My HwaRangDo Experience

**antonanton** · Posted On: 10/31/2004 8:32pm

Originally Posted by X_plosion

Here's the Duggan Site:
www.hwarang.org

and here's Mr.Duggan's account of his personal experience with the Lees in the "early days", including the Judicial Committee incident:
http://www.hwarang.org/Personal.html

i like that artical cuz it mentions my master- GM bong soo han

**Freddy** · Posted On: 11/01/2004 1:12pm

At least Bong Soo Han is credible.

**tablist80** · Posted On: 7/09/2007 9:18pm

All I can say is, do your research. Read the stories of Bob Duggan and his associates. Then read the rebuttals of Taejoon Lee and his organization. Then, re-read the rebuttals of Bob Duggan. The people deserve the right to know that Hwa Rang Do is more of a business, and less martial arts. Taejoon Lee is not a master, but just another egotistical faker. He allows his ego to destory the art. The reason why I say this is because Lee will use fancy words to camoflauge his true intent when signing the contract. He tries to take money from you, even for months you don't attend. On top of that, you can only use hwa rang do gear, which they charge an arm and a leg for. Their prices say $195 for a month, but he will charge you up to $400 for some bs association fees. Now I heard throughout the years that the WHRDA carries a bad rep...and its true! Taejoon Lee picked a fight with a student who wanted to stop taking lessons, and a huge arguement ensued. Taejoon Lee pursued a teenage student out in the parking lot, and began pointing fingers and shouting, in front of his students, as well as other bystanders. Now I don't care what the hell your so upset about, there is no reason for a so-called master to pick a fight with a someone more than half your age. Grow up!

I don't say this for any other reason than the fact that people deserve great, quality training. There are so many great schools in Los Angeles, with teachers who are willing to teach the true art, and not just share techniques because you paid for em. I was willing to give WHRDA and Taejoon Lee the benefit of the doubt, but now I realize that for people to continuously say after 10 years, 15 years that Hwa Rang Do and Taejoon Lee are not the best places to learn under, they are right.

If you want to learn Hwa Rang Do, learn under Gil Kim or Mike De Alba. There are so many martial arts styles out there. And the purpose of martial arts is to be a great person;mentally, physically, and spiritually. To live with integrity and honor, overall to be a great person, in a messed up world. Someone should teach lee what it is to be a master. Best of luck to all aspiring martial artists.

**Ronin.74** · Posted On: 7/09/2007 9:29pm

Uh, you may want to look at the post dates next time before replying to a thread. This one hasn't seen any action in almost 3 years.

**jsellers** · Posted On: 11/15/2011 4:12am

I have been in Hwa rang do since 1979. My experience has been richly fulfilling and my devotion to the art and grandmaster joo bang lee never wavered as have some over time for one reason or another. I have had the honor of learning form grand master joo bang lee, Henry lee, Eric lee, master kim and so on. Each possessing the same integrity and love as the other. I do not question the decisions of grandmaster for I know from knowing him personally he is a man of great wisdom and humility. His decisions for whatever reason are just that, his decisions and I would caution anyone to reserve any judgement until you have reached 1st Dan degree level and have been truely in this family. Others who have left may have their own reasons but I can promise you that deep down they do not question grandmasters decisions. This is all I will say on this subject.

**Miguksaram** · Posted On: 11/15/2011 9:17am

Originally Posted by jsellers

Others who have left may have their own reasons but I can promise you that deep down they do not question grandmasters decisions. This is all I will say on this subject.

Hmmmm....I bet they would have disagreed with his decision of stripping them of their rank. I pretty sure they disagreed with his decision to lie about a couple of them never achieving certain ranks, when they have the proof to say otherwise. Let's face it, if they did not disagree with GM' decision making, then why did they leave in the first place?

**DortonGroup1** · Posted On: 5/26/2013 3:46pm

Master Eric Lee had fallen in love, and married in secret, with one of his long time students (about the same age as him). Unfortunately, his family disapproved of the woman and interfered with Master Lee's relationship. Master Lee left his family's home and moved with his wife out of the state of California. They have 2 (maybe 3?) children. His oldest child, Kody Lee, was born blind and a child prodigy when it comes to music. I lost contact with Master Lee sometime in 2008 and have spent some time trying to connect again with him but to no avail.
Jack

**OwlMatt** · Posted On: 5/29/2013 8:45am

Jack,

This is a really, really, REALLY old thread. Don't necro it unless you've got something that is enough of a game-changer to make it worth having a nine-year-old conversation all over again. I see this is your first post; I suggest you head to Newbietown and do some reading there, and then make sure you read the stickies on this forum before you post in it again.

**crappler** · Posted On: 5/31/2013 10:55am

Originally Posted by antonanton

people dont like henry taejoon lee because his meathods of teaching are to intense for most people- hes been known to make people vomit and pass out beacuse he pushes people so hard- also- hes really mean to everyone haha- really though- master lee's school is near me and i know some people who train there- also my instructor is good friends with master lee- the school is set up like this- to train in HRD you have to first get a black belt in tae soo do under them or have a black belt in a simular martial art like hapkido or tae kwan do or somthing like that- up until your training in HRD theres pretty much no sparring- then i think its only light contact- untill you get invited to a full contact class- the school seems pretty well rounded- they teach ground stuff thats simular to bjj and have lots of different types of weapon training-
for a long time i was thinking about going to his school after i got my frist dan in hapkido under grand master bong soo han- but now im not so sure- dont get me wrong- ive seen master lee in action and hes amazing- but he just seems like a dick- and i have heard alot of other horror storys about him and lots of bad **** but i dont want to write it beacuase i cant verify it- also all the stuff about no contact sparring and stuff seems like bullshit- so i think ill stay with grandmaster han
check out his website
http://hwarangdo.net/

a dojo where people vomit and pass out because of training intensity has at least one thing going for it.

**longislandmma** · Posted On: 6/06/2013 12:31am

My friend received his HWD "black sash" when he was 13 or 14 around the year 2000. He's still listed on the national website. He is the first one to say the system is complete **** with regards to real life combat situations but we live in Long Island so I'm not sure if that's the case all over.