'More to martial arts than fighting.' Wooster instructor earns 8th-degree black belt

WOOSTER - Chuck Murzda was disappointed the World Taekwondo Jidokwan Federation didn't require him to test for his eighth-degree black belt.

"I tested all the time up to seventh-degree," Murzda said. "This time they said they researched me and said my reputation preceded me, so I didn't have to test. We're just going to promote you, they said."

For someone who has worked hard for everything he has achieved, Murzda said, he wasn't expecting such an easy road to his latest milestone in taekwondo.

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Still, he's trained hard in the Korean form of martial arts for more than 40 years to reach such a lofty level, and the 58-year-old said it will take about nine more years to earn ninth-degree status.

Not bad for someone who was typically the smallest kid in his class growing up in Youngstown, graduating high school at 5-feet, 2-inches tall and 110 pounds.

Murzda said he got into taekwondo at age 15 because he was being bullied and needed to protect himself. He didn't grow much after high school, reaching 5-4 at one time, and is now 5-3.

Because his family didn't have much money, Murzda said he had to walk several miles after school to attend a taekwondo school and several more miles to continue doing club gymnastics, which he said he started as a 12-year-old because it was the only sport where his size wasn't a big factor.

Then he had to walk to his home in a rough neighborhood late at night, Murzda recalled.

"You start fighting to avoid bullying and when you start winning fights you become a target and people want to beat you," said Murzda, who then added shaking his head: "It bothers me that I had to fight in high school."

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While he teaches his students at his martial arts academy in Wooster how to fight, he doesn't want them to fight.

"There's a lot more to martial arts than fighting," he said. "There's the discipline, the patience, the persistence, the respect and the pushing past what you think you can do.

"There's a lot of mental things to martial arts," he added. "These are the things that you really learn with marital arts — finding out what you're capable of, what kind of person you are."

'You have to work your butts off,' in Murzda's martial arts class

It wasn't easy 25 years ago when he started his marital arts school, which he named Grandmaster Chun Tae Kwon Do after his teacher in Youngstown, Grand Master Kae Bae Chun, who tested him up to his seventh-degree black belt until he died a few years ago at 87 years old.

"The first couple of years were rough," Murzda said "It's tough to open up something new in a town like Wooster where everyone knows everyone."

The past few years during COVID also have been difficult for his martial arts academy. He was left with seven students when he reopened after being closed for several months of the pandemic in 2020. He said he's slowly rebuilding and now has 39 students.

At one point, he had 65 students and, over the years, he said, he has taught thousands of students, including several hundred black belts and 25 tournament grand champions. Five students also have gone on to become doctors, two lawyers and one an engineer, as well as several others who have gone on to have good careers, with the help of the discipline and hard-work ethic he teaches, Murzda added.

"I teach traditional martial arts, which isn't easy," He said. "You have to work your butts off. Our black belts are true black belts. I will put my students up against anybody."

Kat Amstutz, Murzda's assistant who has been involved with his school for around 20 years, said Murzda is both an excellent teacher and mentor who is dedicated to the martial arts.

"He's always been passionate about passing his knowledge and skills on to the many students he has had and continues to have," Amstutz said. "Not only does he cultivate well-rounded taekwondo practitioners, but he also helps people better themselves as well."

Began teaching martial arts part time while working at Bob Evans

Before starting his martial arts academy, Murzda was working as a manager at Bob Evans in Wooster. After graduating from Youngstown State University with a business degree, Murzda started working for the restaurant chain, going from Virginia to Maryland and finally to Wooster, where he decided the amount of money he was making for the hours he was working (about 70 hours a week), wasn't worth it.

He decided to give his love of teaching martial arts a try. He kept teaching taekwondo part time while working at Bob Evans.

"I just fell in love with teaching and making a difference in peoples' lives," he said. "There's so much more than just the fighting aspect to taekwondo. There's the understanding and the self-confidence, learning to get along with people, learning how to diffuse a fight and learning to walk away when you don't have to fight."

Not only does Murzda plan to continue teaching while working toward his ninth-degree black belt, he plans to earn the 10th-degree rank, which few people achieve only after a lifetime of dedicated service to martial arts, oftentimes after their deaths.

"I'm going to do it until I can't," he said smiling, then paused and added, "until I'm dead."

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Wooster martial arts instructor achieves 8th-degree black belt status