Posted by Alex Gillis, Jan. 18, 2010, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

One of these days, I have to get a proper photo of my instructor, Master Lenny Di Vecchia. In 25 years of Taekwondo, he's had the biggest impact on me -- his precision, power and tenacity. In the Jan. 2010 issue of Martial Arts Illustrated, writer and martial artist Lesley Jackson explains how I started research forA Killing Art:

“It began with Mr. Di Vecchia in Grandmaster Park Jong-Soo’s gym in Toronto. For months, I’d watched Mr. Di Vecchia out of the corner of my eye..."

"He was very talented, but kept a low profile and he spoke to few black belts. I didn’t blame him, because Park’s huge dojang was a surreal, wondrous place: empty one day and full of champions and blowhards the next. For some reason, Mr. Di Vecchia decided to teach advanced techniques to me and Floyd, another black belt, who I soon befriended. To make a long story short, Mr. Di Vecchia told us that General Choi Hong-Hi had helped to found Taekwondo. In fact, many considered Choi to be the founder, and Choi lived right here in Toronto, Canada."

"And so began a talk about a cold war between men, about WTF shenanigans and ITF plots, about surrogate sons and betrayals… Mr. Di Vecchia told me very little, actually, but enough to make me wonder if he was testing me with bizarre stories. Sometimes, good teachers do that."

"Being a journalist, I had to find the truth; as a martial artist, I had to find my art’s history. It just so happened that massive changes had begun in the World Taekwondo Federation around that time [2001], and that Choi, Park and other pioneers in the International Taekwondo Federation were negotiating a reunion. Suddenly, many men made themselves available for interviews. I was in the right city at the right time."

"As I researched and interviewed, I saw a way through the politics and corruption, I saw a way to write a truthful history, in spite of the gangsterism and thuggery."

For Lesley Jackson's full story, please see her website.

Also, Totally Tae Kwon Do magazine ran a good review of my book, and readers voted A Killing Art as the number-one Tae Kwon Do book last year (pages 22 and 23 of the mag's 8th issue).