“What is the benefit of Taekwondo in the classroom setting?”🏫

Sometimes we hear students and family members wonder:

“What are the benefits in the classroom for training Taekwondo on the mats?”

This is an excellent question!

A healthy brain is a successful brain, and there are a few components we need to talk about:

1. Mental Capacity
2. Physical Capacity
3. Spiritual Capacity

The mental aspect of Taekwondo training is straightforward:

• Respect
• Discipline
• Integrity
• Self Defence

The list goes on…

The training involves situations where we may think we cannot do something; like breaking a wooden board! Or bricks! Or doing an advanced spinning kick… The mind needs to be trained just as much as the body to make sure it is as ready as the body is for new techniques and breaking old limits to improve ourselves and live our best lives. 

SELF DEFENCE starts with good choices and a good mentality. 

How is your self esteem?

How is your confidence?

Do you have the proper tools to deal with a bully or stranger? An attacker?

Taekwondo training gives this to you!👊

The physical aspect of Taekwondo training is more obvious:

• Strength
• Flexibility
• Mobility
• Coordination
• Self Defence

They say martial arts was invented by monks who were trying to sit and meditate all day long, but didn’t have the stamina or strength to sit for too long before collapsing.

This rings true today! One of the best parts of Taekwondo training is the stronger bodies we forge in every session.

SELF DEFENCE sometimes requires physical action (we hope not!)

Do you know how to block an attack?

Do you have skills to move an opponent away from you to a safe distance?

Could you stop another human being from harming you?

*Remember* the goal is not to win,  but rather to ‘NOT LOSE.’

The spiritual aspect sometimes gets a bad rep, or feelings of mushy gushy stuff…

Our Spiritual health is JUST AS IMPORTANT as our physical and mental health.

Heres why:

• Resilience
• Personal growth
• Perseverance
• Courtesy
• Compassion
• Humility
• Self Defence

What kind of person do you want to be? What kind of mark do you want to leave on the world? How do you want to be remembered? It is not because of physical attributes, or mental attributes, but rather your spirit or your character that leaves the greatest impact on the people around you.

Can we walk a mile in another person’s shoes? Do we have what it takes to show courtesy EVEN to those who don’t deserve it? 

Can we bow to the title, not the person? Do we have such humility?

SELF DEFENCE requires action (sometimes) and maybe even Taekwondo techniques (extremely rare!)… but it takes someone even GREATER to know when NOT to use our Taekwondo.

We learn Taekwondo, so we never have to use it. We teach Taekwondo, so that the practitioners never have to use it.

To have to use your Taekwondo is a failure of character; resorting to violence when something can be resolved peacefully.

There’s a famous quote from the book “Karate-do; My Way of Life” by the father of modern:

On Courtesy

Some youthful enthusiasts of karate believe that it can be learned only from instructors in a dojo, but such men are mere technicians, not true karate. There is a Buddhist saying that “anyplace can be a dojo,” and that is a saying that anyone who wants to follow the way of karate must never forget. Karate-do is not only the acquisition of certain defensive skills but also the mastering of the art of being a good and honest member of society.”

Gichin Funakoshi

There you have it.

Taekwondo is GREAT for improving your experience in the classroom, at the workplace, at home, and in your community.

Train hard, and see you on the mats!👊