Sean -- Tae Kwon Do

A Black Belt Sunday, North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, 5-December-2007

When people think of Tae Kwon Do, many envision an eye-pleasing spectacle of whirling kicks, fierce counter-punching and an aesthetic form of body movement.

But wait - there's homework involved?

"The general knowledge test is going to be the hardest part," said Incline High School freshman Jimmy Markman. "You have to memorize a bunch of stuff, like the history of it. It's going to be tough because I spend the least amount of time on it studying."

Markman, along with IHS sophomore Sean McClelland, have been studying the South Korean martial art for about four years. On Sunday, the duo will reach the culmination of their four-year run, as they take the two- to three hour-long test to earn first degree black belt status.

The test, consisting of memorization and choreographed patterns of kicks and poses, takes place at 10 a.m. at 75 Mule Deer Drive in Mogul, Nev.

Markman and McClelland began practicing Tae Kwon Do about four years ago when they joined John Briggs' Universal Tae Kwon Do school. Briggs, who lives in Kings Beach, used to teach the school at the Universal Tae Kwon Do dojo on Tanager Street. Now, because numbers have fallen over the years, he teaches the boys twice a week at the Incline K-2 Elementary School.

Briggs said his two students should pass Sunday's test.

"I think they'll be just fine," Briggs said. "It's my job to make these guys sweat, but it's my job to prepare them. It's going to be difficult, but doable; that's the way it should be."

McClelland, 14, said he is prepared to earn his black belt on Sunday. After that, he said he plans to continue the sport through high school, possibly through college.

"I think I'd like to do that; it's really fun and it keeps me away from the computer," McClelland said. "It's a pretty good thing for life, too. It teaches you discipline and educates you, the stuff you need for the real world."

For Markman, 14, Sunday could mean the end of his Tae Kwon Do career.

"My goal when I started was the black belt, so I don't know what's next," he said. "I've got a lot of stuff going on with football and wrestling and homework, I just don't know if I'll keep it going."

Sunday's performance will have an added element, as the boys will perform in front of Grand Master Lou Grasso, who in 2004 became the first non-Korean born man in the World Hae Yong Kwan Association, a worldwide Tae Kwon Do association, to earn a ninth degree black belt in the sport. Grasso now oversees Universal Tae Kwon Do studios in Reno, Fernley and Carson City, and used to oversee the Incline Village studio on Tanager.

Briggs said the declining Incline population the past few years forced the studio on Tanager to shut down.

"It typically deals with a big turnover rate - we're continuously losing people and continuously trying to bring people in," Briggs said. "And there's so much competition for a kid's time these days, from other sports to skiing, it's hard to keep them motivated. It basically came down to me teaching three classes a week and losing money, and I said, 'I can't do this anymore.'"

Briggs, who has practiced Tae Kwon Do for about 20 years, said the martial arts were very popular among kids in the mid to late '80s, referencing a few pop culture icons from the era as a huge reason why.

"When I started, it was 'The Karate Kid' and the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' that were huge," he said. "It was around 1988 when those were big. We would get up to 125 students in a class."

While both boys are excited for Sunday, both are a little unsure of what lies ahead after Tae Kwon Do.

McClelland said it would be fun to continue practicing Tae Kwon Do and climbing the belt ladder, maybe even spending his spare time teaching classes like Briggs.

"It definitely would be something I'm into," he said. "But I really like chemistry and the sciences and math. I would like to be a chemical engineer."

Markman said his main goal after high school is to attend Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, his uncle's alma mater.

"I want to go pretty much somewhere in the northeast," he said. "I like the snow, plus it's on the other side of the country."