When Yu Kim began taekwondo as a boy growing up in Seoul, South Korea, the appeal was straightforward: He thought the kicks were cool.
Decades later, Grandmaster Kim is still teaching those kicks. But as he approaches 20 years operating Elite Tae Kwon Do in Gilbert, he sees the martial art as something much larger than punching, kicking or learning how to defend oneself.
Kim, 56, started taekwondo around age 10 or 11 and had earned a black belt before coming to the United States in 1993 to attend college in Florida, where he studied marketing.
