Taekwondo Burnham-on-Crouch

Taekwondo is generally a lot more physically demanding than for example Tai Chi, so unless you are pretty agile and fit you might prefer to find something a bit gentler to boost your fitness in Burnham-on-Crouch. Younger children are clearly the perfect participants for Taekwondo classes in Burnham-on-Crouch, with a lot of fast paced movements going on and a great deal of high kicking.

Taekwondo started in Korea in 1945. This combination of various martial arts techniques were practiced in some new schools in Seoul called "kwans", founded by a group of Korean martial artists. The emphasis of the discipline was on kicking manoeuvres, especially fast kicking strategies, head-height kicks and spinning/jumping kicks, and it was later given the name; Taekwondo, meaning "the way of the foot and fist".

Taekwondo is popular with the people of Burnham-on-Crouch and with over sixty million others throughout the world. Now an Olympic sport, Taekwondo is accessible to everybody, and heading along to your local Burnham-on-Crouch Taekwondo class or club is the most effective way to get yourself involved. Whilst the chances of you getting to Olympic standard are rather slim, there isn't any reason at all why you can't master this exciting martial art.

Of all the numerous benefits of learning this sport, it is the self-defence aspect of Taekwondo that the people of Burnham-on-Crouch consider most interesting. And in these days of increased violence, particularly in city centres, it is not surprising that this sits at the top of people's priority list. It's a key principle of Taekwondo that you can become confidently able to defend yourself yet exercise self-restraint and respect others.

Hopefully you will not ever be required to use your newly acquired Taekwondo techniques for defending yourself outside of your local club environment, but it's nice to know they are there if you need them.

Your First Taekwondo Class

For those of you who have never done Taekwondo before, you will no doubt be interested to know what to expect from your first class. This will vary from school to school but will usually involve some or all of the following. A warm up of fifteen to twenty minutes to increase heart rate and loosen your muscles, a bit of technical training which will involve learning some kicks, hand attacks, blocking techniques and stances, learning some Poomse (or forms), some tips on sparring including timing, movement and the targeting of attacks, and lastly a warm down to relax and stretch tired muscles.

Any individual who joins a Taekwondo club in Burnham-on-Crouch must also register with British Taekwondo which is the official governing body of the sport in Britain. You can get a lot of details about safeguarding and equality, members and clubs, beginning a new club, first aid, news, coaching courses, events, safe practices, referees and coaching, and more, by heading to British Taekwondo's official website.

Competitions

Taekwondo contests are staged around the world in all of the various styles. There's normally not a lot of hard contact but patterns, sparring and breaking. Olympic and World Taekwondo (WT) tournaments only consist of sparring, in International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) competitions certain hand attacks are permitted to the head. Some other associations stage multi-discipline competitions.

Taekwondo Belts

Because there are a number of disciplines of Taekwondo there's never been any recognised system for assigning belts (levels). What exists however is relatively similar and comprises a couple of belt groupings "junior" and "senior" ("colour" and "black"), each one of these groupings is split into levels, 8 to 12 colours for juniors and 9 "blacks" for seniors.

In the UK Taekwondo has a sequence of ranks that are known as "Kup", these ranks go from 10th (lowest) to 1st (highest). If you are eager to know the Taekwondo belt order, it's as follows, and is indicated by a range of different colours i.e. white, yellow, green, blue and red, with intermediate belts with stripes, 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 beginners in Burnham-on-Crouch will begin with, they'll then advance through the coloured belts, finally achieving the Red Belt With a Black Stripe (1st Kup), which will probably take about 3-4 years of dedication.

Taekwondo trainees in Burnham-on-Crouch become known as "black belt candidates" after they have worked their way through these rankings, and they will then be faced with moving through an additional nine ranks (Dans) if they plan to achieve the greatest distinction of "Black Belt" in Taekwondo. Therefore, the Taekwondo belt order can be put into three groupings; Junior Belt, Senior Belt and Black Belt. The Junior Taekwondo Belts comprise; 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 will take many years to progress through. (Tags: Taekwondo Belts Burnham-on-Crouch, Taekwondo Belt Order, Order of Belts in Taekwondo, Taekwondo Rankings Burnham-on-Crouch).

Taekwondo Forms

Newcomers just beginning their journey in Taekwondo do not need to stress excessively about forms (patterns, Poomse) initially, but they'll get to grips with some standard ones to begin with and advance to more difficult forms as they progress through the belts (dans/grades). A "form" is signified by certain aspects of Taekwondo including stance, technique and direction. Learning such sequences is a vital part of perfecting Taekwondo.

To Summarize

So, what are you looking to get from Taekwondo? Well, that is an excellent question, and the answer to that will vary for different people. The majority of participants will purely look to improve their levels of fitness, meet new people and gain more self-confidence. We're certainly not all going to reach the heights of Jade Jones or Lutalo Muhammad, though perhaps you will, who knows?