Taekwondo Hartlepool

It has to be asserted that Taekwondo can be fairly challenging physically, which may unnerve the older and less agile folks in Hartlepool from becoming involved. To be truthful, the most frequent people participating in Taekwondo classes are kids and younger people, but certainly older individuals who're in great physical condition can easily take part and benefit considerably from this activity.

Taekwondo is one of the more recently established of the martial arts, with its 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 ultimately called, mostly consists of kicking manoeuvres, especially jumping/spinning kicks, rapid kicking strategies and head-height kicks.

Nowadays an Olympic sport, Taekwondo has over 60 million followers worldwide, and even though you may not aspire to be an Olympic Games sportsman, you are still able to register for a Taekwondo club or class to master what will no doubt prove to be a fascinating and worthwhile activity.

A key aspect of Taekwondo is self-defence, and of course this is one of the primary reasons that folks in Hartlepool sign up to classes and engage with the sport. There has been a troubling escalation of violent behaviour in recent times and this is particularly common in city and town centres throughout County Durham and the UK in general. The fantastic thing about Taekwondo though, is that it also encourages self-discipline and respect for others, not such common qualities in Hartlepool these days.

There is a very good chance that your eagerly learned Taekwondo skills will never need to be used in the outside world, but it will unquestionably give you self-confidence knowing that they are there should you ever need them.

Your First Class

If Taekwondo is not an activity that you've ever done previously, you'll doubtless be curious about what to expect from your very first class should you make up your mind to join. Different Taekwondo schools in Hartlepool have different ideas about this but in brief; you'll take part in a 15-20 minute warm-up, you will do some technical training, you'll learn some forms (patterns), you will practice sparring strategies and lastly you will do a warm-down to help your body get back into a relaxed state once more.

Any individual who joins a Taekwondo class in Hartlepool has to also register with British Taekwondo which is the official regulating body of the sport in Britain. By visiting British Taekwondo's website you will be able to read information regarding coaching courses, news, clubs and members, first aid, safe practices, establishing a new Taekwondo club, events, safeguarding and equality, coaches and competition referees, and many more Taekwondo related facts.

The Benefits of Taekwondo

There are needless to say, many benefits to be gained from practicing Taekwondo, and listed here are just a few that might be appealing to you: Help with self-defence strategies by showing you how to realize instances in which self-defence might be needed, and empowering you to control these kinds of situations to your advantage, Develop discipline by methodically educating your body and mind in the principles and techniques of Taekwondo, Augment flexibility, stamina and agility by way of extreme cardiovascular effort, Enhance concentration and self-esteem by raising both physical and mental health, Toughen up your body and mind by enhanced mental discipline and physical co-ordination, Reduces stress and anxiety using advanced breath control, Grow in confidence by inspiring you to succeed and to seize control of your life.

Taekwondo Patterns (Forms)

Forms are a pivotal part of Taekwondo and are crucial to learn if you're going to master this popular sport. Several basic "forms" must be learned from the outset and more elaborate forms have to be perfected so as to move through the various belts. A Taekwondo form is categorized by various points such as direction, stance and technique.

Taekwondo Belts (Rank)

Because there are many different disciplines of Taekwondo there's never been any recognised system for allocating belts (ranks). What does exist is however quite similar and consists of a couple of belt groups "junior" and "senior" ("colour" and "black"), each of these groups is split into ranks, eight to twelve colours for juniors and nine "blacks" for the seniors.

Taekwondo Competitions

Taekwondo competitions are staged across the globe in all of the diverse styles. There's usually not a lot of hard contact but sparring, breaking and patterns (forms). Olympic and World Taekwondo (WT) competitions only consist of sparring, in ITF contests specific hand attacks are allowed to the head. Other organizations stage multi-discipline tournaments.

Safety Equipment

Safety gear like a blue or red head protector, red/blue body armour (hogu), a groin protector, hand protectors, a gum shield, forearm guards and shin protectors have to be worn in all tournaments supervised by British Taekwondo. Protection from injury is necessary thanks to the vigorous kicking that's an integral part of this sport.

Final Thoughts

What you get from Taekwondo are going to be proportional to what you put into it (as is true of life on the whole). Most of you will merely wish to meet different people, make new friends and improve your fitness levels, some might aspire to take part in competitions or tournaments or maybe even the Olympic Games. But bear in mind, we can't all end up being a Jade Jones or a Lutalo Muhammad. 👊