by ·Comments Off on What is Indomitable Spirit?

In our curriculum, indomitable spirit simply represents the particular tenet of Taekwondo that helps us set high goals and go for them.

To give you a sense of what high goals are we take you back to 480 BC, to the Battle of  Thermopylae.  It was there that King Leonidas of Sparta led 300 of his troops to help block the advance of some 100,000 to 150,000 Persians troops.

Battle of Thermopylae

Battle of Thermopylae (source: historynow.wikia.com)

Although the Spartans were eventually defeated after two days of battle, you could say that King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans had indomitable spirit.  Basically, their goal was very high–to hold off the advancing Persian army with only 300 troops.  He held them off for 2 days–giving the Greeks time to escape before their cities were overrun.

In modern times, setting high goals means having some ambition to become successful in life.  It could mean studying to become a doctor, an engineer, or even starting your own business.  Whatever it is, it is a worthwhile goal which involves risks, but when the goal is reached, a great sense of accomplishment is felt.

When you want to exercise indomitable spirit, reaching your high goal may take some time.  Take smaller steps to reach your goal by completing objectives that put you closer to your goal.

by ·Comments Off on The Journey to Black Belt
Journey to Black Belt is like Driving the Road to Hana

Journey to Black Belt is like Driving the Road to Hana (source: ther2h.com)

Training in Taekwondo is akin to taking the road to Hana (a small town on the Maui island of Hawaii).  Here’s why.

Relatively speaking, driving from the airport in Maui to Hana is a long drive.  The road is long, winding, has ups and downs, and has many great sights. Reaching black belt also takes time.  As you train, you will encounter a few twists, ups and downs, and some great experiences–pretty much like the road to Hana.  It will take time, but you will eventually get there–that is if you persist and commit.

The twists, ups and downs in  your pursuit to reach black belt are the occasional failures to get a curriculum tip for your belt.  This can get frustrating when you have tried once, twice, or even three times.  But if you apply the tenets of Taekwondo as our instructors have explained and taught, you will find that you can get over this hurdle.  When you finally get that tip, you will experience great joy in your accomplishment.  These feelings of great joy in achieving something is analogous to seeing the beautiful sights that you pass on the way to Hana.

Over the course of time, you will go through several promotion tests, and you will mostly pass them; but sometimes you may not.  In this case you must muster your inner strength to get over this, and after a month, retest in the area  you failed to pass.  It will take some practice and focus, but if you persist, you will get over this challenge.  When you do, you will again feel that great satisfaction of accomplishment!  Like the many great sights on the road to Hana, you will experience many accomplishments on your journey to black belt.

In your journey to black belt, you aren’t alone.  Your parents, grand parents, relatives, friends, and peers are there too–encouraging and sometimes pushing you to attend class when you don’t feel like training.  Anyone who trains (such as in sports) sometimes lose motivation.  Training in Taekwondo is no different.  Whomever is encouraging or helping motivate you, is like the tour bus or taxi driver who is helping drive  you to your destination.  It is through their presence and help that you are able to concentrate and appreciate the joys of your accomplishments!

Getting to black belt requires patience.  If you rush it, you either don’t make it or you completely miss the collective beauty of the experience.  It would be like renting a car at the airport and driving yourself to Hana; you may get lost and not get there, or you may get there, finding that Hana is just a small tourist town and completely missing the great views on the way up because you had to concentrate on the road.

The road to Hana is a long one.  If you ever visit Hana, make sure to get a taxi or ride a tour bus so that you can enjoy and appreciate the experience and views of the trip.  It is very much like your journey to black belt.  So enjoy it!  Appreciate it!  It is the journey itself that gives your black belt its unique and special meaning.

by ·Comments Off on How to Tie Your Belt

The video below provides a very detailed demonstration of how to tie the martial arts belt.  It shows you in various angles:  front, back, and side.

by ·Comments Off on Importance of Perseverance
perseverance

Running uphill is a good analogy to perseverance– keep moving even when you feel like giving up

Perseverance is the third tenet of Taekwondo.  Aside from being respectful or nice to others (courtesy), or being responsible or doing what is right (integrity), applying perseverance can help you succeed in life.

The dictionary defines perseverance as:

“steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement”

The one thing this makes clear is that perseverance is the act of being persistent at some purpose or action despite hurdles, obstacles, or discouragement.

At Koryo Family Taekwondo Center, we regularly review the meaning of perseverance, what it means, how it applies to life, and share examples of it.

Our curriculum is extensive.  This means that some students may not pick them up right away.  It is through this learning moment where we teach them perseverance.  We help them understand that the only way they will fail  at something is if they give up.  As long as they continue to try their best, they will eventually succeed.

We also remind our students that persistence isn’t enough.  If at first they don’t succeed, they will need to look at what went wrong or what they did wrong.  Once they understand this and learn from it, then and only then should they try again–only this time, they correct the mistakes of the original action.

Through perseverance, we remind our students that the only limitation they have are the ones they put on themselves.  If they put their mind to it, be persistent, and learn from mistakes, there are no limits to what they can achieve.

This is why perseverance is such an important tenet of Taekwondo.

by ·Comments Off on Integrity: The Second Tenet of Taekwondo

Integrity

At every class we mention “integrity” in the process of reciting the 6 tenets of Taekwondo.  What is this thing called “integrity”?

For kids, this is such a big word and seems like an abstract concept.  However, it doesn’t have to be abstract.

Integrity, in simple terms is all about staying true to yourself and others.  Here are a few more things about what integrity is.

Integrity is…

  • Promising your mom that you’ll clean your room, and you did!
  • Picking up and giving back money that someone else dropped, and nobody around noticed.
  • Playing dodge ball, getting hit, and admitting you did even when no one else noticed.
  • Admitting you did something wrong even when the consequences might hurt.
  • Owning up to your responsibilities.
  • Giving credit where credit is due, especially when credit is due elsewhere.
  • Paying the $10 you owe someone on or before the due date.

Can you think of other good examples of integrity?  If so, just comment below.

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Courtesy: the first tenet of Taekwondo

Showing respect is showing courtesy

We recite the tenets of Taekwondo every day.

“Courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, indomitable spirit, and victory.”

Last week we discussed the first tenet of Taekwondo–courtesy.

What does “courtesy” really mean?  In simple terms, it means being nice to others.

However, it goes beyond this.  It also means being respectful of others.  In other words, treat others as you would like to be treated–the golden rule.  This would mean that you would want others to be nice and respectful to you.  So you should in turn treat others nicely and respectfully if you wish to be treated that way.

For a child, all this don’t mean much unless you can show examples of “courtesy”.  Below are examples that show acts of courtesy.

  1. Opening a door for someone
  2. Helping someone pick up their things after they dropped them
  3. Helping Mom around the house
  4. Saying “thank  you” when someone does something nice to you
  5. Saying “sir” or “ma’am” when talking to elders
  6. In a bus, giving up your seat to an older person or someone who can’t stand for an extended period
  7. Sharing toys with other kids

Can you name a few more examples that show good examples of “courtesy”?

by ·Comments Off on The Uniform: How to Wash It

The Uniform

The traditional Taekwondo uniform is white.  That color has remained the same from the start.  The one challenge everyone has with washing the uniform is trying to make sure it doesn’t shrink and making sure it doesn’t get discolored.  This post shall give you pointers to help make sure your uniform doesn’t go to waste as a result of one bad washing.

First of all, your belt is part of your uniform.  Do not wash your belt.  This is the only part of your uniform you should leave alone.  The reason for this is tradition.  When you train, you put your blood, sweat, and tears into it.  Some of this is absorbed by your belt.  Over time, your belt will get dark.  In the olden days, this is how people got their black belt.

Of course if you used your white belt and waited for it to turn black, I would imagine a strong odor would be emanating from it.  Fortunately, in modern times, we periodically replace belts with the appropriate color soon after passing a promotion test.  Bottom line, don’t wash your belt.

Your uniform is another matter.  It is white, and normally you would wash whites in hot water, and introduce from bleach at the same time to help keep it white.  Unfortunately, uniforms made of 100% or even those with 50% cotton, tend to shrink when washed in hot water.  Here are some suggestions on dealing with Taekwondo’s white uniforms:

  • Anything with 50% or higher cotton content should be washed in cold or warm water.  Add bleach if there is no other color that would bleed from the bleach.  This means you probably have to wash them separately from your normal white clothes.
  • Uniforms with a small amount of cotton can be washed in hot water.  They don’t tend to shrink.  Add bleach if necessary to keep it looking white.
If you aren’t sure about the cotton content of your uniforms, just wash them in warm or cold water and add bleach to help turn it white and to help kill germs and bacteria that normal hot washing would clear.
How do you wash your white Taekwondo uniform?  Do you have any tips to share?  If so, please comment below.

by ·Comments Off on 5 Key Things To Remember When in Forms Competition
forms or poomsae competition

Forms (or poomsae) Competition

Taekwondo forms (or Poomsae) competition can easily be won if you keep these key things in mind:

  1. Know your Taekwondo Forms inside and out; there should be no chance that you forget parts of your form.
  2. Maintain a good pace for executing the form; this way, you can showcase your skill and balance.
  3. Keep your balance; at no point in time should you show imbalance during your Taekwondo forms performance.
  4. Keep your movement precise, quick, and snappy.
  5. Make your kihop (shout) stand out from the rest.
If you heed these five key things, you should be on your way to placing in the top three.  These 5 key things I’ve learned over the course of time teaching and judging forms.
What is your opinion about this?

by ·Comments Off on About Re-Breakable Boards

Board breaking requires skill.  In order to attain that skill, it requires practice.  To properly practice, you will need many boards to break.

There lies the challenge.  Where can you find or buy wooden boards to break?  Home Depot?  Lowes?  You probably could, but it could cost you.  Fortunately , there is such a thing called “re-breakable boards.”  And guess what?  You can buy them here at the school!

In this article, I will discuss two type of re-breakable boards and their differences.  The first type is what I would call the “hook in” type (see blue board below).  The second is what I would call the “dovetail” type (see orange board further down below).

Note that all re-breakable boards come in different colors.  The colors typically represent the skill level necessary to break such a board.  As such, the darker the color, the harder it is to break.

Hook-in Type Re-breakable Boards

Let’s start with the hook-in (blue ones below) re-breakable boards.

Blue Re-breakable Board (front)

 Blue Re-breakable Board (top)

Blue Re-breakable Board (top)

I’m not really sure how they measure the strength of these boards, but this type of board  has many different board thickness.  As the level required to break it increases so does the color and the thickness.  Thus, a yellow (around 1/4 of an inch in thickness, at least) board is relatively easy to break compared to a black one which is around 5/8 of an inch think, at least.

The good thing about these boards is that they tend to properly represent the difficulty in breaking the boards since their thickness varies–the thinner the easier to break.  However, over time they get real easy to break that even a little toddler can break a real thick black board.  This is because as the board gets used, the parts that hook into each other develop cracks which make it easy to break the board.

These boards may be good for 50 to 150 breaks.  After that, you can break them with minimal effort.

Dovetail-type Re-breakable Boards

From my own experience, these boards are tough to break and the board thickness doesn’t really vary as the breaking difficulty increases.  So if you took one of these boards–say an orange one–you may have to be a an adult at the green or blue belt level to break it.  So from my experience, the level of difficulty in breaking these type of board do not properly match up with their color.

orange re-breakable board

Orange Re-breakable
Board (front)
 re-breakable board (back side)

Orange Re-brakeable
Board (back)

The good thing about these boards is that they tend to last.  They last significantly much longer than the “hook-in” type.  My estimate is anywhere from 250 to 500 breaks.  It may even be longer.  The orange board illustrated above have seen many breaks.  It has outlasted 2 or 3 equivalent “hook-in” re-breakable boards.

Summary

Depending on what your goal is, you may acquire the “hook-in”  or the “dovetail” type re-breakable boards.

If you want realistic board breaking feel, get the former.  But if you want something that lasts, get the latter.

In either case, practicing board breaking can help improve your breaking skill especially since you need to hit the center of the board to break it, and it can potentially save you money compared to buying real boards to break.

by ·Comments Off on Can Gear Affect Competition Performance?

Taekwondo Gear

If you or someone close to you competes in Olympic-style sparring, you know that they have to wear some form of gear–specifically Taekwondo sparring gear.  The same is true for someone competing in forms; they have to wear a WTF sanctioned or endorsed uniform.

Sparring Gear

Can the right Taekwondo sparring gear make a difference in one’s sparring performance?

First of all, in order to compete in an Olympic style Taekwondo sparring competition that is officially endorsed by the USAT (USA Taekwondo), you’ll need to get sparring gear that meets the following requirements:

  • World Taekwondo Federation Certified equipment
  • blue, red, or white head gear
  • blue or red chest protector
  • note:  in newer tournaments, the event provides equipment that has electronic sensors for automatic electronic scoring; in this case, you don’t have to bring gear, but I wouldn’t go to one without  a set, just in case.

On top of these minimum requirements, you’ll want to make sure the following are also true:

  • Each piece of equipment is of proper size
  • Each piece of gear has the correct protection coverage
  • The gear fit and feel well (i.e. not distracting)

One of the most significant piece of equipment is the groin protector. If this piece of equipment doesn’t fit right, the competitor will be constantly distracted by the crotch discomfort. Remember, trying to keep up with the opposing guy is tough enough, and definitely adding a constant distraction will not help the situation any, but would certainly put the opponent at an advantage.

Bottom line: make sure you have the right certified equipment, and that they have the proper protection coverage, color, and most importantly, fit.

Taekwondo Uniform for Forms Competition

Having the right gear for forms (or poomsae) competition is just as important.  In this case we are looking at the uniform being worn in competition.

It might sound irrelevant, but the right uniform can either enhance or detract from one’s performance.

Here are points to remember when competing in forms (these are some of the things judges look for):

  • Snappiness of technique
  • Performer’s balance
  • Correctness and accuracy of the form
  • Form presentation

Snappiness of Technique

The right uniform can enhance the snappiness of your kick, punch, block, or strike.  In general, a uniform that is heavy will help produce more snap–that’s assuming there is snap in the technique to begin with.  Look at and try various uniform.  Your find that the ones that are heavier and have already been broken in will provide the maximum snap.

Performer’s Balance

I’ve seen poomsae or forms competitors having to adjust their pants because it is too long or it is hanging too low.  When your feet ends up stepping on your pants, that can cause you to lose balance.  Make sure your uniform fits you well, especially the length of your pants.  The last thing you want to worry about is slipping on your own pants; this can definitely make the judges deduct points from the lose of balance this causes.

Correctness & Accuracy of the Form

Aside from losing balance, having improperly fitted competition Taekwondo uniform can cost you or your student in terms of form correctness and accuracy.  Imagine having to adjust the pants or the top in the middle of a performance because they are too big or too long.  This can happen to the less experienced poomsae or forms competitor.

Form Presentation

Judges are human.  All humans are subjective to some degree, and even though they try to be objective, little things can sway them to be more subjective when judging you.  Thus, if you are using a uniform that makes you look sharp, it can only add to your advantage in convincing the judges you are the best.  Note that you’ll have to reinforce that look with your very confident actions in coming up and leaving the floor.

Summary

There are two areas in Taekwondo competition where the proper gear or equipment can help enhance your performance:

  • Sparring
  • Forms or poomsae

In Taekwondo sparring, having the right gear can help make sure you can compete (that’s because the more serious competition events require that you have WTF endorsed or certified gear).  With the right size, fit, and protection coverage, the gear is the last thing you have to worry about because it isn’t distracting, but simply doing its job of protecting you.

Poomsae or forms competition is slightly different.  The right uniform can actually help accentuate your performance quality.  If you already have good form, a better uniform should be able to enhance your snap.  In addition, a properly fitted uniform can help prevent balance and accuracy issues with too big or too long uniform.  Lastly, a nice looking uniform can help accentuate your presentation.