In Hyuk Suh is the founder, Grandmaster and President of the World Kuk Sool Association®. He has studied martial arts for more than 50 years, receiving his first instruction from his grandfather, Myung Deuk Suh, a master-instructor to the Korean Royal Court. After his grandfather's death, he traveled throughout the Far East seeking out and studying additional aspects of the martial arts.
The knowledge Kuk Sa Nim acquired from his grandfather and subsequent masters enabled him to establish Kuk Sool Won™. The organization now boasts 1.3 million members with over 800 schools worldwide in 27 different countries. Although expert in every aspect of martial arts, Grandmaster Suh is especially renowned for his mastery of pressure point and joint manipulation.
Additionally, Kuk Sool Won™ has been mentioned in over 300 articles and featured on more than 60 front covers by world famous magazines in the United States, England, Spain, Iran, Germany, Mexico, and Venezuela. While the following list of accomplishments include items accrued not only by himself but by the organizations he founded, the reason for this can be found in the excerpt below, taken from the “Letter from the Grandmaster” which is written to all practitioners of Kuk Sool Won™ and located in the front of the Textbooks he provided as an aid to understanding such a unique and comprehensive martial art.
Kuk Sool Won™ is not a sport, nor is it simply another oriental self-defense method. It is a complete martial art that combines hand striking, kicking, throwing, grappling, joint-locking, falling, acrobatics, animal-styled techniques, and 24 traditional weapons into a "hard-soft" style emphasizing speed and fluidity. Unsurpassed for self defense, Kuk Sool Won™ is not merely concerned with the physical methods of attack and defense; Kuk Sool Won™ includes the study of healing techniques, the development of internal power, and physical conditioning.
Philosophically, Kuk Sool Won™ stresses humility, self discipline, self control, loyalty, and respect for others. This is an extremely well organized system of martial arts which seeks to integrate and explore all aspects of the traditional Korean martial arts.
Although its origins may be traced back to antiquity, the present Kuk Sool Won™ system was formally devised only recently. Grandmaster In Hyuk Suh spent more that 40 years in single-minded practice and research in order to learn, compile, master, and organize the more than 3600 techniques that comprise Kuk Sool Won™. He founded Kuk Sool Won™ (Traditional Martial Arts Association) in 1961 and brought it to the United States in 1974.