Grandmaster Terence Walsh was introduced to the oriental martial arts in 1955. He initially studied Judo under the famous Dutch champion, Jan Ruijg. In 1960, Grandmaster Walsh was selected to demonstrate Judo before Primo Canera, the reigning World Heavyweight Boxing champion. Canera voiced his amazement at the skill of the young judo player considering his age and experience. Three years later, Grandmaster Walsh captured the NSW Middleweight Black Belt Judo Championship with relative ease from some of Australia’s most experienced and world-travelled players.

Around this time, Grandmaster Walsh was given a newspaper article reporting that a “Karate Master” had broken a brick with his bare hand in a demonstration of “superhuman powers”. He began to research the little known Art of “Karate” by any means available: studying articles, speaking with overseas travellers and interviewing merchant seamen alighting ships in Sydney Harbour. As part of his search for accurate and reliable information, Grandmaster Walsh privately imported a textbook called “This is Karate” by the late Karate Master, Mas Oyama.

After studying the text in 1965, Grandmaster Walsh wrote two letters expressing his interest in learning more about the Oriental martial arts: one to the President of the People’s Republic of Korea, Park Chung Hee, and the other to Master Oyama.

Master Oyama wrote back in 1966, stating in broken English that he had “felt” an unusual depth of knowledge and insight the letter of the young Australian. Master Oyama extended a formal invitation to Grandmaster Walsh to come to Oyama’s Tokyo Karate Headquarters and study martial arts under him full-time. A couple of days later, Grandmaster Walsh received a second letter from the Korea Amateur Sports Association, offering him a full government scholarship to study Tae Kwon Do in Korea. The letter said that the Korean government saw the scholarship as a means of furthering Korean-Australian international relations and that the Association was organising a suitable martial arts instructor in anticipation of his arrival.

Later in 1966, Grandmaster Walsh received an official invitation to spend 18 months in Korea undergoing an intensive martial arts study regime. The invitation said that he was to be placed in the “foster care” of Lee Sung Soo, 9th Dan Black Belt (then 4th Dan). The invitation warned that few Westerners had ever trained in Tae Kwon Do and no Australian had ever undertaken this military-style, hyper-intensive, training regime: 6 hours per day, 6 days per week for 18 months.

Grandmaster Walsh underwent his initial training at the Kunil Tae Kwon Do Training Institute in Donam Dong, a suburb of Seoul. The school trained more than 1000 students per day – huge by today’s standards. Grandmaster Walsh was the only westerner among the 1000 students training at the Institute. Numerous photographs of the Kunil Institute show wooden planks nailed across its windows – a precaution taken to stop students being kicked through them and out onto the street. Despite many obstacles, Grandmaster Walsh gained the respect and admiration of each of the Institute’s instructors and top black belts through his relentless determination, courage and powerful technique. His training was a constant news item in Oriental newspapers. Many Korean journalists were fascinated with the “man from Hoju (Australia)” who competed against the Korean’s in their national martial art.

Photo captions:

1. 1.1967: Grandmaster Walsh's first Tae Kwon Do lesson at the Kunil Tae Kwon Do Institute, Korea under Grandmaster Lee, Sung Soo (now 9th Dan). This photo and its associated news article were syndicated by the UPI Press. It appeared in newspapers throughout Asia and the United States.
   

2. 2.1968: Grandmaster Walsh and his personal instructors, just prior to his examination for 1st Dan Black Belt before the Korea Tae Kwon Do Association and the Jidokwan.  The man standing to the right of Grandmaster Walsh is Mr Seo, Yu Seok, Grandmaster Walsh's personal instructor and mentor. The men flanking Grandmaster Walsh and Mr Seo are Mr Seo's assistant instructors.
   

3. 3.1968: Grandmaster Walsh and the instructors of the Kunil Tae Kwon Do Institute. Grandmaster Walsh is seated third from the right.
   

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