Tae Kwon Do Takes to the Air

Lifebeats

By Joe Kernan

Thursday October 25, 2001 — Sayed Najem of Warwick has made a most unusual offer to our national airlines. The Lebanese native announced last week that he has offered to give on-board airline personnel $100,000 worth of lessons in self-defense.

“What happened on September 11 really disturbed me,” said Najem. “I come from Lebanon and I am a Christian and this has disrupted my life. It has made me very upset and I want to do something.”

Such an offer from just anyone wouldn’t have much meaning. There are lots of people who can teach self-defense. But when the offer comes from one of the internationally recognized masters of Tae Kwon Do, it means a lot.

Najem, now 31, grew up in Canada, where his family moved to when he was six years old. He said he was frequently picked on as a child. At the age of 10, an older boy hit him on the head and caused him to bleed. His father told him he was not happy about his boy coming home injured and told him he would face more punishment at home if it happened again.

“I decided I would rather take care of myself than face punishment at home,” he said. “The next time one of the older kids hit me… I don’t remember what I actually did but I dropped the guy and decided I might be good at this.”

At the age of 10, Najem started studying Tae Kwon Do in earnest. By 1988, Najem was a competitor in the Summer Olympics in Seoul. He got there by winning the Gold in Canada’s Olympic Team Trials and a Gold Medal in the Canadian National Championship. In 1990, Najem won the Gold in the Pan Am Games in Puerto Rico, a Bronze in the World University Games and again was Canada’s National Champion. In fact, Najem was the Canadian Gold Medal winner for virtually all of the 1990s and had the Silver in Barcelona in 1992.

“The judges were tied about that,” said Dr. Thomas Paolino, whose son is a student of Najem’s. “In the case of a tie, the referee casts the winning vote and he voted for the other guy. There were a lot of people who didn’t think that was right and the crowd let them know.”

Najem said his goal now is to develop a team to represent the United States in the next Olympics and is pretty sure that Rhode Island will be represented on the squad.

Paolino said his son, Adam, 13, is an avid practitioner of Tae Kwon Do and actually traveled to Ottawa several times a month to train with Najem.

“It is the nature of the sport that you learn as much as you can and then move on to the next level and the next teacher,” said Paolino. “With Najem, Adam has found someone who can take him all the way, even to the Olympics. You can’t imagine how happy we are that Najem is here in Rhode Island. Instead of going to Canada for lessons, we just head to Garden City.”

Paolino said that Najem has become a sort of Tae Kwon Do superstar and that people actually come from all around the world to watch Najem and his students compete.

When actor Hayden Christopher, who will play Anakin Skywalker in the next Star Wars movie, was looking to sharpen his warrior image for the role, he came to Najem.

“He worked very hard,” said Najem, “almost too hard. But he was in very good shape and a good student. If he wasn’t an actor, I think he could be a serious martial artist.”

Prior to the 1960s, the Korean art of Tae Kwon Do was not very well known in the United States, or the world for that matter. It began to catch on in America and other parts of the world. Enthusiasts of the sport began to organize the sport on an international level, and by the early 1970s it became recognized as an Olympic event.

The sport was born in Korea about 2,000 years ago as a method of self-defense and non-lethal battle. Najem says, like many serious martial arts, Tae Kwon Do has a spiritual side that is equal to the physical side.

“One of the most important things I teach is to meditate, to find that inner peace and concentration you need for the sport,” he said. “The body and the spirit have to be very in harmony to succeed in this sport.”

The training that Najem is offering airline personnel is not designed to turn the average flight attendant into a black belt competitor. He said the aim is more immediate.

“I don’t mean to be disrespectful,” said Najem, searching for a tactful phrase, “but most airline attendants are trained to be sweet and nice and helpful. Now, I think it is important that they learn to defend themselves. I want to teach them how to take a knife away from somebody, teach them how to use a knife, how to take a gun away from someone. I know that chances are not all will be able to do that but at least they can do something, especially when it looks like it is going to be real bad. At least they will feel less helpless.”

Najem said at least one airline has said they would definitely send employees and several others have expressed interest. He said he believes that, as the word gets around, more people will be signing up.

Najem says any airline employee who wants to take advantage of his offer will be given 90-minute sessions three times a week for four months. He said that would normally cost $200. The students will be trained at Najem’s “Dojang,” located inside the Future Fitness building at 125 Sockanosset Cross Road in Cranston.

“As a new patriot of America, I want to do whatever I can to help the country,” he said.

If you would like more information about Tae Kwon Do, call the academy at (401) 275-2334.

Image from the Article:

It will be a few more years, at least, until Waterman School second-grader Kile Bagdanovich can keep up with Sayed Najem, a world-famous Tae Kwan Do master who has offered to give martial arts training to on-board airline personnel. The Olympic Silver Medallist is offering $100,000 worth of Iessons free to flight attendants. (Beacon Communications photo)