Tufts Tae Kwon Do Club History

The Tufts Tae Kwon Do club was founded in 1990 by Kevin Ballou, a Tufts freshman with no martial arts experience. At the time, there was no strong martial arts presence on Tufts’ campus, so Mr. Ballou petitioned to start a new club, and chose Taekwondo as the style to be taught. He met Young Kim, another freshman who was a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, who was willing to be the instructor. And so Tufts Tae Kwon Do was founded with Kevin Ballou as the first club president, and Young Kim as its first Head Instructor. The club has continued in the same way since – always student run – and has become the most sucessful martial arts club in Tufts’ history, with membership in past years reaching nearly 100 students.

Today, our club now focuses more on tournaments and competition in the world of Tae Kwon Do. With Mike Harb (5th Dan Black Belt and ECTC Board member), Tufts has made a great showing at the league’s tournaments, especially for such a small school. Our focus is on WTF-style sparring, but we also incorporate ITF-style forms into our belt test requirements.