We are MJS Taekwon-Do, an ITF-style organization. Our full name is Mudo Jongshin Won 무도정신원 (武道精神院) “Circle of Righteous Martial Spirit”.  We are based in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and currently have schools around the country as well as in Miami and Uruguay.

Our leader is Master Manuel Adrogué. We conceive Taekwon-Do as a powerful combat method designed for military use, a health preservation system, and a cultural tradition with valuable ethical guidelines. We follow the line of the “Pioneers of ITF Taekwon-Do”, and particularly GM Park Jong Soo who passed away on 2021, and GM Lee Yoo Sun.  We apologize for not having a full English language version of the site, but hopefully you will appreciate this summary, the Korean Kicking Project video series, our pictures and videos in our Gallery as well as other sections.

Our Board of Directors is comprised by:

• • • Manuel Adrogué (8th Dan), Chief Instructor -see below
    • Marcelo Cremona (7th Dan), former international ITF competitor, Special Forces instructor
    • Norman Rodriguez Yolando (7th Dan), head instructor of our Necochea branch
    • Hernán Díaz Rentsch (7th Dan)
    • Leonardo Salguero (7th Dan), head instructor of our Miami branch
    • Alejandro Novas (6th Dan)
    • Raúl Bustamante (6th Dan)
    • Rafael Sabini (6th Dan)
    • Daniel Alonso (7th Dan), senior consultant

Manuel Adrogué (born on March, 1968) lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and has been training Taekwon-Do since 1983.

He is a corporate lawyer and family man, father of four children. His main teacher was GM Pedro Florindo (1949-2018).   Since 2008 Adrogué  has been under the guidance of GM Kim Han Chang, the father of Argentine Taekwon-Do, who played a significant role in Adrogué being adopted as disciple to GM Park.

During his late teens Adrogué worked at martial arts magazine in Argentina, “Yudo Karate”, where he got to meet famous international masters who visited the country, including General Choi Hong Hi. That lead him to martial arts cross-training under renowned experts. A high point in his life were several tours to the United States in the early ‘90s in which Mr. Florindo and a group of around 20 black belts trained under the most famous martial arts teachers residing in California and New York.  Although competition was never the main training focus, for some time Adrogué used to attend to tournaments with  frequent championships at sparring, patterns and breaking. See for example the 2001 piece by Tae Kwon Do Times Magazine.

Adrogué has been blessed with the opportunity of taking classes or seminars under some of the 20th century Korean martial arts legends such as:

• • Choi, Hong Hi (Chang Hon ryu / ITF Taekwon-Do 9° Dan, Founder)
  • Ji, Han Jae (Sin Mu Kwan Hapkido 10° Dan, Founder)
  • Park, Jong Soo (ITF Taekwon-Do 9° Dan)
  • Do, Ki Hyon (Kyol Ryon Taek Kyon, Jeong Seong Seng)
  • Sihak Henry Cho (Ji Do Kwan Tae Kwon Do 9° Dan)
  • Kim, Pyung Soo (Cha Yon Ryu Tae Kwon Do 10° Dan, Founder)
  • Myung, Kwang Sik (Yon Mu Kwan Hapkido 10° Dan, Founder)
  • Park, Hae Man (Chung Do Kwan Tae Kwon Do 10° Dan)
  • Cho, Hee Il (AIMAA Tae Kwon Do 9° Dan)
  • Hwang, Hyun Chul (Soo Bahk Do / Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan 9° Dan)
  • Choi, Kwang Jo (Choi Kwang Do 9° Dan, Founder)
  • Lee, Kyu Seok (Kukki Taekwondo 8° Dan)
  • Kim, Han Chang (Chung Do Kwan Tae Kwon Do 9° Dan)
  • Choi, Nam Sung (Yon Mu Kwan Tae Kwon Do 9° Dan)
  • Nguyen Van Binh (ITF Taekwon-Do 9° Dan)
  • Jun Chong (Song Moo Kwan Tae Kwon Do 8° Dan)
  • Kong, Young Bo (Chang Hon Taekwon-Do 9° Dan)
  • Kim, Suk Jun (ITF Taekwon-Do 8° Dan)
  • Tran Trieu Quan (ITF Taekwon-Do 8° Dan)
  • Kim, Ung Lan (ITF Taekwon-Do 8° Dan)
  • Park, Gwon-Mo (Chong tong Shippalki 7° Dan)
  • Lee, Jong Kwan (Kukki Taekwondo 7° Dan)
  • Seo Seong Il Scott (Hanminjok Hapkido 7° Dan)
  • Lee, Tae Joon (Hwa Rang Do 7° Dan)
  • Im, Hyong Man (Pro-Taekwondo 7° Dan)
  • Kim, Hoon (ITF Taekwon-Do 7° Dan)
  • Pak, Gum Soo (Chong tong Shippalki 5° Dan)
  • Mike Morningstar (ITF Taekwon-Do, technical assistant to Gen. Choi, 5° Dan)

Whenever presented the opportunity of access to a source of higher martial art knowledge, Adrogué will take it. This approach has resulted in a personal library of more than 200 volumes on every aspect of Asian Martial Arts.

In 2008 he travelled to Korea with GM Kim Han Chang, who has legendary status not only for his technical skills but mostly for his fine character. GM Kim was the person appointed by Gen. Choi to introduce Taekwon-Do into Argentina in 1967.  Since then Adrogué has travelled to Korea in 2013 and 2015 having the chance to train Taekwon-Do, Shippalki, Taek Kyon and other disciplines.  During the 2015 trip Mr. Adrogué joined GM Park Jong Soo to pay homage to his teacher Gen. Choi by visiting the famous “Fist Monument” in Jeju island, a symbolical location where the basis of Taekwon-Do was laid at the Republic of Korea 29^th Army Division in 1954.  On that occasion GM Park promoted Adrogué to 7^th Dan. The passing of GM Park left a mark in all those that follow the trend set by the ITF Pioneers. That ignited the Korean Kicking Project (“KKP”, see tab above), and it reactivated the relationship between Adrogué and GM Lee Yoo Son, one of the original members of the Oh Do Kwan, direct disciple of Gen. Choi and former Chief Instructor of the ITF. Lee is a much sought-after specialist of old-school military ITF Taekwon-Do and a hard loyalist when it comes to Gen. Choi’s legacy. On August 2022 GM Lee promoted Adrogué to the rank of 8th Dan, which circumstances are described in Episode 9, Part 1 of the KKP.

Mr. Adrogué has authored more than 50 articles in English and Spanish, the highest point in that area being the translation into Spanish of the famous book by Alex Gillis “A Killing Art: The Untold History of Tae Kwon Do”, with the addition of a 200-page section of the history of Argentine Tae Kwon Do. Adrogué takes pride in his ever-increasing martial arts library. During the last years Adrogué has been learning Chinese Kung Fu (Taijiquan and Baguazhang).

For English language speakers we especially recommend:

1) “Asian Martial Arts. Constructive Thoughts & Practical Applications“, published by Journal of Asian Martial Arts / Via Media Publications on September 2012. Adrogué was invited to join a collective work and represent Taekwon-Do among 27 specialists of different martial arts who were asked to submit a two-page article choosing two techniques or sequences, with their photographs, and explaining the background and ideas behind them.

2)  “ITF Taekwon-Do: The Sine Wave, its figures and execution.” , Totally Tae Kwon Do magazine, October 2019. It is probably the most detailed analysis that has been written about the Sine Wave. Such work completed the preceding “ITF Taekwon-Do and Sine Wave as Sequential Motion”: More power than what meets the eye“, published in Totally Tae Kwon Do, May, June and July 2010. An attempt to explain the reasons for Gen. Choi to modify the way basic technique was performed in Shotokan Karate before adopting it into ITF Taekwon-Do.

3) “Ancient Military Manuals and Their Relation to Modern Korean Martial Arts”, published in Journal of Asian Martial Arts / Via Media Publications, Vol. 12, Num. 4, November 2003.

4) “A Martial Arts Librarian’s Suggestions”, June 2016 Facebook post on the intellectual approach to martial arts growth.

5) “An Attempt to Define “Taekwon-Do” looking at Bruce Lee, Gen. Choi and his Legacy”, May 2017 Totally Tae Kwon Do magazine.

6) “Grandmaster Florindo and his Place in the History of Argentine Taekwon-Do”, Feb 2018 Totally Tae Kwon Do magazine.

7) “The Times of Argentina’s Master Daechol Yang and his Taekwondo Jidokwan”, Aug 2020 Totally Tae Kwon Do magazine. This article includes some interesting information about the link between Jidokwan and Shudokan karate, as well as a crucial event in Master Lee Chong Woo’s life that is here made known to the public for the first time.

8) A video clip on the Korean version of Bassai Karate form, its roots from China through Okinawa and Japan, and the difference of Moo Duk Kwan vs. ITF Taekwon-Do motion (action at 1:44 and 12:16)

References: Blue arrows mean a solid, extended and verified teacher-student relationship; green arrows mean an alleged teacher-student relationship which is not 100% verified; red solid arrows mean a  teacher-student relationship with lower intensity in terms of time, exposure or influence compared to “blue” relationships; red broken arrows mean an indirect or technically less influential type of teaching relationship.