Tiburon teens earn third-degree black belts in taekwondo
Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the June 14, 2017, edition of The Ark. It earned third place for Best Sports Feature in the National Newspaper Association’s 2018 Better Newspapers Contest.
By ANN MIZEL
amizel@thearknewspaper.com
Best buddies since they were small boys, Tiburon’s Miles Crook, 14, and Baraq Lipshitz, 13, have already made it big in the world of martial arts.
For the past 10 years, Miles and Baraq have studied taekwondo twice a week with instructor Alex Miller at the Belvedere Community Center. Both boys recently earned their third-degree black belts in the Korean martial art, which emphasizes head-high kicks, jumping and spinning kicks and fast-kicking techniques.
In taekwondo, ranks are typically divided between junior and senior sections known as color belts and black belts. Black-belt ranks range from first-degree, the lowest rank, to ninth-degree, the highest.
Miller, who earned his sixth-degree black belt in 2013, says both Miles and Baraq have shown a determination to succeed that goes beyond their years. He says they are the youngest members of Miller’s ATA Black Belt Academy to achieve their third-degree black belts.
“They are the embodiment of the concept that a winner never quits, and a quitter never wins,” Miller says. “The boys started as Tiny Tigers (a taekwondo class Miller teaches for preschoolers) and beat the averages.”
Baraq has practiced taekwondo since he was 4 years old, and he earned his first-degree black belt at age 10, says his grandmother, Judy Inslicht.
He’s one of three brothers studying the martial art. Sa’ar, 11, has a black belt, and Galle, 9, is on his way to earning one.
“The classes have given me a chance to work out and to learn to defend myself at the same time,” Baraq says, adding that Miller is “always looking for ways to help us learn to work a little harder.”
Miles, whose 7-year-old sister, Giorgia, is into the sport, says he also plays soccer, basketball and runs track.
He credits taekwondo for teaching him important life lessons, “especially self control,” and plans to stay with the sport through high school. Both Miles and Baraq just graduated from Del Mar Middle School and will attend Redwood High School in the fall.
“I could see staying with taekwondo through college and maybe even teaching in the future,” says Miles. This summer, he plans to work as an assistant to Miller.
Rand Crook, Miles’ dad, says Miller was the boys’ first adult role model other than their parents, and his influence on them goes much further than the sport.
“The boys have learned personal growth, to be community minded, to take risks,” Rand Crook says.
Taekwondo was developed in the 1940s and ’50s and incorporates elements of karate and Chinese martial arts with indigenous Korean martial art.
To advance from one rank to the next requires practice and dedication. On his website, Miller points out that beyond the physical training his students receive, they gain an improved focus on self-control and discipline and an emphasis on life skills, such as courtesy, honor, integrity, loyalty and perseverance.
Miles and Baraq have already demonstrated that they’ve been paying close attention.
Contributing writer Ann Mizel is a long-time Strawberry resident and has been with The Ark since 1987.
