Sheldon, Iowa — A Sheldon resident, along with a Sheldon native who now resides in Rochester, Minnesota, both received Master Instructor designation last week during the American Taekwondo Association (ATA) Fall Nationals in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Jodi Vermeer, of Sheldon, says she has been around Taekwondo her entire life. Being the daughter of ATA Grand Master Robert Jager, Vermeer says she grew up attending tournaments on the weekends, always having black belts at their home, etc. She started Taekwondo in 1999. Her father opened the club in Sheldon is 2000, and she has studied there every since. Vermeer was named Regional Instructor of the Year in 2002, 2004 and 2006, and was presented with the Regional Achievement Award in 2003.
Vermeer tells KIWA that becoming an ATA Master Instructor is a dream that black belts work for.
She says the road to ATA Master Instructor is a long one.
Vermeer says ATA Master Instructors are charged with training future black belts.
In addition to Master Instructor Jodi Vermeer, Sheldon native Dr. Michael Ackerman was also a recipient of the Master Instructor designation last week.
Training under now Grand Master Robert Jager, Michael started in the ATA in high school in 1980. During certified instructor camp in summer 1984, he and 3 other black belts were chosen by Eternal Grand Master H.U. Lee to learn and introduce the first black belt form of the new Songahm Taekwondo.
During his second year of college, Grand Master Jager gave him permission and Ackerman’s Taekwondo Family Fitness at Luther College was born in 1985. Michael taught his way through college where he graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1988. Luther College Taekwondo continues today.
Ackerman then started his second ATA club in Rochester, Minnesota, in the basement of Mayo Clinic’s Saint Mary’s Hospital in the fall of 1988 when he started medical school there. From 1988 to 2015 (during medical school, graduate school, residency, fellowship, and his first 15 years on staff), Dr. Ackerman and his team of instructors taught over 3000 students with 509 students earning their black belt including dozens of Mayo Clinic’s physicians and surgeons and Michael’s three sons. During his medical training, Michael continued to advance in rank as well attaining his 5th degree black belt in summer 2000. Known for his ability to teach and inspire his students, Dr. Ackerman was recognized by the ATA as Regional Instructor of the Year on three occasions and his club was named the National Club of the Year in 1990, 1992, and 2000. After teaching taekwondo for 30 years, he passed on his ATA club, after his students’ final testing on March 9, 2015, to Ms. Patricia Young where 4Kicks Family Taekwondo continues to thrive under her direction today in both Rochester, Minnesota and Decorah, Iowa.
