“Let us be friends with martial arts and share each other’s knowledge to break our limit without speaking ill of one another. Then it will broaden our thoughts and our horizons.” – DK Yoo
DK Yoo – the martial artist, international exhibitionist, speaker, teacher and movement coach from South Korea – has taken the Internet by storm through several outstanding viral videos demonstrating his pristine mastery of movement.
With no claim of excellence or official ranking in any single of the fifteen martial arts within his background, Yoo is an absolute marvel when instructing, displaying and interpolating movement into martial arts and combat techniques. His ability to inject all human movements into standard self-defense mechanisms is a site to behold; as a result, his YouTube channel hosts a half-million Subscribers while several of his most-stunning videos boast multi-million views.
Aside from his martial arts studies, Yoo is also a respected meditation instructor, accomplished artist and businessman. His Warfare Combat System hosts an unparalleled multi online open course opportunity while his five-track meditation EP Towards Samadhi is available on iTunes.
With upcoming seminars scheduled for America, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France and The Netherlands, DK Yoo is gaining notoriety as quick as his “zero inch punch” technique.
Between seminars and private lessons, Yoo recently took the time to speak about self-confidence, leadership, growth and the importance of the single moment.
ON MOVEMENT
Every movement and scholarship that exist in this whole world is the medium that allows us to improve ourselves. We shouldn’t lock our minds into the preconceptions of people, culture and society. The more you open your heart, the more you will be able to acquire. Do not let any bias imprison your mind, so you can see the very truth in everything.
ON IMPORTANCE OF SINGLE MOMENT
We are living our lives breaking down the past, the present and the future. The interview I am doing here right now is in the present and soon will be the past. Also, I am thinking about the next interview that is going to happen in the future. We intentionally make a distinction between the past and the future for the present. While being in the present moment, the past and the future do arise. Therefore, the utmost matter is the ‘NOW’, focusing on the now moment.
Focus on ‘NOW’ whatever you do, wherever you are. Do not lock yourself in the past or expect the future. Just let yourself be in the present moment. This is the philosophy I hold on to.
ON SELF-CONFIDENCE
We should be the creators for self-confidence and self-belief. Someone who is full of confidence and has a strong self-conviction is never obsessed with the results, yet does one’s best dutifully. Of course, he might be criticized by other people in the process of his success. Socrates once had to meet with harsh condemnation, as well Jesus. Nevertheless, they never stopped asserting their own conviction.
This is how those with self-confidence and self-belief take action. Their action is never influenced by any criticism because they have a firm faith in themselves. If you meditate or have a strong religious belief, you will also have a solid belief in yourself and self-confidence. Thus, meditation and religion are mightily important.
ON LEADERSHIP
A leader should be able to be held accountable for his or her action. A lot of people like to follow a leader and hope to become like him or her. This is why a leader should always try hard to watch their words and actions in order to be an example for others. Because of my position, I am often approached by people who say they love me and want to be like me. I feel I want to be an example for them, so I never want to let myself be idle from learning, exercising and meditating. A leader has an impact on people. I try to connect with people and suggest they should believe in themselves and should not give up on achieving their goals.
Nowadays, many people tend to give up and underrate themselves. I am also a very ordinary person. However, I try hard every single day and that persistence eventually pays off, so much so numerous people now recognize me and like me. This is the major point of what I would love to share with others. If you become a person with great social influence, you should be able to lead people to exercise influence towards a good deed. This is what a leader stands for.
A person, who is willing to draw other people’s potential abilities towards positive direction and effort is a leader.
ON CONTINUED GROWTH
There are mainly two aspects of movements in martial arts. One is the movement for protecting oneself in an emergency situation and the other one is for exercising self-discipline. Nowadays, of course, it is true that martial arts have been declining in popularity and being targets of a lot of criticism and derision due to the rising popularity of MMA (mixed martial arts). However, we can learn self-discipline, courtesy and even how to improve in our human relationships through martial arts.
It is too hasty to make a conclusion of defining martial arts as a biased facet of physical fighting. Embedded in the power of martial arts is, ineffably, a great potential impact more than we can possibly imagine. Thus, I sincerely hope people understand martial arts as learning self-discipline and courtesy and something more than just fighting methods and survival tools.
ON WORLD TRAVEL
Since a lot of seminars are held internationally, I’ve visited many countries and met numerous people. For example, those doing different kinds of martial arts: doctors, entrepreneurs, politicians and people who were completely devoted to completely different sports fields from what I do. But I became good friends with all of them by sharing my knowledge and movements and there also have been so many things I could learn from them. I always believe martial arts contain more than just fighting. Because making friends with martial arts allows you to learn and share so much more than just martial arts.
Let us be friends with martial arts and share each other’s knowledge to break our limit without speaking ill of one another. Then it will broaden our thoughts and our horizons.
ON IMPORTANCE OF FRIENDSHIP
As has previously been explained, we can make friends through martial arts. In fact, a lot of martial arts seemingly have different movements, but they are pretty much alike. The only slight difference is the methods of movement and training. We can evolve ours through sharing methods with one another. Then we can not only grow, but also compete against each other. This will again lead us to be bound to go beyond our limits.
Therefore, becoming friends with martial arts will let us prosper together.
Special thank you to @heyjay_art for allowing the inclusion of his outstanding original artwork.