Najem helped Skywalker with his Jedi moves

Wednesday May 15, 2002 — Najem says he recognized some of his moves in Christensen from the movie's preview trailer, although he hadn't yet seen the film.

Once the young actor arrived at the Sydney movie studio, Najem says, "they'd bring different guys on the set to teach him different moves. But I have a contract with Hayden" ... as well as photos of them working together in the park to prove it.

A sixth-degree black belt master instructor in Tae Kwon Do, "a martial art used as self defense in Korea" where he trained intermittently for 14 years, Najem competed at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and the 1992 games in Barcelona, where he took a silver medal.

He also holds a slew of medals from places such as the Canadian National Championships, the Pan-Am Games, the World Tae Kwan Do Championships and on and on.

A sanctioned sport

Although Najem retired for a few years, he returned in 1997 in preparation for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the first time Tae Kwan Do would be officially sanctioned as a sport at the summer games.

He won a gold medal in his weight class for the Canadian Olympic trials. But while competing in the 1999 Olympic trials in Croatia, Najem ripped a hamstring, ending his Olympic dreams.

After that, he began giving seminars all over the world in the footsteps of his own master - Min Hyung Keun - a Korean trainer with studios in Korea and Canada.

Min was so impressed with Najem's martial arts abilities when he first trained him at the age of 13 in Edmonton, that when the rest of the family moved to Ottawa, Min offered to take Najem in so he could remain behind.

OVer his parents' initial objections, Najem went back to Min, even taking a three-day bus ride from Ottawa to Edmonton to train with him. Eventually, Najem says, Min legally adopted him and they went back and forth between Korea and Canada to train.

In 1988, when he was 18, Najem qualified for the Seoul Olympics where Tae Kwan Db was a demonstration sport. "My father was shocked," he recalls.

Another natural

Najem came to the Ocean State following a series of seminars in Boston at which he met 12-year-old Rhode Islander Adam Paolino, who proved to be as eager and natural at the sport as Najem was at the boy's age.

Things were going so well in their private lessons that Adam's father, Tom, persuaded Najem to come to the Ocean State and helped him get his green card to work in the United States.

Although a Canadian citizen, Najem feels there are "20 times more opportunities in the United States" for him and his sport. "Canada is a great, great country to raise a family," he says, "but they don't take their sports stars as seriously."

Currently he trains students in his Superior Tae Kwan Do School, located inside Future Fitness on Sockanosset Cross Road.

At one point, he goes through a routine for the camera, leaping and leaping and leaping again. Someday, he says, he'd like a career in movies. With his drive - and his leaps - the sky seems to be the limit.