martial arts,” Cahill said. “It’s great being recognized for all my hard work and effort.”
His ability in the sport is only surpassed by his passion for it, as Cahill teaches the class voluntarily.
Kevin Park is a third-degree black belt and is assisting Cahill in instructing the class. Park is a four-time Washington state champion at the junior light weight division. Park came to Pepperdine unaware of the Taekwondo program already in place. If one was not available, he said he intended to start one.
Like Cahill, Park said he hopes the program will reach the intercollegiate level.
“We just need some guys to compete,” Cahill said.
With a few more members, the team will have the opportunity to compete against other schools. Cahill and Park said they hope to reach the same level of prestige in Taekwondo as other universities such as University of California, Berkeley, Texas A&M and Stanford University.
Park’s teammates vary in different levels in the sport as well as background. There are undergraduates, law school students, staff members and alumni. Some of these pupils are improving their skills in this particular martial art with the hopes of one day competing at the same level as Cahill and Park.
The Taekwondo course has been offered since 1999. At that time Cahill was assisting the previous instructors, Nate Everheart and Tana Nguyen. Cahill took the reigns of the program this semester.
Taekwondo, a Korean martial art, is distinct among the many forms of martial arts because of the emphasis on the lower body. Approximately 80 percent of Taekwondo uses the legs while the other 20 percent focuses on upper body movements. The way in which the belt system is structured, only after reaching the fourth degree of black belt is one a master and ready to teach.
The success of Olympic gold medalist Steven Lopez cannot be overlooked as a contributing factor to the more recent growth of Taekwondo. Lopez took home the gold medal for the United States in last summer’s Olympic Games in Athens. Cahill met Lopez following a tournament a few years ago.
“Any time you have an athlete win gold in an event, of course interest in that sport will rise,” Cahill said.
Cahill has also looked up to other Taekwondo Olympians such as Jimmy Kim, the 1988 gold medalist. He said he admires Kim for his athleticism, his competitiveness as well as his humility. These are some characteristics that Cahill said he would love to develop in his current and prospective students.
