Deux Rivières Tang Soo Do
Deux Rivières Tang Soo Do (Two Rivers TSD) is a club based in Oullins, France. Its goals are to teach Tang Soo Do according to the values of the TGTSDA. It also aim to, as written in its statuses, promote, through this teaching, brotherhood, discipline, self-confidence and self-assurance, as well as help students develop "a healthy mind in a healthy body".
A particular attention is brought to self defense: Throughout classes are introduced essential self defense notions, so that students are able to defend themselves, their loved ones and their possessions within the limits of the law.
2RTSD was founded under the french "association loi 1901" law, on Dec 21st, 2013. Its current board members are :
Alexandre Bernard
E Dan (3rd Dan)
Mr. Bernard studied Judo for about ten years. After trying quickly a couple more martial arts, he went to the US to get a Ph.D. in chemistry. He joined Buckeye Tang Soo Do on his first semester there. Four years later, he was granted a black belt, and his instructor certificate shortly after. One more year and he came back to France. Not wanting to lose all he had learned, he decided to extend the WTSDA to France by opening 2RTSD.
Mr. Bernard particularly likes Il Soo Sik Dae Ryun, and although he has an affinity for kicks (even more so when they're flying kicks), he is particularly interested in techniques that have good self-defense applications. In fact, he is very interested in self-defense in general, which includes all aspects not traditionnally covered, such as laws, prevention and consequences. He was also at some point very interested in weapons (knives in particular), and followed several clinics on knives and flexible weapons applications. He still occasionally teaches these techniques, although he now thinks they are not really realistic as far as self-defense is concerned, especially in Europe.
Outside of martial arts, he is a developer at a software company in Lyon.
Elodie Linard
Cho Dan (2nd Dan)
Mrs Linard has always been interested in martial arts. She tried several (judo, karate, ju jiutsu), without persevering. The over-perfectionist, competitive and segregationist (men and women trying separately) aspects of the clubs she tried dissuaded her from training. Near the end of her studies, she left for the USA for graduate work in chemistry. She discovered there a new martial art: Tang Soo Do. The tenants upheld by Buckeye Tang Soo Do (traditionalism, brotherhood, humility and fighting spirit, amongst others) convinced her to keep training in this martial art. As she got back to France, she chose to pause her training to wait for Alexandre Bernard to open his club.
It is at Deux Rivières Tang Soo Do that she got her black belt after 5 years, and that she still trains and perfects her art. Mrs Linard is particularly interested in the philosophical and introspective aspects of Tang Soo Do. Those are, in her opinion, at the heart of all martial arts practice. She is very interested in practicing forms, which are the perfect example of the union of apparently opposing forces: artistic an martial, beauty and strength, feminine and masculine. Hand techniques, and specifically elbow stries, are her favourite techniques.
In her everyday life, she is a psychologist.
The club's symbol is a practitioner performing a Soo Do Mahk Ki. The technique is a move that is taught after about 6 months to a year training. It is not a beginner's technique, but neither is it an advanced technique. It is also a technique which is at the same time offensive and defensive, and also very close to a relatively neutral guard position that can be very useful in a self-defense situation.
The practitioner is sufficiently neutral to be either man or woman, as Tang Soo Do is for everyone. They are wearing a black belt, the goal of every Tang Soo Do student. They carry the French flag on their arm, to represent the club's country of origin in a world-spanning association.
In the background, the Um Yang symbol, central element of the korean flag, is "liquidified" to represent the two rivers that give the club its name. Thos rivers are a symbol for the city of Lyon, where the Saône meets the Rhône. The confluence is also a symbol of life, made of plenty of experiences that, put together, make a full, powerful whole.
Like the Um Yang, the two rivers represent opposing forces that meet and grow stronger: the WTSDA is the river of Korea meeting the river of the USA. 2RTSD is a stream, fed by each of its members' streams. All rivers are not as wide, but in the end, without it tributaries, a river is nothing but a creek. In the same way, Tang Soo Do is a river that is fed by different aspects: self-defense, weapons, techniques, forms... The river of Hyung is itself fed from several origins: Pyung Ahns are borrowed from Karate, Bassai from chinese martial arts...
The rivers are also a symbol of journey, internal as well as external. The WTSDA was born from Grandmaster Shin's journey from Korea to the US. 2RTSD is born from its founders trip to the US and back. Life is a river that takes us to an unknown destination. Sometimes, the river digs is own bed, sometimes it is diverted, but it keeps on going all the way to the sea, whatever happens.