As a child, Master Derrick Kwak enjoyed doing Taekowndo as many normal school boys in Korea.
He enjoyed the whole experience of going to a local dojang but wasn’t serious in Taekwondo until his later years. When he was 16 years old, his whole family immigrated to the United States in 1987 and that is when he started to take Taekowndo seriously.

    In his memory, coming to the states as a teenager was extremely stressful, especially with the economical difficulties as a new immigrant family. Taekwondo gave him an outlet to excel and relieve the stress of overcoming the language barrier with a sense of identify and purpose during the most difficult time of his life. He started to train everyday, two, three hours of brutal training per day at dojang and additionally run on tread mills, swim and lift weights for extra conditioning. He recalls passing out on a few occasions and getting into a series of serious injuries because pushing himself to the limit. That experience served him well as professional instructor – putting upmost emphasis on safety and progressive training first.  

   Master Kwak enjoyed all aspects of Taekwondo, including sports competition – but the philosophy and science of martial arts gave him immense satisfaction and pretty soon he started consume all books on martial arts history, theory, sports science, sports psychology, as well as related topics such as Taoism, Confucius doctrine and Zen Buddhism. His first teaching assignment was given when he was 19 years old.  It was when he was 22, he start to realize his calling in life – to teach and dedicate oneself to the art and sport of Taekwondo.  He loved the art  of Taekwondo and he had deep respect for the tradition of it, but he always felt the teaching and training methods need to be updated.  Incorporating scientific modern sports training into traditional Taekwondo has became his quest and passion in his young teaching career.  He also started to search and contemplate on the application of Christian faith in traditional Asian martial arts.  It is still an ongoing search and a work in progress.  He believes teaching excellent martial arts with integrity is a way of honoring God.

    Master Kwak always envisioned Taekwondo to be a more complete martial arts by addressing all five dimensions of traditional martial arts – combat, sports, art, self-defense and philosophy.  He believes the techniques, teaching and training methods can change and needs to change while still staying in the tradition of Taekwondo. The true tradition lies in core values of art such as loyalty, respect, discipline, courage, integrity and humility, rather than techniques, uniforms, rituals and etc.   
Although Taekwondo was always his primary concern and love, Master Derrick Kwak practiced and competed also in Hapkido, Judo, Jiu-jitsu and Ki-Kumdo to understand other martial arts better.  His experience on various forms of grappling influenced and helped him to present more well rounded training experience for his future students. He earned his 3rd dan in 1996 and finally earned Master’s degree (4th dan) in 2000.  Currently, he is 6th dan in Taekwondo and a licensed instructor and coach, certified by both Korea and USA Taekwondo.  He believes the study of martial arts will never finish and one must constantly increase their knowledge and skills. He is also planning to go back to college and study Kinesiology to further expand his knowledge in science of sports and human body.
 
   Master Derrick Kwak founded American Martial Arts Academy in 1998 with the mission of providing top notch, systematic, scientific and a dynamic Taekwondo program with an application of Christian principles in his teaching and managing.  He has devoted the past decade into developing the AMAA system and making AMAA into a house hold name.  He started teaching at a local YMCA with a mere 5 students in 1998 and just in 10 years it has grown to become the largest Taekwondo schools in Ventura County with nearly 400 members and 150 learning center members.  Currently he is expanding and starting a AMAA branch in Naperville, Illinois with the help of Master Jae Hyon Jeon (read his bio).  The AMAA facility in Simi Valley is a state of the art, 25,000 square foot facility which provides a complete education program, with Taekwondo, Piano, Art and a very successful academic tutorial program.

    Master Derrick Kwak is also a successful USA Taekwondo coach, who has produced numerous National champions and won many awards and accolades with his Modern Day Knights Demo Team.  (Check mkd-team.org for more information)  However, his proudest accomplishment is the AMAA curriculum and system which embodies all his life time training, experience and knowledge.  He wants to produce the next generation of Taekwondo black belts and masters who will carry on the torch.  In his spare time, Master Kwak enjoys running, swimming, learning kendo, jiu-jitsu and reading and researching on various martial arts.   

    Master Kwak wants to credit all his success to his wife Konnie Kwak, his tireless supporter and advocate of his career. He says Konnie has been instrumental in his success by allowing him to focus on martial arts in the early stage of his career. It was her emotional, physical, financial support that allowed him to achieve his success in a relatively a short period of time. Also the complete education center concept has been conceived and developed by Mrs. Kwak and her vision, business knowledge and great logistics. She is also a very successful animation producer and CEO of Toonzone Studios.

    Lastly, he wants to credit God for working in his life.  
    “My first studio took me about $5,000 to build.   It was a very small, pathetic studio with no furnishing whatsoever. Konnie and I maxed out three credit cards and by the time we were done, we did not the money to put up a decent sign, so we ran the school without a sign for first three years. Fast forward 10 years and our brand new state of the art facility cost us $500,000 to build. Just in ten years, God increased 100 fold both my student body size and our schools’ financial status... I know it is more than just hard work and talent here.   It is God.  All I can do is be thankful and be a good Stewart of His blessings.”