Background
Shin was born in 1933 in Seoul, of Korea.
Shin was born in 1933 in Seoul, of Korea.
He had studied English literature at Hongik University, but did not complete the course.
He is ranked 8th dan in judo, and also holds dan ranking in karate. He began training in the martial arts in 1943, and was a long distance runner in high school. During the Korean War, he served in the Special Student Battalion of the Republic of of Korea Army.
He owned a pharmacy in South of Korea, although he was not a pharmacist himself.
He did, however, captain the institution"s judo team to the National Collegiate Championship in 1958, his second year there. Around 1960, Shin emigrated to the United States of America intending to seek a position in a pharmaceutical company.
She was ranked 1st dan at the time. Shin founded the Military Arts Institute in 1963, and also published a judo magazine.
Apart from judo, Shin also teaches taekwondo and hapkido.
Shin co-authored the book Judo (1977) with Daeshik Kim. One of the Shins" sons, Gene Shin, holds the rank of 5th dan in judo and teaches the art in Virginia.
He went to Illinois at first, studied liberal arts in Georgia (where he met and befriended fellow Korean Mas Oyama, founder of Kyokushin karate), and then returned to Illinois in 1963. Around 1967, he visited Seoul and discussed the possibility of a taekwondo tournament in Chicago with Choi Hong Hi, founder of the International Taekwon-Do Federation.
In 1977, he was a member of the organizing committee for the Third World Taekwondo Championships.
