I would like to dedicate these medals in honor of my late teacher Grand Master Min Pai. I'm glad I was able to give him the International recognition that he always deserved. Master Pai has inspired and touched the lives of so many and this is my small token of appreciation. I want to thank Grand Master Min Pai for all of the years of his teachings. I know he is smiling down on me.
International Martial Arts Championships - Push Hands Competition - July 2011!
1st place in the 160 - 180lb weight class
1st place in the 180 - 200lb weight class
2nd Place in the 200lb plus Super HeavyWeight Division.
Grand Master Min Q Pai
A Brief History
Grand Master Min Q Pai was born in Korea in the 1930s and moved to the United States as a young man in the 1950s. He studied mathematics in college and worked on a dairy farm.
He began teaching martial arts in New York City in the early 1960s. Master Pai received his Black Belt at 14 years of age. He called his school Yun Mu Kwan Karate, which he often translated as “constantly honing yourself.” Yun Mu Kwan is a particular style of Tae Kwan Do. The word Karate was the only word anyone in America used at the time to denote martial arts. He began teaching in the Stamford, CT area twice weekly. He combined the NY and CT schools during the intense training and formal grading periods called Seminars which were held three times a year.
The 1970s were a transformative decade for Master Pai, as he met both Eido Roshi and Chang Man Ching. Studying with absolute intensity both Zen Meditation and Tai Chi Chuan, Master Pai changed the Karate school. Students now were expected to sit, do Zazen, and all Black Belts were immediately taught Tai Chi. Additionally, there were now students who studied Tai Chi only without ever learning Karate. The moves being taught in Karate class, always evolving as Master Pai learned or perceived a better way, now changed dramatically as Kung Fu forms and exercises replaced many of the Karate and Tae Kwan Do ways of moving.
In December of 1987 Master Pai introduced an entirely new form he had created, Nabi Su, and eventually changed the name of the style and of the school to Nabi Su. Nabi means Butterfly in Korean.
Copyright © 2004-2011 by Carolyn Campora.
