Where do we come from, and what is our history in modern martial arts, sport karate and kickboxing?
Countries, cities and many corporations preserve their heritage by researching history and preserving their heritage. They invest into the future by showing the past through exhibitions, by publishing books and movies and by building museums. They honor the pioneers and their sacrifices, they show the greatness and spirit of the people who elevated and accelerated a movement that still exists, today.
There is little awareness for the modern, western, competition based martial arts and fighting sports, today. Very little is known about the hardships the pioneers of our sport have faced to develop and make more popular what started out as Taekwon-do or All-Style Karate and what is known as Kickboxing, today.
When I started working as a photo-journalist in the early 80ties I began traveling the world to meet countless great martial artists around the world. As time went by I started publishing magazines, produced video broadcasts and promoted events. Over the course of the years thounds of images, films and videos have survived in storage and I would like to bring them to the light of day – but to do so I need the support of the community.
At this time, I am seeking to fund hardware cost that will allow me to preserve an archive of 3000 rolls of films. The scanners will help digitize truely historic images from early eras:
- Staring around 1960 when pioneers such as Jhoon Rhee, Mike Anderson and George Brückner introduced Taekwondo to Europe with the support of General Choi Hong Hi.
- The first professional Karate events that lead to the formation of the PKA – Professional Karate Association.
- The early development of All-Style Karate from 1964 to 1976 that lead to the formation of WAKO.
- Development of protective gear from Rhoon Rhee safe-T equipment to Olympic boxing gloves
The images, slides, films and videos will be compiled into an upcoming book about the history of the sport. The content will also be made available for licensing to other authors, museums and possibly for sports and cultual organizations who wish to document and preserve our heritage.
In order to fund Kicksider Project I have started a campaign on crowd funding platform GoFundMe. The campaign provides a basic description of my project. Gofundme accepts easy online payments.
I appreciate every donation. Each of them will help to preserve the history of kickboxing and competitive martial arts. Thank you very much for your support and consideration.
Corporations and Organization will also be able to become sponsors.
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