Black Belt

Self Defense for Women Magazine Article

Summer 2002, Volume 1, No. 1

Olivia Vaatete is the personal assistant to Taejoon Lee, the eldest son of the Founder of Hwa Rang Do ® , Dr. Joo Bang Lee and the Vice-president of the World Hwa Rang Do Association. As his assistant and Chief Administrator, Vaatete essentially manages the day-to-day operations of his West Los Angeles studio-an operation serving more than 200 students, all of whom she knows personally. Aside from her duties at the school, she is also a bridal designer who specializes in headpieces and veils. And with the summer wedding season approaching, things are bound to get busy.

"I chose Hwa Rang Do because of my daughter" Vaatete explains. "A good friend of mine whose children came here (to the Hwa Rang Do studio) referred me. She said this was a fabulous school with a lot of traditionalism, and in today's society that's very important. I thought, This is great for my girl. She can learn to take care of herself. I was physically active. I did a lot of weight training and various aerobics and cardiovascular workouts. I had always wanted to do martial arts, but I just never pursued it and at that point I felt, you know, I am too old. This is not for me anymore, this is for the younger generation."

Call it masterful marketing or inevitable fate, but she was about to find out that you're never too old to face your limitations. "For Mother's Day, Master Lee sent out gift certificates for moms to try [the classes] for a month," she recalls. "I thought, 'Oh, no...' But Master Lee said, 'Why don't you just try? You have nothing to lose.' So I did and my daughter was really excited that I was starting. It was a great opportunity to do something together. So here I am now, running the school three years later."

"Hwa Rang Do has given me the opportunity ... to help other people!"

" The only [obstacle] at first was the sparring aspect of it," she says. "I loved the forms, the kicking, the punching. The art was so beautiful to look at, but the sparring... I wasn't sure that having actual contact and going in to fight somebody was something I could do. I asked Master Lee if there was any way I could do this without sparring and he said to me, 'Well, no. Think about it, what would pizza be like without cheese?'"

In this case, Vaatete had the extra benefit of support, a very important element of success no matter what the endeavor. Beginners especially need someone to back them up when they have doubts.

"You know, I didn't have a choice, because Master Lee really pushes his students to their maximum potential. I was put in situations where I didn't have a choice, and that is how it is in real life, too."

Once Vaatete began training in Hwa Rang Do, she was able to physically and mentally pull together all the various positive influences in her and apply them within the disciplined structure of the martial art studio. One of her complaints about being a member of a gym is the lack of any central focus.

"Hwa Rang Do is a way of life," she explains. "It's not just coming to the gym and training for an hour and leaving. And I think that's why it was so appealing to me, because [at the gym] I'd lift weights, I'd take a few classes, I'd walk around and that was it, it wasn't challenging. I wasn't really interacting with anybody. This has given me the opportunity to work with people and to help other people."

Now that she's gotten past her early hesitations, she's wholly enthusiastic about her discipline. Besides achieving higher belt status in Hwa Rang Do, Vaatete's goal is to get more women involved in the martial arts.

"Women coming to a martial arts studio envision it full of men, so for them to come into a martial arts studio is a little overwhelming," she explains. "We're also very family-oriented at the school. We have a lot of mothers and kids that do it, wives and husbands or boyfriends and girlfriends that [participate] together."

When asked if she had ever needed to call upon her skills in a real-life situation, Vaatete's first reply was that she hadn't. She then talked a bit about challenging her brother-in-law and that he didn't like it when she beat him. For many women, employing self-defense skills brings to mind images of striking, kicking, injuring or subduing an attacker. But an example arose that perfectly exemplified what it means to defend oneself. "I was confronted by a weird guy who lived in my building," she recalls. "He was following me around, but I stopped it right there, I confronted him verbally. He was spying on me and my daughter and he came up to me. He came up to shake my hand and to grab me and I pushed him away and said 'NO, I don't know you; I don't want to know you and you have to leave me alone.' And that was that. I let him know right then and there that it was unacceptable and he would not be allowed to do this."

Considering how her martial arts training has changed her approach to such situations, Vaatete says, "I would like to think that three years ago I would have handled things the same way. I [was raised by] a single mom and she instilled in us a sense of being aware and [not letting] our guard down wherever you are. Being here and training has definitely reinforced it and given me the power to really feel that no way is anybody going to do anything to me."

When I asked if martial arts affected the way she thinks and takes on tasks or challenges in life, Vaatete replies, "Absolutely. Being Master Lee's personal assistant makes it even more so. He's very demanding, especially as far as doing things to our maximum, to not give up, to look for answers. If you can't do something, find a way to do it. Never give up. Giving up is not an option. Our school motto is: 'One horse warrior conquers a thousand and with one's mind nothing is impossible.'"