By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
It is unlikely you would throw a high kick at someone _ if that someone were a well-built martial art player, you probably wouldn't dream of it. But despite lacking one arm Ku Yang-hoi, a 170-centimeter tall and 62-kilogram fighter, has already won five times with one draw in six bouts with his high kick.
Seeing Ku, an amateur martial art player standing in the ring, it is hard to imagine him punching someone as he lacks an arm.
Everyone said it was impossible for him to fight in Spirit MC, the mixed martial arts league. Should he fall on the ground there is no way he can fight back against the fists and kicks pouring down upon him, for he can barely defend himself let alone stand up again. Even when falling, Ku can get critically injured because he cannot make use of both arms to defend his fall.
His coach Shin Dong-jin first discouraged him. But after Ku practiced falling down and getting up more than four hours a day for six months, he became his biggest supporter. Ku practiced and practiced all day long, and when he fell, he learned to protect his face with his only arm and sprang back. Then victory came to him last September.
Ku lost his arm when he was three in an accident at his neighbor's place involving an electric cutter. The accident not only cut his arm, but also cast a cloud over his future. He graduated from a commercial high school, but no one wanted to hire him. ``They would say I looked uncomfortable and turned me down at interviews,'' he said bluntly.
He worked for a toothbrush company, but it was physically too hard for him to work with one arm, so he had to quit.
``I needed to grab something to keep me from falling apart. I wanted to train my body and soul,'' he said. So he started learning martial arts in 2002, becoming good enough to win five times.
Still, there were setbacks in life. Soon after the victories, he had to stop fighting for a while. His workplace _ an information service center_ shut down and he had to look for another job last October. As before, there wasn't a place offering a job to a man lacking an arm. He couldn't pay the application fee for the league so he quit and stayed home all day long.
One day in January, Ku resolved to challenge himself to penetrate something that seemed like an impenetrable wall. ``The wall of prejudice; the idea of you can't do it _ breaking that is my goal,'' he said.
He dreams of two things _ to be a professional mixed martial arts player and to become a computer expert. He takes a computer related vocational training during the daytime and exercises at night.
``I set the goal, and I never give up,'' he says.