Born January 7, 1932, Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee is considered to be the "Father" of U.S. Tae Kwon Do for having brought the sport to the United States in 1956. He is largely credited for having popularized Martial Arts in North America. In 1976, he also invented protective gear, Safe-T Equipment , made of foam-rubber for free-sparring. He changed the face of kata as well by choreographing the first kata to music which he called Martial Ballet .