Recently promoted Chil Dan (7th Dan Black Bet) Robert Frankovich is a consummate and gifted teacher who has been training for over 35 years. In that time, he has been a student, instructor, teacher, and leader in each dojang and dojo he has been affiliated with. A serious nature backed by an unequalled martial arts acumen he has honed skills that surface in Song Moo Kwan Taekwondo, Seidokan Aikido, and Haidong Gumdo. He lives the paradox of being both a White Belt while learning from his seniors, peers, students and those with something to impart, and the driven leader shaping students with tailored examples and techniques throughout his several decades of teaching. He has trained for years under the direct tutelage of phenomenal men like Song Moo Kwan’s Supreme Grand Master Joon Pyo Choi all while he was also spreading the beauty that is Song Moo Kwan through institutions of higher educational in Minnesota and Wisconsin. On 2012, He recently received approval to teach 3 credit Song Moo Kwan Taekwondo courses through a college curriculum with Minnesota International University.
Although Song Moo Kwan is his first love in martial arts he also sees the beauty that is the harmony of flow in Aikido. Having over 26 years of experience in O’Sensei Ueshiba’s Way of harmony, he has learned and taught Aikido with the same love and passion a father imparts to his own children.
Over the years Robert Frankovich realized he had a love for weapons and began training in the Korean Sword Art of Haidong Gumdo under the direct supervision of Grand Master Jeong Woo Kim where he has grown his own dojang to a thriving, expanding region now dubbed Midwest Haidong Gumdo with 9 Master Instructors and 100 students and 45 Black Belts. He is a fully certified Haidong Gumdo Sa Dan Master Instructor with over 14 years of experience who was recently granted the title of Chief Master Instructor within the U.S.A. Haidong Gumdo Association during a personal visit from Grand Master Jeong Woo Kim from South Korea for his active contribution to the explosive growth of Haidong Gumdo in the US.
Realizing that he could reach even more people with the Martial Arts so important to his life, he is also a phenomenally talented writer whose articles have been published in many well-known Martial Arts publications. Chief among these publications are the likes of Black Belt Magazine, Inside TaeKwonDo, Taekwondo Times, Furyu: The Budo Journal, Inside Kung Fu, and Modern Masters of Martial Arts.
An amazing talent like Robert Frankovich’s cannot go unnoticed and he has been internationally recognized many times. In 2014, he was honored twice through his induction into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame as Korean Master of the Year and the internationally-recognized Bruce Lee and Legends Hall of Honor. After chronicling the history of Song Moo Kwan in 2015 he was further recognized through his second induction into the USA Hall of Fame, this time as Haidong Gumdo Master of the Year. Based on his continued exemplary contributions to the Martial Arts in 2016 he received induction into the Action Martial Arts Hall of Fame in Feb 2017. Several months later, his Song Moo Kwan Taekwondo profile was published in Modern Masters of Martial Arts.
Martial Arts is Robert Frankovich’s true love. His passion, tenacity, leadership skills, infectious teaching style, and phenomenal Martial Arts talent draw students to him promulgating the spread of the Arts. He is in every sense of the word, a Martial Arts Hero. From reviving the almost lost history of the beautiful art of Sang Moo Kwan, internalizing the harmony of Aiki, to bringing these together in his study of traditional Korean Art of the Sword. He is a true leader in the Martial Arts world.
