Koubeissi Taekwondo school

Me and my partner Ali Fawaz ran a refreshing 20 miles in preparation for our next marathon

It was a great day for running a half marathon (13 miles) with my long-time running partner, Master/attorney, Hameed Dakroub!

This was an early celebration back on August 6th 2022 at Kil’s Family Tournament in Brighton when Grandmaster Ali Koubeissi received his 8th Dan Black Belt.

Left-to-right; Master Ted Ring, Grandmaster Sung Sup Kil, Grandmaster Ali Koubeissi, Master Jack  Kittinger ,Master David Johnson, and Grandmaster Yung Sup Kil.

Taekwondo Grandmaster. It took me a half century to accomplish this title, but it did not come easy. When you start as a color belt, your short term goal is the black belt; you work hard, you exercise hard, and you try to prove yourself towards your goal as a black belt. After you achieve the black belt your goal is to win tournaments, exercise harder, but the end goal is essentially to achieve the 4th degree and become a master. But this needs a lot of support, without your own master behind you and without you belonging to a taekwondo community you would not make it on those good and even bad days, after you win or lose tournaments. But at the end of the day the goal and focus is on you. To become a master, champion, national champion, world champion the focus is on you. But when you become a master and achieve the title of master, the goal is to start what all other masters start, to continue the road of taekwondo. Masters teach children to become black belts and black belts to become masters. But when you become a Grandmaster, you become embedded in the sport, you become one that leaves a mark of what everyone achieved before. And this is what other select-few achieve from taekwondo, world-wide. And when you look back and see all your students become doctors, lawyers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and other r professions who stand out in their community, you thank god for that. It becomes more than just a sport at that point. Our students achieved national rankings such as junior Olympic gold medalist, multiple top 3 US National champions, regional champions, state champions and more. But for me, things changed in my martial arts career when I was 14 years old, after I got my black belt in kick-boxing and taekwondo. After I became a black belt, I began teaching in my gym. I then inherited all the responsibilities after my master had to travel outside the country. I trained and taught my students at the same time, older, younger and my age. I was competing and coaching my students at the same competitions. My spirit and my love for martial arts taught me to never give up. That is what makes me realize my goal earlier and the responsibility for it. No one said life was easy, I learned that when I was young. That was a lesson for today. Today I became a Grandmaster. This is a special thank you to all my masters that I trained under, starting from Lebanon, Master Mohamed Jumaa, then to New York, Master Tony Lupakas, and then to Michigan when I began my Journey in 1998, where I met my Grand Master Sung Sup Kil, and my master, Grandmaster Yung Sup Kil, and began to belong the family of Kil’s Taekwondo. Grandmasters Sung Sup Kil and Yung Sup Kil always supported me, stayed beside me, and taught me. Every Wednesday and Friday I used to train at Grandmaster Kil’s schools learning the new techniques and working hard and also attending tournaments, local, state, national, and international. Teaching, coaching, and training. And until today I never stop training. Even today my Grandmaster was talking about how I will achieve the 9th degree black belt and get the colorful belt. There is always more to achieve. Today I also became an international instructor, because of my Grandmaster Sung Sup Kil who became the world President of the Han Mo Kwan. Thank you to everyone who had an impact on my life and thank you to the support from the Dearborn community. Dearborn is my hometown. And the achievement and hard-work that we accomplished today belongs to the Dearborn community. Thank you to all the Koubeissi Taekwondo students and family, and to all the 390 black belts I graduated and their hard-work and support!

Congratulations to my daughter and now officially Master Zeinab Koubeissi on receiving her 4th degree black belt! I’m so proud of her accomplishments on and off of the Tae Kwon Do mats. Not only has she demonstrated outstanding martial arts abilities but what makes me happiest is watching her grow into an amazing young lady. May God bless her with continued success!