Taekwondo Prestbury

Taekwondo is typically much more demanding physically than for example Tai Chi, so unless you're pretty fit and agile you might prefer to find something a bit gentler to improve your fitness in Prestbury. Younger children are clearly the perfect participants for Taekwondo classes in Prestbury, with a lot of fast paced movements taking place and plenty of high kicking.

Taekwondo was only developed fairly recently in Korea (1945). In Seoul, a group of Korean martial arts enthusiasts set up some new schools which they named "kwans", practicing a mixture of martial arts techniques. In Taekwondo the focus is on kicking, especially head-height kicks, turning/jumping kicks and fast kicking methods. Nowadays Prestbury Taekwondo classes follow this tradition.

With over 60 million practitioners worldwide and quite a few in Prestbury, Taekwondo has become very popular. This sport has even featured in the Olympic Games since 2000, and if you want to get involved, joining a local Prestbury Taekwondo club or class is a good place to start. There is no reason why you cannot become a master of this exciting martial art, even if you do not aspire to Olympic competition.

For the men, women and children of Prestbury who would like to learn a martial art, a big priority is the aspect of self-defence. As this is a key principle of Taekwondo, it's not difficult to appreciate the attraction of this unique sport. With the extra bonus of developing self-restraint and having a deep respect for those around you, enrolling in a local Prestbury Taekwondo class would seem to be a no brainer.

Although it will give you peace of mind being aware that you have these self-defence skills in your locker, the odds are you will never need to use them outside the controlled setting of an organised Taekwondo class.

Your First Taekwondo Class

If you've never had a go at Taekwondo before, you might be a little apprehensive as to what should be expected on your first class. This may vary from club to club but will usually consist of some or all of these. A fifteen to twenty minute warm up to loosen up muscles and increase heart rate, a bit of technical training including learning some kicks, hand attacks, blocking techniques and stances, studying some forms (or Poomse), an introduction to sparring which will include movement, attack timing and timing, and lastly a warm down to relax and stretch weary muscles.

Any person wishing to join a Taekwondo class in Prestbury must also become a member of British Taekwondo which is the governing body of the sport in Great Britain. You will be able to find loads of information on members and clubs, news, safe practices, establishing a new Taekwondo club, coaching courses, events, coaches and tournament referees, equality and safeguarding, first aid, and more, by going to the official British Taekwondo website.

The Benefits of Taekwondo

There are of course, many benefits to be gained from practicing Taekwondo, and listed here are just a few that might be appealing to you: Boost confidence by helping you to succeed and to seize control of your life, More discipline and willpower by exhaustively training your mind and body in the doctrines and strategies of Taekwondo, Augment stamina, agility and flexibility by means of intense cardiovascular effort, Lower anxiety and stress using advanced breath control, Help with self-defence by helping you to realize scenarios where self-defence could be needed, and allowing you to manipulate these kinds of scenarios in your favour, Toughen up your body and mind by way of accelerated mental discipline and physical co-ordination, Enhance concentration and self-esteem by maximizing both physical and mental health.

Taekwondo Competitions and Tournaments

Taekwondo tournaments and competitions are staged around the world in all of the different styles. There is normally not a lot of hard contact but patterns (forms), breaking and sparring. Olympic and WT tournaments only consist of sparring, in International Taekwon-Do Federation contests certain hand attacks are allowed to the head. Various other organisations stage multi-discipline competitions.

Taekwondo Belts

Because there are many different types of Taekwondo there's never really been any standardized arrangement for assigning belts (ranks). What exists however is relatively similar and consists of two belt groupings "junior" and "senior" ("colour" and "black"), each one of these groups is split into grades, 8 to 12 colours for juniors and nine "blacks" for the seniors.

Rankings in Taekwondo in the UK are represented by what are referred to as "Kup". The top rank is 1st Kup and the lowest rank (beginners) is 10th Kup. If you are curious about the Taekwondo belt order, it is as follows, and is indicated by a number of colours i.e. white, yellow, green, blue and red, with "in-between" 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 Prestbury will start out with, they can then proceed through the coloured belts, finally achieving the Red Belt With a Black Stripe (1st Kup), which will probably take around three to four years of training and lessons.

When this training regime has been successfully completed, Prestbury Taekwondo trainees become known as "black belt candidates", and they then have to progress through an additional 9 ranks if they are to achieve the title of Taekwondo "Black Belt", which of course is the consummate distinction in this sport. So, Junior, Senior and Black Belt are the 3 main groupings in the Taekwondo belt order. The Taekwondo Belts in the Junior group comprise; 10th (White), 9th (White With Yellow Stripe), 8th (Yellow), and 7th (Yellow With Green Stripe). The Taekwondo Belts in the Senior group are; 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 range from 1st to 9th Dan, a process which takes many years. (Tags: Belt Order Taekwondo, Taekwondo Belts Prestbury, Taekwondo Belt Order, Taekwondo Rankings Prestbury).