Why the White Tiger?
It is said in Eastern mythology that if a tiger lives to be 500 years old his tail turns white. If the emperor at the time is a virtuous ruler the entire tiger turns white. The white tiger is also the defender of the west.  Since we train for self defense first and foremost it seemed only right to choose the white tiger.

Why 5 white tigers why not 2 or 3?
In the Far East odd numbers bring good luck. We chose five because each of the five represents a piece of the school's tradition. Four of the tigers represent the Grandmasters. Three of the four were Grandmaster Smith Sr. teachers. Grandmaster Rhee who taught him forms. Grandmaster Ro who taught him the art of Hapkido, and Grandmaster Roberts Sr. who taught him weapons.  The fourth tiger represents Grandmaster Smith Sr. our present Grandmaster. The fifth tiger represents the Instructors and Students as a whole that train at the school. This is where we get our five white tigers

What about the Black Belt?
The Black Belt represents our passion to black belt excellence since 1987. It was put into a circle to represent the movement of human energy, this energy moves in a circular pattern. This is the energy that binds us to each other.

What is the funny writing on the tigers arm?
These are the Korean characters for Moo Duk Kwon. Literally translated it means “Institute of martial virtue”. This ties back to the tiger becoming all white. Also on the tiger's head a subtle representation of the Chinese character for king or ruler.

What’s with the sun and stars?
This represents the yin/yang or eternal duality; good/bad, yes/no, positive/negative, hot/cold, east/west. In this case we use the representation of east/west. The east being where our art came from, and the west the place where we train.