Taekwondo Newton-le-Willows

It must be asserted that Taekwondo can be pretty physically challenging, which might intimidate the less nimble and more elderly folks in Newton-le-Willows from getting involved. To be fair, the most common people participating in Taekwondo classes are children and younger people, but obviously older people who are in great physical condition can easily get involved and benefit from this activity.

Taekwondo is a martial art that mainly consists of kicking manoeuvres, in particular head kicks, rapid kicking methods and jumping/turning kicks. It began in Seoul, in southern Korea in the 1940's, when a group of martial arts enthusiasts founded schools called "kwans", which blended a number of martial arts techniques.

Now an Olympic sport, Taekwondo has more than sixty million enthusiasts all over the world, and whilst you may not have any aspirations to be an Olympic Games athlete, you can still enroll in a Taekwondo class or club to learn what will undoubtedly turn out to be a fascinating and fulfilling pastime.

It seems to be the case that the most appealing element of Taekwondo is self-defence. And in these times of increasing violence, particularly in city and town centres, it's no surprise that this features prominently people's priority list. In fact one of the primary benefits of Taekwondo is learning to defend yourself whilst respecting others and exercising a degree of self-restraint.

While its good to know that you can defend yourself when you need to, it is hoped that you never need to do this outside of your local Taekwondo club environment.

Your First Newton-le-Willows Taekwondo Class

If you come to a decision to register for Taekwondo training in Newton-le-Willows, the very first thing you will want to know is what is going to happen on the first lesson and what exactly will the teacher be expecting of you. Different Taekwondo masters in the Newton-le-Willows area will formulate diverse routines for this first lesson but you can count on performing a fifteen to twenty minute warm-up to loosen your muscles and get the blood circulating, learn a few forms (Poomse), cover some technical training (stances, blocks, kicks and hand attacks), do some sparring, and lastly, warm-down.

The regulating body for Taekwondo in the UK is British Taekwondo and any individual wanting to join a Taekwondo class in Newton-le-Willows must also become a member of British Taekwondo. You can read about first aid, events, health and safety, starting a new Taekwondo club, news, safeguarding and equality, referees and coaching, coaching courses, clubs and members, and more on British Taekwondo's official website, or find out the latest news stories on their Facebook or Twitter page.

Taekwondo Patterns (Forms)

Beginners in Taekwondo do not need to worry too much about forms (Poomse, patterns) in the early days, but they will have to familiarise themselves with some important ones to start with and move on to more intricate forms as they move up the various belts (grades/dans). A form is signified by specified aspects of Taekwondo including direction, technique and stance. Learning these sequences is an important part of perfecting Taekwondo.

Taekwondo Belts (Rank)

With there being various different kinds of Taekwondo there has never really been any standardized arrangement for allocating belts (promotion). What exists is however fairly similar and consists of 2 belt groups "senior" and "junior" (black and colour), each of these groupings is split into grades, eight to twelve colours in the case of juniors and 9 "blacks" for seniors.