Grand Master Van Binh

Grand Master Nguyen Van Binh was born February 29th, 1936 (no, this is not what it is on his ID) and has a family history in martial arts of over 300 years. His own grandmother learned Cong-Fu (Vietnamese Kung-Fu) and joined her uncle to fight off Chinese invaders. GM Van Binh’s father started to teach him Cong-Fu at the age of five. He also participated in a local version of boy scouts.

“In 1947, GM Van Binh’s father was killed by French occupation soldiers, and from this point on, GM Van Binh trained with even more determination, saddened by the realization that had he been more expert in the martial arts, he might have been able to save his father from an untimely death.”

He expanded his martial arts knowledge by enrolling in Aikido and Judo lessons. In 1962, GM Van Binh joined the Korean Taekwon-Do movement after a chance meeting with Nam Tae He. Not long after, he was the national Judo champion in Vietnam and was able to participate in the 1964 Olympics in Judo.

After serving as an interpreter for the U.S. army, he had to flee Vietnam surviving refugee camps with his family, and eventually settled in Houston, TX in 1975. There, he was offered to cross train the New Orleans Saints in Martial Arts but turned it down to follow his dream of opening up his own school. General Choi helped name his school as “Van Binh Self Defense Academy”. GM Van Binh has taught over 70,000 students, graduated over 1,500 black belts, and founded ITF-USA. His current rank is A-9-2 and is designated by the ITF “First Pioneer”.

“GM Van Binh’s utmost ambition is to pass on the heritage of discipline and peace which he has been so fortunate to have been trained in by his own beloved Teachers and Masters.”