Last November, after soccer season was over (*sigh*), my husband and I were desperately looking around for a way to channel our 7yo son’s boundless energy. Since it’d probably qualify as cruel and unusual punishment to hook him up to a treadmill and power the house with it, he and his dad enrolled in the local taekwondo studio (um, sorry, dojang) down the road.
He LOVES it. And, so, rather bemusedly, we have become a taekwondo family, with husband and son rushing off to the dojang two evenings a week, and Sir I. practicing kibons and showing off punches and kicks and strikes almost all the time.
We found this amazing video of the Korean National Taekwondo demo team. Apparently they travel around the world, breaking boards and showing off spectacular spinning kicks. While I wonder how useful some of these would be in an actual fighting situation, I admire the skill and athleticism on display here.
I was brought up on TKD from 12 to 16 and even got to british champion twice. It is so much fun! Are you going to do it too?
p.s. I also heard a story of two very young yellow belts (and yellow is low) defending themselves from a guy in the park. That’s impressive. I guess the younger you are the more fearless you are too.
I’d like to do a martial art, but TKD’s not my style. I’ve done some aikido, so I might go back to that–or else pick up some Chinese martial art.
Do you still do TKD?
I was actually surprised to meet a very strong and active group of Taekwondo homeschoolers in Colorado Springs while working on a movie production with my sister, and one family of them had actually been to help with the demo team for Korea and have met with and known the people in charge of that. And I can assure you, they are quite capable of using these techniques in a real fight. One of the boys when startled by his mother had to remind himself not to break her wrist. Kinda scary, but they were all good kids and seemed to know how to use their knowledge responsibly.
*nod* Yes, training with discipline is pretty important!
What an amazing video. They look so very supple and agile and must practice for ages.