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Cindy Luu | Phoenix Staff

Courtesy of Swarthmore Martial Arts Club

Co-president Josh Vertolli shows his skills at 2009's Ride the Tide.

BY MIRIAM HAUSER

In print | Published October 29, 2009

Martial arts is not always just a sport; sometimes, it’s a way of life. The Martial Arts Club, in operation since last November, aims not only to teach the different forms of martial arts, but also to teach the underlying philosophies and to bring the styles into dialogue.

“We teach values such as etiquette, modesty and self-control,” Tom Liu ’12 said. Liu is one of the club’s senior instructors, along with Philip Chodrow ‘12 and Joshua Vertolli ’12, who, with assistant instructors Max Chomet ’12 and Brandon Snuggs ’13, teach club members different styles of martial arts, primarily focusing on taekwondo.

Taekwondo can be broken into three parts: ‘tae’ means “to strike or smash with the foot,” ‘kwon’ means “to strike or smash with the hand,” and ‘do’ means “as a way of life.” Thus as a whole, taekwondo is not just a method of fighting, but a philosophy on life.

Taekondo is taught the most by the club because it is the style most familiar to the instructors. Other styles include karate, taught by Chomet, aikido, taught by Chodrow, and tangsoodo, taught by Vertolli.

The club offers three official classes a week, all taught by the student instructors who are certified by their home martial arts schools.

“If they’re not black belts, they’re high-ranking,” Chodrow said.

In addition to the three lessons, the club has a weekly open-mat session for students to practice, use equipment and gain experience. They also do self-defense seminars, tournaments and demonstrations, and are able to give out taekwondo rankings to members.

Every week the club takes students to Norristown to study under Harry Plichta, who is a seventh dan black-belt, a high level black-belt that takes many years to achieve. Liu is, for instance, a second dan, and he explained, “It took me four years to get to second dan.”

“Plichta’s been doing this for several multiples of my lifetime,” Chodrow added. The instructors aim to take what they learn from Plicta and incorporate it into their own teachings.

The club began last November, though as Chodrow explained, they “weren’t chartered into the spring, but started running classes before that.” Chodrow was in an aikido class, and it came to be known to some of the other students that he knew taekwondo. These students were interested in learning, and so Chodrow gave his first class to three of his classmates.

“That was the catalyst. We almost immediately started teaching classes,” Chodrow said.
Spring semester 2009 served as a turning point for the club as they began intensifying their efforts to become known across campus through demonstrations and advertisements. They attempted to maintain their momentum over the summer, discussing plans and coordinating for the new school year, and the club started up again with a more developed curriculum and with new equipment. In the upcoming week, members of the club will have their first rank testing, but ultimately, the club aims to get PE credit. However, the latter will involve a two-year process and also requires obtaining an outside instructor.

They also hope to offer more opportunities to participate in professional tournaments, but also to provide an outlet for practicing martial arts.

The club hopes to continually bring styles of different martial arts together into dialogue with each other.

“We’re really trying to critically examine what we’ve been taught and see if it makes sense and use the best of each style,” Liu said.

Vienna Tran ’13, a first year member of the club, has studied karate for five years but is learning taekwondo for the first time.

“I have been looking at this other style of martial arts, seeing how other people feel and manage their styles,” she said and explained that it has been a wonderful learning experience for her and for many students, including neophyte learners in the club.

The club has focused on perfecting form and learning self-defense. Next month, members will work on techniques and sparring.

Lessons are held in the Field-house Wrestling room on Sundays at 2 p.m., Mondays at 4:30 p.m. and Thursdays at 7 p.m.

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