Flower Hill residents can take their disputes to Village Hall, but they should know better than to start fisticuffs with Mayor Elaine Phillips.
For the last 17 years, sometimes up to four times a week, Phillips has trained at Kwon’s Wellness in Manhasset in the Korean martial arts discipline Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan.
Upon completing her training a few years ago as a fourth degree black belt in the self-defense system – which utilizes increasingly complex sequences of punches and kicks as practitioners ascend its belt system – Phillips has even begun training students of all ages out of the facility.
The task, she said, isn’t too different from her duties as mayor.
“There’s really a nice synergy or similarity between our studio and the mayor’s job that I stepped into when I retired,” said Phillips, who worked on Wall Street for more than 20 years. “Not everyone I teach is going to become a martial artist, but you hope they can look people in the eye and gain self-confidence. You try to do the best you can for people.”
Phillips, who was first elected mayor in 2012, sought a physical fitness regimen shortly after her third child was born and said she settled upon Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan for the emphasis her trainers put on strengthening the mind in addition to the body.
“For me, to go to a gym and just work out on machines and not have something – in this case the belt system – to keep me motivated, I knew I just wouldn’t stay,” Phillips said. “I knew I’d start and wouldn’t keep going. You see that with people in gyms all the time, they start and then they get bored and then they quit.”
“I like the balance it’s brought to my life,” she added. “It’s a great workout, but there’s much more. I speak a little Korean because of it, granted I know how to say ‘low block,’ ‘high block,’ the various punches, but I like the discipline of martial arts. There’s bowing, there’s repetition. You constantly have to challenge yourself to improve.”
Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan and its related disciplines were founded in 1945 by Hwang Kee, one of the original founders of taekwando.
The practice replicates sparring techniques in its system of blocks, kicks and punches, but Phillips said Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan is not meant solely for combat.
The martial art teaches humility and respect for one’s opponents and elders as well, she said, and stresses the origination of movement from the core.
“We believe everything comes from the body. My arms and legs are the weapons, yes, but they just are a function of the body,” Phillips said. “When I punch, I use my whole center, my body mass. That’s true of kicking, that’s true of punching, that’s true of blocking.”
Phillips went to Korea two years ago for week-long testing in Soo Bakh Do Moo Duk Kwan to reach the masters level, training from 6:30 a.m. until 11 p.m.
Her tasks were rigorous, Phillips said, but her higher level of designation only motivated her to continue her education in the practice.
“The thing about martial arts is that it’s something you constantly do. There is no perfect,” Phillips said. “I’m a black belt, but it’s not really black. It’s midnight blue. Black would imply perfection and there is no such thing as perfection in martial arts.”
Phillips now trains at Kwon’s four days a week and teaches classes on weekdays and Saturdays. She also leads a general women’s fitness class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.
“I love teaching and I love sharing my knowledge of the art,” Phillips said. “Am I a good teacher? Ask my students. But I think I do okay. Everyone who teaches brings their unique something to the table.”
