Though no senior citizen at the West Chicago Terrace nursing home has yet to earn a black belt, Jim Langlas, watching a wheelchair-bound group exercise with his students, does not rule out the possibility.
He counts nobody out when it comes to taekwon-do.
For eight years, he has operated Langlas` Taekwon-do Training Center in West Chicago under the tenent that no handicap should exclude one from participating in the martial arts.
As a result, his taekwon-do classes are a step-make that a kick-above the rest.
Taekwon-do, like all martial arts, stresses courtesy and respect while using the body in the most efficient and graceful way possible, said Langlas. Despite technical differences, he likens Korea`s taekwon-do to Japan`s karate because both teach athletes to concentrate as much of the body`s power as possbile at the point and instant of impact.
Judo, a Japanese art, is distinguished from the two because of its resemblance to wrestling, he said. In Judo, a participnat will grab an opponent using his foe`s force to his advantage rather than opposing it directly.
Besides teaching the usual taekwon-do classes, Langlas, a fourth-degree black belt, and his students are currently teaching exercise classes for adults with multiple sclerosis and for senior citizens. Each year at Downers Grove South High School, Langlas teaches taekwon-do to physically and mentally handicapped students through the Du Page/West Cook Regional Cooperative Multiple Handicapped and Physical Handicapped Program. And in the past he has taught the art to a blind woman and to troubled teens in the Wheaton school district.
These are services Wheaton resident Langlas, English Department chairman at Wheaton North High School, offers for free.
Langlas got the idea of teaching the handicapped from Master Han Cha Kyo, an eight-degree black belt and top international taekwon-do instructor, who has taught the mentally and physically handicapped, reform school children and the elderly.
In 1980, during his first teaching job at the now defunct Wheaton-Warrenville High School, Langlas started a discipline program at the school. The class offered an alternative to students who would otherwise have been expelled for fighting, drinking and truancy.
That same year he opened his studio, a place where it is extremely difficult to earn a black belt without sharing the mechanics and spirit of taekwon-do with handicapped individuals.
”We feel that working with the handicapped is our way of contributing to the community,” he said. ”I want my students to look beyond themselves and be generous and productive members of society.”
Though many may see martial arts as simply a way to stay physically fit or defend oneself, Langlas looks at taekwon-do as a way of life. His students, he says, grow in character and must possess qualities of courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit if they are to be promoted. ”A black belt is a leader,” said Langlas, his voice still energized though the encouraging smile was gone. ”And we know selfish leaders don`t help their people much. They`re destructive as far as I`m concerned.”
He says he and his students are, on the other hand, ”trying to develop the full potential of the human being. And I think that is the key. Full potential.
”Say there is a person in a wheelchair at Downers Grove South and they feel `I can`t do anything, I`m in this wheelchair.` Well they sure can.”
Two to three weeks a year, the high school students are treated to a Langlas taekwon-do gym class where individuals are pushed to their physical limit in what is really a confidence-building session.
”Martial arts,” says Langlas, ”is life. And we aren`t all able to do fancy techniques.”
Maintaining that it is important to give teens a measure of their success and growth, Langlas tests the high school students and awards them belts.
”I want to see effort. I want to see perseverance,” he said. Someone in a wheelchair can earn a black belt because the standards are judged against their capabilities. Said Langlas, ”It has to do with what we begin with and how we develop that. It is a test of character. A standard of character development,” he said, adding that, in many ways, character is more important than physical skill. One who is of low moral character, no matter how talented physically, will get nowhere in his class.
His students all teach in and out of class to build leadership skills and confidence. As head instructor, Langlas has led 30 people from the beginner white belt to the advanced black belt. Eight second-degree black belt students assist him.
First-degree black belt Cindy Hunt, 29, of St. Charles, said she values the teaching aspect because it encourages students to share. She; Ed Shirley, a 29-year-old first-degree black belt from Glen Ellyn, and Hugh O`Conner, first-degree black belt from West Chicago, regularly lead excercises at the nursing home.
To improve circulation and to relax, students in both his exercise and taekwon-do classes use exercise aids called isotrims. Students use their legs, knees, feet, arms, elbows, hands, head or back to apply pressure to the accordian-like plastic and sponge unit.
Suzi Diab, a 23-year-old Glen Ellyn woman who learned she had MS in 1981, has been attending Langlas` Saturday morning class for about five months. Working with two Isotrims has enabled her to eliminate an hour rest period that had become a regular part of her day.
”It helps with breathing, and it gives you so much energy,” she said.
”Before my arms were so heavy in the middle of the day, and my legs. A lot of my friends have even said `I can`t believe how much energy you have.`
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Jippy Diab, Suzi`s mother and assistant facilitator of the Western Du Page Multiple Sclerosis Support Group said the students say they do not feel as stiff or tired, and her daughter also reports breathing and walking with greater ease.
”These Isotrims and the breathing is our way of teaching them martial arts,” said Langlas. ”Martial arts is life and what we are doing is trying to give them more life, more confidence, more focus.”
Though the adults with MS will continue to work with Langlas, he hopes the nursing home staff will take over the senior program.
Is that because he needs a rest?
Not at all. It would give him and his students the chance to help another select group. After all, there are a lot of handicapped people out there who could benefit from practicing taekwon-do or the stress-relieving exercises, he said.
”One may have a bad temper. One may be too proud,” said Langlas, verbalizing but two human inadequacies. ”In some ways we all have a handicap. We must overcome it.”
