Grandmaster Robert H. Hardin - Founder
Grandmaster Hardin began his training more than 30 years ago in December of 1968. As a red belt, he taught a club at the YMCA in Warren, Arkansas, later expanding to the YMCA in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In 1971, he opened a full time school in Hot Springs. He taught there until 1982, when he sold his Hot Springs school and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to open a school and begin development of the Tennessee region. He also was a member of the staff of Henderson State University teaching Taekwondo there from 1975 to 1982. During this time he was very active with the American Taekwondo Association (ATA), achieving the position of ATA Regional Vice President in 1980.
In 1984, Grandmaster Hardin founded the Mid American Taekwondo Centers (MATC). He also developed the Choong Sil style of Taekwondo, which integrates a goal-oriented philosophy as part of the Taekwondo training. In the summer of 1995, the last pattern in the Choong Sil system was introduced and the Choong Sil pattern system was completed. In keeping with this, the MATC elected to change its name to the Choong Sil Taekwondo Federation (CTF). The CTF now encompasses over 60 schools and clubs, headquartered near Nashville, Tennessee, and with schools as far away as the East and West Coasts.
Grandmaster Hardin was promoted to Ninth Degree Black Belt by the senior members of the CTF in November 2007. He had previously earned his Eighth Degree Black Belt under the Amateur Athletic Union (James K. Roberts, 9th Dan) on December 20, 1999. He had received his Seventh Degree Black Belt, as well as Master Instructor, from Grand Master Park Jung Tae of the Global Taekwondo Federation on November 20, 1992 and Sixth Degree from General Choi Hong Hi of the International Taekwondo Federation on November 21,1986.
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