About Dayton Area Taekwondo

Dayton Area Taekwondo is a Black Belt School. Our goal is to provide the finest physical and personal development program for men and women of all ages, and for youth over 10 years of age (children over 7 years of age may attend with a participating parent/guardian). We are here to  help you become a Black Belt. While our program at Dayton Area Taekwondo provides students with training on the sport side of taekwondo (namely, olympic sparring) and participation in certain competitions is encouraged, sport is only one aspect of the whole of taekwondo. The other is Art. We are dedicated to presenting Taekwondo "whole-isticly". In this way, all the benefits of Taekwondo practice can be achieved and passed on to future generations. In this way we can fully participate in making our world a better place.

The "whole" we speak of, enables us to include students in there senior years - our oldest student currently is 85 years old. There are several students in their 70's and 60's. Students seek enrollment here to get a non-competitive physical work out, to learn self-defense, to develop personal confidence and discipline. A significant accomplishment for long term students is their achievement of a sense of commitment and their achievement of leadership skills. There is a constant reflection in all classes on the meaning of practice and its relevance/application to daily life at home, at school, at work and in the community at large.

Our student body is approximately 25% children, 75% families and approximately 50% female. There is considerable synergy in every class because of that mix.

A very outstanding accomplishment of the school is the number of its Black Belt graduates who are pursuing advanced ranks. Two have reached Master Level (5th Dan), 2 are at 4th Dan, 2 are at 3rd. There are more than 150 at the 1st and 2nd Dan levels.

Dayton Area Taekwondo is the "now generation" of the taekwondo program that was brought to Dayton by Grandmaster Young Chi Kim in 1963. Thirty years later, in 1993, Grandmaster Kim moved to Atlanta, Georgia. The program then came under the ownership and direction of his long-time student, then a 3rd Degree Black Belt, Mr. George Bleil. Grandmaster Kim (9th Dan) promoted Mr. Bleil to 5th Dan in 1997.

In 2004, GM Kim passed away. After remaining “independent” for a period, Master Bleil rejoined his “roots” by aligning himself with GM Joon Pyo Choi, founder of the Oriental Martial Arts College (OMAC) based in Columbus, Ohio. Doing that was not a “stretch”. GM Choi sat on the board of examiners for nearly all of Master Bleil’s promotion tests beginning at White Belt.

Master Bleil now holds the Kukkiwon rank of 7th Dan.

The WTF and Kukkiwon represent 180 million practitioners in 120 countries on every continent and promote to the world all the benefits of Taekwondo both as a martial art and as a sport.

Dayton Area Taekwondo is proud to be the local voice of world organizations, bringing all the benefits of taekwondo to the Dayton area.