Taekwondo Harrogate

Taekwondo is generally much more physically demanding than for instance Tai Chi, so unless you are pretty fit and nimble you might prefer to partake in something a bit gentler to improve your fitness levels in Harrogate. Children are clearly the perfect participants for Taekwondo classes in Harrogate, with a lot of fast movements taking place and a great deal of high kicking.

The name Taekwondo was only coined in the 1950's, although the discipline began life in Korea in 1945. A group of Korean martial arts fanatics in Seoul founded some new schools called "kwans", where they practiced a blend of martial arts techniques. Taekwondo, which it eventually became known as, mainly entails kicking movements, in particular fast kicking methods, head kicks and jumping/turning kicks. These days Harrogate Taekwondo classes comply with this tradition.

Ever since the Sydney Olympic Games in the year 2000, Taekwondo has been a competitive Olympic sport. This has made it even more popular all over the world with some sixty million people or more routinely attending classes. And it is by enrolling in a Taekwondo class or club that you can commence your quest of mastering this fascinating activity.

People in Harrogate take up Taekwondo for many reasons but it is the self-defence aspect that appeals to most. And its not surprising that this is on people's list of priorities when you consider the rising levels of violence seen these days in town and city centres throught the United Kingdom. The ability to defend yourself and at the same time exercising self-restraint and a respect for others is one of the key benefits of Taekwondo.

There's a pretty decent chance that your newly learned Taekwondo skills will never see the light of day in your day to day life, but it will undoubtedly give you a secure feeling knowing that they're there should you ever be in need of them.

What to Expect From Your First Lesson

Different Taekwondo clubs in Harrogate will have different guidelines for what enrollees should be covering on their very first class, however to give you an idea of what you can expect most first Taekwondo lessons will include a warm-up, a bit of sparring, learning Poomse (forms), an introduction to stances, kicks, blocks and hand attacks (technical training) and a warm-down to relax tired muscles and get the body back to a state of relaxation.

Everyone who's a member of a Taekwondo class in Harrogate or any place else in Britain, is also required to join British Taekwondo, which is the official regulating body of the sport. You can find out about news, events, health and safety, coaching courses, establishing a new club, members and clubs, coaches and tournament referees, first aid, equality and safeguarding, and more on British Taekwondo's website, and find the latest Taekwondo news stories on their Facebook or Twitter page.

Taekwondo Belts (Rank)

In regards to promotion, ranking and belts there is not actually any uniformity in Taekwondo, because there are various different styles of Taekwondo which each have their own system in place. There are however analogies and they normally comprise two groups of belts "seniors" and "juniors" symbolized by black and coloured belts respectively. The senior levels typically have nine ranks and the junior, eight to twelve ranks.

In the UK there are a set of ranks in Taekwondo which are generally known as "Kup". The lowest is Tenth Kup and the highest rank is First Kup. The Taekwondo belt order, similar to many of the martial arts is portrayed by a range of colours, these colours are white, yellow, green, blue and red, with intermediary 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 rookies in Harrogate will start out with, they will then progress through the colours, finally earning the Red Belt With a Black Stripe (1st Kup), after approximately three to four years of lessons and training.

Taekwondo trainees in Harrogate become "black belt candidates" once they've worked their way through these rankings, and they will then need to move through another nine ranks (Dans) if they plan to achieve the greatest accolade of "Black Belt" in Taekwondo. Thus, the Taekwondo belt order can be grouped into 3 divisions; Junior Belts, Senior Belts and Black Belts. The Taekwondo Belts in the Junior division comprise; 10th (White), 9th (White With Yellow Stripe), 8th (Yellow), and 7th (Yellow With Green Stripe). The Taekwondo Belts in the Senior division comprise; 6th (Green), 5th (Green With Blue Stripe), 4th (Blue), 3rd ( Blue With Red Stripe), 2nd (Red), and 1st (Red With Black Stripe). The Taekwondo Belts in the Black group go from 1st to 9th Dan, a process that will take many years.

Taekwondo Kicks

There are loads of different kicking moves that are used when practicing Taekwondo. The following are a selection of the most widely known: Front Kick (Ap Chagi), Push Kick (Meereo Chagi), Roundhouse Kick (Dollyo Chagi), Whip or Hook Kick (Huryeo Chagi), Axe Kick (Naeryeo Chagi), Back Kick (Dwo Chagi), Side Kick (Yeop Chagi), Crescent Kick (Bandal Chagi). Blocks: To defend against the numerous hand attacks and kicks there are a similarly diverse array of blocks. They're held in specific positions and employ the hand with different areas of the arm. Each "block" can be coordinated with a kick or punch to produce a counter-attack, and each one is meant for a specific attack. The principal Taekwondo "blocks" include: Single Forearm Block, Double Knife Hand Block, Rising Block, Low Block, Upper Block, Nine Block, Double Forearm Block, Palm Block and Knife Hand Block.

Tournaments

Taekwondo tournaments are held internationally in all of the diverse styles. There's usually not a lot of hard contact but breaking, patterns and sparring. Olympic and WT contests consist only of sparring, in ITF tournaments specific hand attacks are allowed to the head. Various other bodies hold multi-discipline tournaments.

Safety Gear

British Taekwondo competitions require certain safety equipment to be worn to protect contenders from getting injured as a result of the powerful kicking that takes place. This safety gear includes: a gum shield, forearm guards, a red/blue head guard, hand protectors, shin guards, a blue/red trunk protector (hogu) and a groin protector.

Harrogate Taekwondo for Beginners

With any sport or activity we've got to start someplace, and Taekwondo's no different. Even the topmost Harrogate Taekwondo exponents were total beginners at one point. So, what can you expect as a complete beginner at Taekwondo? A beginners class should give its pupils enough training to teach them the basic principles and enable them to gain self-confidence as they move forward. The ideal beginners class needs to be enjoyable as well as instructional, when individuals are having fun they're much more engaged and will learn much faster.

Taekwondo Forms (Poomse)

Perfecting Taekwondo will involve getting to grips with many disciplines and one of the key elements of Taekwondo is its forms (also known as Poomse or patterns). These are sequences of direction, technique and stance which have to be mastered in order for participants to move through the various dans (belts/grades).