COW: Tae Kwon Do Grandmaster Dr. Clifford Thomas
Bladensburg, MD —
It'll take more than a busted knee to keep Dr. Clifford Thomas away from his students.
"It don't stop me. I'm in the gym six days a week. I put 10 miles a day on the bike. Then I come here and teach my class," says Thomas
With walker and all Dr. Thomas teaches his Tae Kwon Do classes at the Bladensburg Community Center every Thursday Friday and Saturday, training over 100 students.
Dr. Thomas has been teaching Tae Kwon Do in the DMV since 1964 and he says his form of discipline still remains unmatched.
"You will run two laps or three laps, you may give me ten push-ups. But when you leave that class I say come here, you look good. Their chest stuck out, I'll see you next week Doc. And that's the key, you build a leader you don't cut a kid up," says Thomas
Most of those children are shaped into upstanding adults.
"I've seen the little tiny guys all the way up to adulthood. And that's actually happen when we see little five-year-old's turn into the adults within the community and they're still working with him either volunteering with him or working with him," says facility director Jeremy Wiess. "I mean if you want to put a number that would be very hard. Me personally, thousands. I couldn't even quantify it."
"You take a baby who's a three-year-old and then about 18 years later he comes back and says hey Doc, he's 9 feet tall, says hey Doc thanks for all you've done for me because I've been a positive part of his life, here I love what I do," says Thomas.
