Grandmaster Seoung-Eui Shin: "Most of his stories aren't quite right," he says of Chris Garland.
Still, many say that he throws around the master label foolishly to promote his studio. Garland's former Tae Kwon Do instructor, the revered Grandmaster Seoung-Eui Shin, says that he had a falling out with his pupil over his false claims. "I talked to Chris and I said, 'Why do you lie about being a Hapkido master?' And I told him, 'If you continue to do that, then don't come here.' "
Shin also says that while Garland is talented, the claim on Garland's website that he made black belt in Tae Kwan Do at the age of 7 is false.
"Every time a story comes out, people call me," the soft-spoken Shin says from his office in Bellevue. "Most of his stories aren't quite right."
Jeff Allen, the chief instructor and president of the U.S. headquarters of the International Hapkido Federation, says that the certification process in Hapkido for Americans is poorly regulated. He doubts that Garland is really a master. "A master in Hapkido is somebody who has been training at least 15 to 20 years. You can't consider yourself a master until you're at least a fifth-degree black belt," he says. "I got my fifth-degree black belt after 24 years of study."
Only 31, Garland says he's been studying Hapkido since his early teens. He became a master in 1999, he says, after years of training every day around the clock.
Garland's current instructor, Grandmaster Kim Myung Yong, lauds his pupil's talent. "He's very good," he says from his home in Houston. "Chris is the best jin jung kwan martial artist in America."
Garland himself says that many of his detractors, both in the military and in the martial arts world, are envious of his notoriety. They dislike the attention he receives and feel that it comes at their own expense, he says. Members of the 5th Special Forces Group, especially, have complained about him in the past, he says, adding that they're "jealous of the respect he gets."
"I'm sorry for what was written in the papers, and I'm sorry if it's upset some members of the 5th Special Forces Group," he says. "But I don't want people to think I haven't served my country, because I have."
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