{A m A s t ER ’ s mis sion}
Control, confidence and respect are the principles that changed Coles’s life. As a rising teenage star in Rhee’s school, Coles could win a fight on the street — but martial arts gave him an even more valuable tool to protect himself. “It made me believe I could do more,”
Coles says — a sense of empowerment that he seeks to instill in all of his stu- dents, the children in particular. Rhee fostered that feeling of strength
in his young student, and believed Coles had great potential. “After just three months of training, I knew he was going to be an instructor,” Rhee recalls, “I knew he was one of the best.” Tae kwon do kept Coles away from
the streets, violence and the heroin that some of his friends urged him to try. Coles found an escape through Rhee’s school. For the first time in his life, Coles boarded airplanes that carried him to places such as California and Vancouver. It was a welcome change from the anxi- ety of an impoverished childhood. He was determined to do better for
his own family someday. “I always swore that I would never, ever let my kids be hungry,” says Coles, who has two grown children — a son, Jerome, from a high school relationship, and a daughter, Danielle, from his first marriage, which ended in 2005. Hunger, he says, has a dehumanizing effect: “It’s humiliating. I experienced that a lot growing up.” Ask him about that word — “humil-
iating” — and there is a memory that surfaces immediately. He was 10 or 11, he says, in Northeast
— playing outside with his friends in an alley. His father approached from down the street, clothes smeared with dirt and grease from his work as a mechanic. He carried bags in his hands, filled with empty glass soda bottles that he had col- lected to recycle for pocket change. As his father passed by where the
children were playing, one of the bags ripped open. Bottles fell loudly to the street, rolling in all directions. “He told me, stay here and watch them
while I go get another bag,” Coles says. He shakes his head. “I was so embarrassed to wait there. I felt so ashamed.” He pauses. “But as I got older, I realized he was doing everything possible to make it happen. He was there, he took care of us.”
Coles’s parents steered all four of
their children toward better lives: Coles’s older half-brother, Gregory, en- rolled in the Army, and worked as a truck driver before he died about a year ago from cancer. Coles’s sister, Veronica, is a high school teacher in Montgom- ery County. His brother John became a lawyer for the Federal Communica- tions Commission. John had a stroke in 2006, followed by a seven-month-long coma. Michael Coles has stayed espe- cially close to John during his recovery — the two rarely miss an opportunity to watch a Redskins game together. The youngest of the four, Coles con-
tinued his studies under Rhee while attending Federal City College, where he majored in political science. He earned his first-degree black belt in 1970 and ul- timately dropped out of college in 1974 with one year to go until graduation; he wanted to focus solely on martial arts. His career continued to accelerate:
He became one of five “Jhoon Rhee Su- perstars,” a team of champion fighters who traveled the country. He accom- panied Rhee to Capitol Hill to teach tae kwon do to members of Congress. And he met Muhammad Ali when Coles per- formed a kickboxing demonstration for the legendary boxer at Rhee’s school in Falls Church.
rounds with Leonard. “He dazed the hell out of me. … Even
if you don’t have time to duck and move away, you can usually prepare yourself mentally.” Coles’s face scrunches into an expectant grimace. He lowers his hand and laughs. “But when it’s so fast that you can’t even do that. …” Despite a con-
“Slow, turn, THRUST, back!” Coles shouts. Ray bobbles at first. The second time, he holds his balance perfectly.
Coles would encounter yet another
fighting icon — Sugar Ray Leonard — in 1979, the year Coles won his first tae kwon do national championship title as a welterweight fighter. Leonard practiced at the same gym
in Coral Hills, Md., where Coles was honing his own boxing skills. When Leonard’s coach asked whether Coles wanted to help the boxer prepare for a fight, Coles agreed — and barely slept the night before. “All night I kept thinking, I have to
do so good that they ask me back,” he says. When he showed up the next day, there were local TV and radio crews on hand. Coles fought two five-minute
12 The WashingTon PosT Magazine | august 15, 2010
cussion, Coles realized his goal: Leonard invited him to fight again and kept him as a sparring partner for two years.
Ray Elsey came home for good on Friday, Nov. 6, of last year. “We called it Forever Friday,” says his
mother, Laura Elsey. Laura sits on a couch in the back
room of Coles’s academy, sandwiched be- tween piles of sparring equipment. She and her husband, John, chief executive of an international project management company, first started taking classes from Coles after they moved to Bethesda from Britain in 2002. Their two older chil- dren, Polly and Jake, took classes, too
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148