West Side Taekwondo was founded in 1992 by Masters Sung Chul Whang and Jun Chul Whang, both attorneys in a private practice in New York City and life-long practitioners of the martial arts.
They were co-founders of the Dartmouth College Taekwondo program and the Ivy-Northeast Collegiate Taekwondo League, the collegiate competition circuit in the Northeastern U.S. no known as the Eastern Collegiate Taekwondo Conference (ECTC). In 1986, Masters Whang also co-founded the Cornell University Taekwondo Program, along with Master Han Don Cho, and the program continues to this day as one of the best collegiate programs in the U.S.
Masters Whang are the co-authors, along with Master Brandon Saltz and Master Dae Sung Lee, of Taekwondo: The State of the Art, published in 1994 by Random House.
Both Masters Whang have devoted considerable time and effort to coaching elite athletes at the national and international levels. Master Whang Sr. has served on the coaching staff for both the US National Team (Brussels Open 2002) and the US National Collegiate Team (2004 World University Championships - Patras, Greece) and for the Trinidad & Tobago National Team (2009 World Championships, the 2011 Commonwealth Taekwondo Championships in Chennai, India, 2011 Pan Am Games, 2011 Pan Am Olympic Qualifiers). Master Whang Jr. has coached at two consecutive World Championships (Korea 2001; Germany 2003). Master Whang Jr. participated in the 2004 Athens Olympics as Olympic coach for Trinidad & Tobago, where he coached star athlete and Olympian Master Chinedum Osuji (C.W. Taekwondo Boston, Cornell ’97, West Side Taekwondo).
