Treasury’s Power Ranger Dad Heads to Taekwondo World Championships
How does a Treasury IT guy Mighty-Morph from dedicated family man to respected martial arts warrior, instructor and Worlds competitor?
Zach Corkins is a Departmental Specialist 13 with MI Treasury’s Individual Income Tax (IIT) Division, and a project lead for the upcoming Michigan Modernized Income Tax System legacy replacement project. He is a lifetime Michigander who graduated from Davenport University and lives in Potterville with his wife and two young sons.
Zach is also a real-life Power Ranger who will be competing at the 2024 ATA Worlds: Tournament of Champions in Phoenix, Arizona in July, with an excellent chance of bringing home medals in seven martial arts events.
At age 34, Zach is the current Taekwondo state and district champion in his class and has achieved an incredible level of skill in both Taekwondo and Krav Maga in just three and a half years of practice and competition.
“I got started with Taekwondo during COVID,” says Zach. “When Treasury shut down and everybody went home, the kids’ daycare shut down, too. My oldest son at the time was four turning five and he needed an outlet — he was just bouncing all over the place. He was super into Power Rangers so we looked for a martial arts school, found Victory Martial Arts in Okemos and went for a free introductory lesson. I was told if my wife and I would sign up for classes as well, family plan pricing would be a better deal.
I left the introductory lesson, called my wife and said, “just so you know, I signed up for martial arts and you’re doing it too!”
Zach earned his black belt in 2023, his wife earned her black belt last weekend, and their son will be testing for his blue belt this weekend. Halfway through Zach’s training, the school’s director asked him to join the martial arts teaching program. After certifying, Zach began to teach Taekwondo classes, and also began entering tournaments to enhance his own training.
Taekwondo tournaments divide competitors by rank, age and gender. Zach’s division is comprised of first-degree black belts, men ages 30 to 39. He actually holds two black belts, one in Taekwondo and another in Krav Maga, which is an Israeli martial art specializing in self-defense. A natural athlete and self-described perfectionist, Zach makes martial arts training part of his overall workout routine.
He manages to work quick snippets of practice around family life, working in kick or weapons training at home as his boys play or after their bedtime. There are days where practice simply isn’t possible but Zach has created a schedule that allows him to balance working, training and family time.
“When I started competing in tournaments it just became a passion,” he adds. “It wasn’t about me beating other people, it was about me working to become better than I was last time — it just so happens that when I do that, I end up winning.”
Winning might have a little something to do with Zach’s daily training schedule.
Running 10 miles a day on the treadmill with added weightlifting work (usually before his day starts in the office), Zach also trains in Krav Maga which incorporates: boxing, Muay Thai, wrestling, jujitsu, weaponry and a Filipino martial art called Kali. The physicality and brute force of Krav Maga helps him cross train for the speed and agility required by Taekwondo. In addition to Zach’s schedule at Victory as chief instructor of Krav Maga, he also spends two solitary hours of dedicated competition practice every Sunday morning at the school, beginning at 6:00 a.m.
“The interesting thing about martial arts is the only thing to prepare you to for martial arts is to do martial arts,” he explains. Challenges lie in training the body to move in ways that feel unnatural, and in maintaining the intensity and motivation necessary to compete.
A bigger challenge may be the expense of tournament travel. He avoids hotels by getting up early to drive to competitions in the tri-state area, spending hours on the road before the sun comes up, and again driving home after a full day of sparring.
“The challenge is part of the fun,” he philosophizes. “And I wouldn’t even really look at them as challenges because I very much like puzzles and figuring out solutions. And I like getting better at what I do.”
In his very first tournament, Zach won one event out of the six he entered; he then won seven of eight events at every tournament going forward. He attributes his improved performance to knowing what to expect, and how he needed to prepare. Broadening his mindset and setting goals have helped Zach do the work and earn the points that have brought him district and state championships, ranking him nationally and internationally.
At competition, Zach favors the weapons event, appreciating all of Taekwondo’s weapons for different reasons. His favorite is the Bo Staff (stick) because it’s fun and flashy with added spins and throws. The ‘extreme weapons form’ includes flips, which Zach is working on adding to his set of skills. Injuries are an unavoidable part of high-level martial arts training; he has experienced cuts, bruises, mild concussions and a broken finger.
“You know, especially with Bo Staff, if you’re not hitting yourself every now and then, are you even training?” Zach asks with a smile.
Taekwondo is a relatively young sport, officially in play since the end of World War Two. It developed as a product of different villages in Korea each having their own style of martial art and wanting to standardize. Occupied by the Japanese, they weren’t allowed to have weapons so they used farm implements instead. The village leaders formed their own council which decided on standardized techniques, launching Taekwondo as we know it today. One of the founders wanted to take Taekwondo to the rest of the world and ended up going from Korea to Canada to Little Rock, Arkansas, the original headquarters for the American Taekwondo Association (ATA).
People often refer to all martial arts as ‘karate’, but there are significant differences:
- Taekwondo is a kicking art. A sport-style of martial art, it specializes in high head kicks and spinning kicks with fast movements and fast strikes.
- Karate uses low kicks, but it mostly involves hand techniques with blocks and punches.
- Jujitsu is a grappling martial art and does not use striking, punches or kicks.
“Anyone can pick up Taekwondo at any point in their life,” advises Zach. “I encourage people to take martial arts because it’s something that an entire family can do together. There are so many different avenues you can go down with the sport; it’s something that you can do and progress with at any age, for your entire life.
“I think that’s why I fell in love with martial arts — besides the fact that I also love Power Rangers! It’s going to keep me going because there’s always a new challenge around the corner.”
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