Grand Master Len Kirschbaum
Len Kirschbaum began his martial arts training in 1963 and first earned his black belt in Taekwon-Do in 1970 from Master J.J. Kuhn.
Kirschbaum has been instrumental in organizing groups of TKD practitioners from coast to coast. He has founded such organizations as: the Wisconsin Taekwon-Do Federation, the United States Taekwon-Do Commission, the Instructors Black belt federation, the International Academy of Taekwon-Do and the International Original Taekwon-Do Federation (IOTF), and recently founded the Disabled Martial Artists of America, Inc, (DMAA.Inc).
In 2002, Kirschbaum was granted his 9th degree black belt and title of Grand Master. In 2012, He was inducted into the International Black belt Hall of fame as the Grand Master Instructor of the Year. Kirschbaum has been awarded numberless other Hall of fame citations to include: 10th Degree black belt, Soke’ship (Head of Organization/Family), PhD of Martial Arts Philosophy and the Pinnacle of Martial Arts Award.
Steve Coats
Steve Coats began his martial arts training in 2012 from Grand Master Len Kirschbaum.
Steve has been diagnosed with spastic cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair. His upper body is limited in range of motion yet he continues to train in martial arts daily.
Since then, Steve’s focus has been on training people with disabilities in learning martial arts.
Currently, Steve is developing a program for the YMCA Nicholasville in Kentucky. This program will help dozens of disabled students learn self defense that might otherwise be turned away from other instructors and schools.
Steve’s accomplishments include winning numberless first place trophies and gold medals including a grand championship award in weapons division at the International fighting Arts association in 2014.