Since the late 1950′s, U.S. Servicemen who had earned Black Belts in Tang Soo Do while serving in Korea returned to the United States and Tang Soo Do began to expand to serve the interests and needs of the American public. Many American organizations were established in attempts to unify Tang Soo Do here in the United States. One such organization was the non-profit American Tang Soo Do Association chartered in Massachusetts in 1973 under the direction of Richard Byrne. Foreseeing the future popularity of Tang Soo Do in the U.S, the American Tang Soo Do Association was aimed at sponsoring tournaments, clinics, etc., with qualified directors and furthering the development of Tang Soo Do techniques through research.
On March 8th, 1997, after years of Tang Soo Do instructors across the country approaching Master Byrne to seek advice, leadership and instruction, the decision was made to make the American Tang Soo Do Association a national organization. It’s goal is to bring high standards and ideals to it’s members while charging reasonable rates and fees and to meet the needs of Tang Soo Do instructors across the country.
About UTC
In the early 2000′s Grandmaster Byrne began discussing the possibility of a loosely-knit confederation between various Tang Soo Do schools and his own. This alliance would provide support for the participating organizations and the art of Tang Soo Do. At the same time, his world-wide reputation was gathering interest from schools overseas who desired to associate themselves with Grandmaster Byrne and the kind of support that the ATA provided to Tang Soo Do schools, instructors and practitioners in the United States.
In the process of working with several schools in Europe, however, Grandmaster Byrne perceived an understandable hesitancy on the part of some to subject themselves to an American organization. Because of that, the United Tang Soo Do Congress was born, under the leadership of Grandmaster Byrne, to provide the same services and support of Tang Soo Do and Tang Soo Do practitioners outside of the United States as the ATA provides in the United States.
The first official United Tang Soo Do Congress took place in Wiesbaden, Germany, in May of 2006, as Grandmaster Byrne and other members of the ATA traveled to Europe for an international seminar. The seminar was hosted by Grandmaster Benedetto Stumpf, President of German Tang Soo Do, and executive director of the newly-official UTC.
