Teaching & technique

“Jook-Am”—bamboo in stone—expresses GrandMaster Park’s philosophy. Bamboo represents resilience, humility, flexibility and upright character. Stone represents principles that remain steady under pressure.

Strength, in this understanding, includes rising through adversity without losing humility, and growing without abandoning one’s values. It is the idea behind the words: Rooted in spirit. Forged in discipline.

GrandMaster Park often taught through direct demonstration and careful correction. The photograph here preserves his close attention to a student’s hand position.

Demonstration photographs can be spectacular, but the seminar images show another form of technical work: explaining a position, watching the class, and helping a particular student understand a movement. The interviews recall the patience and encouragement that accompanied those corrections.

Seminars brought students together for intensive training, demonstrations and shared practice.

Some photographs show entire classes; others show one teacher and one student. Together, they capture the relationship between demonstrating a technique and helping students develop it through practice.

The promotional and demonstration photographs show flying kicks, board targets, bag work and public performances, including early images from the Winnipeg school.

These photographs capture focus, control and the trust between GrandMaster Park and the students taking part.

They are historical photographs, not instructions for attempting the demonstrations.

GrandMaster Park’s technical legacy includes his work on patterns and the development of GTF’s system. That contribution developed through his years of instruction and federation leadership.

The photograph here shows the first movement of Sun Duk. A still photograph preserves a position; the complete pattern and its explanation belong in the technical reference.

Explore the GTF Patterns Reference Handbook →

The collection includes photographs of stretching and individual practice as well as performances. Training remained an important part of GrandMaster Park’s life alongside travel and teaching.

These images balance the public demonstrations with the quieter work behind them: flexibility, repetition and continued practice.