Taekwondo Beccles

Taekwondo is typically much more physically demanding than for example Tai Chi, so unless you are pretty fit and nimble you may prefer to find something a little bit gentler to boost your fitness levels in Beccles. Children and younger people are clearly an ideal participants for Taekwondo classes in Beccles, with lots of fast movements taking place and a great deal of high kicking.

Taekwondo is one of the more recently introduced of the martial arts, with its early beginnings in Korea, South-East Asia in 1945. A number of Korean martial arts specialists in Seoul founded some new schools known as "kwans", combining a variety of martial arts practices. Taekwondo, which was eventually called, largely consists of kicking manoeuvres, especially jumping/spinning kicks, head-height kicks and fast kicking techniques.

The total number of Taekwondo practitioners worldwide, now exceeds 60 million. Since the Sydney Games (2000) Taekwondo has been an Olympic sport and if you want to give it a go, joining a local Beccles Taekwondo club or class is a good way to get involved. While you may not aspire to Olympic competition, there is no reason why you cannot become a master of this exciting martial art and have some fun along the way.

In these modern times of ever-increasing violence, it is little surprise that people in places like Beccles are getting involved in self-defence classes like Taekwondo to help them to feel safer in their everyday life. The self-defence element is one of the key factors of Taekwondo but it also teaches self-restraint and a respect for other individuals, which are disciplines that are largely missing in modern day life.

These self-defence techniques may at some point prove to be useful in your day to day life, although it is far more likely you'll only be using them within a supervised class environment. Nevertheless it's an amazing feeling knowing that you will always be able to defend yourself if you have to.

What to Expect From Your First Class

If you have never had a go at Taekwondo previously, you could be a little apprehensive as to what can be expected on your very first lesson. This will be different from school to school but will typically comprise all or some of these. A 15-20 minute warm up to increase heart rate and loosen up muscles, some practical training involving learning some stances, hand attacks, blocking techniques and kicks, learning a few forms, an introduction to sparring including timing, the timing of attacks and movement, and finally a warm down to relax and stretch tired muscles.

Taekwondo of course also has its own official governing body, and in Great Britain it is British Taekwondo. Everybody wishing to join a Taekwondo club in Beccles have to become members of this organisation. By viewing the official British Taekwondo website you will be able to discover details about events, first aid, coaching courses, safeguarding and equality, health and safety, news, coaches and tournament referees, starting a new Taekwondo club, clubs and members, and lots more Taekwondo related facts.

Taekwondo Forms

Taekwondo forms (also referred to as patterns or Poomse) are identified by specified activities like direction, stance and technique. From the outset you'll learn a few of the basic forms, and so as to move through the levels (belts) you'll have to master some more advanced ones.

Taekwondo Belts (Rank)

With there being various different styles of Taekwondo there has never really been any recognised system for allocating belts (levels). What exists is however relatively similar and involves two belt groupings "junior" and "senior" ("colour" and "black"), each one of these groupings is divided into grades, 8 to 12 colours for juniors and 9 "blacks" for seniors.

In the UK there are a series of ranks in Taekwondo which are referred to as "Kup". The lowest (beginners) rank is Tenth Kup and the highest is First Kup. As with many of the martial arts, the Taekwondo belt order is indicated by a range of different colours, so the ranks can be easily identified. These colours are white, yellow, green, blue and red, with transitional belts with stripes in-between, namely - white with a yellow stripe, yellow with a green stripe, green with a blue stripe, blue with a red stripe and red with a black stripe. The White Belt (10th Kup) is what Taekwondo novices in Beccles will begin with, they will then progress through the different colours, finally earning the Red With Black Stripe Belt (1st Kup), which will take around 3-4 years of dedicated training.

After this training regime has been accomplished, Beccles Taekwondo students are referred to as "black belt candidates", and they must then earn a further nine Dans (ranks) if they are to become a Taekwondo "Black Belt", which is the supreme accolade in this sport. So, the bottom line is, there are three primary sections in the Taekwondo belt order, that is Junior Belt, Senior Belt and Black Belt. The Junior Taekwondo Belts are; White (10th), White With Yellow Stripe (9th), Yellow (8th), and Yellow With Green Stripe (7th). The Senior Taekwondo Belts comprise; Green (6th), Green With Blue Stripe (5th), Blue (4th), Blue With Red Stripe (3rd), Red (2nd) and Red With Black Stripe (1st). The Black Taekwondo Belts go from 1st to 9th Dan which takes a number of years to successfully progress through.