Taekwondo Rainham

It needs to be said that Taekwondo can be fairly physically challenging, which could put off the less agile and more elderly folks in Rainham from taking this up. To be truthful, the most common participants of Taekwondo classes are children and the younger generation, but unquestionably older people who are in excellent physical condition can easily get involved and benefit considerably from this sport.

Taekwondo is one of the more recently established of the martial arts, with its beginnings in Korea in 1945. A group of Korean martial arts specialists in Seoul founded some new schools known as "kwans", incorporating many different martial arts techniques. Taekwondo, which was ultimately called, mostly involves kicking manoeuvres, especially head-height kicks, jumping/spinning kicks and fast kicking techniques.

With more than sixty million fitness enthusiasts engaged in Taekwondo sessions all over the world, this has definitely become a popular and beneficial pastime, and if you become really good at the martial art you may possibly one day be eligible for the Olympic Games, of which it's been a part since the 2000 Sydney Games.

It seems that the most appealing aspect of Taekwondo is self-defence. You should not be surprised by this, when you take into account the high incidence of violence seen in today's town and city centres. Being able to defend yourself is a key factor of Taekwondo, but this is tempered by learning self-restraint and a respect for others.

Although you will take a lot of trouble learning these essential self-defence skills, with a bit of luck you will not ever need to apply them apart from within your local Taekwondo club environment.

Your First Rainham Taekwondo Class

Different Taekwondo schools in and around Rainham will have different viewpoints on what learners should cover on their initial lesson, however to give you a notion of what you should expect most initial Taekwondo classes will include a warm-up, some sparring, learning basic patterns (Poomse), an introduction to hand attacks, kicks, blocking techniques and stances (practical training) and a warm-down to stretch tired muscles and get the body back to a state of relaxation.

Anybody wishing to join a Taekwondo club in Rainham has to also become a member of British Taekwondo which is the regulating body of the sport in Great Britain. By going to the official British Taekwondo website you'll be able to read information regarding referees and coaching, coaching courses, clubs and members, health and safety, news, safeguarding and equality, starting a new club, events, first aid, and lots more Taekwondo related facts.

Taekwondo Patterns (Forms)

Taekwondo forms (also known as patterns or Poomse) are distinguished by specific aspects such as direction, technique and stance. From the start of your Taekwondo experience you are going to get to grips with a few of the basic forms, and in order to progress through the grades (belts) you'll have to master some more complex ones.

Taekwondo Belts (Ranking)

With regards to promotion, ranking and belts there's not actually any real uniformity in Taekwondo, as there are many different styles of Taekwondo each of which has their own system in place. There are however analogies and they normally comprise 2 groups of belts "seniors" and "juniors" represented by black and coloured belts respectively, . The senior levels usually have nine tiers and the junior, eight to twelve grades.

Competitions and Tournaments

A regular Taekwondo tournament incorporates breaking, patterns (forms) and sparring, where the Olympics is concerned only sparring is included. That said there can also be a few special events in certain tournaments such as self-defence and team demonstrations. World Taekwondo competitions are purely soft-contact events, while International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) competitions permit some hand attacks to be aimed at the head. There are also several multi-discipline tournaments.