Taekwondo Littleborough

Taekwondo is generally a lot more demanding physically than for example Tai Chi, so unless you are pretty fit and agile you may prefer to find something a bit gentler to improve your fitness in Littleborough. Children are certainly the perfect participants for Taekwondo classes in Littleborough, with lots of fast movements taking place and plenty of high kicking.

Taekwondo is one of the more recently created of the martial arts, with its beginnings in Korea, South-East Asia in 1945. A group of Korean martial arts specialists in Seoul established some new schools known as "kwans", merging a variety of martial arts practices. Taekwondo, which was eventually called, largely entails high-kicking manoeuvres, especially fast kicking strategies, jumping/turning kicks and head kicks.

Ever since the Sydney Olympic Games in the year 2000, Taekwondo has been a competitive Olympic sport. This has made it even more popular all over the world with some 60 million people or more regularly participating in classes. And it is by enrolling in a Taekwondo class or club that you can start your adventure of learning this remarkable activity.

A key aspect of Taekwondo is self-defence, and of course this is one of the primary reasons that folks in Littleborough join classes and engage with the sport. There has been a worrying increase in violent behaviour in recent times and this is particularly widespread in town and city centres throughout Greater Manchester and Great Britain in general. The beauty of Taekwondo though, is that it also encourages self-discipline and a deep respect for other people, not such familiar attributes in Littleborough these days.

Your eagerly learned Taekwondo skills will more than likely never have to be tried and tested outside the controlled setting of an actual Taekwondo class, however being aware that you have them will instill you with confidence.

Your First Taekwondo Class

If Taekwondo is not something that you've ever done previously, you will doubtless be wondering what you should expect from your initial lesson if you make your mind up to join. Different Taekwondo schools in the Littleborough area have different ideas about this but in brief; you'll take part in a fifteen to twenty minute warm-up, you'll do a certain amount of technical training, you will learn some forms (patterns), you are going to practice sparring techniques and finally you will do a warm-down to help your body get back into a state of relaxation.

Anyone who joins a Taekwondo club in Littleborough has to also register with British Taekwondo which is the governing body of the sport in the British Isles. You can find out about news, equality and safeguarding, coaches and competition referees, launching a new club, events, members and clubs, safe practices, first aid, coaching courses, and more on British Taekwondo's website, and get the latest news on their Twitter or Facebook page.

Tournaments and Competitions

There are a whole host of contests in Taekwondo involving all the diverse styles. They primarily involve patterns, sparring and breaking with little or no hard contact. ITF tournaments don't permit too much contact but sometimes allow hand attacks towards the head. WT and Olympic contests allow only sparring. Multi-style contests are also held.

Beginners Classes

With any sport or activity we have to start someplace, and Taekwondo is exactly the same. Even the leading Littleborough Taekwondo exponents were complete novices at one time. So, what can you expect as a complete beginner at Taekwondo? Beginner classes should give their pupils enough training to teach them the fundamentals and enable them to develop self-confidence as they move forward. The perfect beginners class ought to be fun as well as educational, when people are enjoying themselves they are a lot more invested and are going to learn faster.

Taekwondo Belts

The ranking and belt system can get a bit confusing in Taekwondo because there's no uniform structure across the various Taekwondo styles. Likenesses can be found however, and normally there are 2 separate belt groupings, represented as "seniors" (black belts) and "juniors" (colours). The number of ranks in the junior section varies across the disciplines but is usually somewhere between eight and twelve belts, while the senior groupings commonly has nine dans or belts.

In the UK there are a sequence of ranks in Taekwondo which are referred to as "Kup". The lowest (beginners) rank is 10th Kup and the highest is 1st Kup. As is the case with many of the martial arts, the Taekwondo belt order is denoted by a range of different colours, so that the ranks can be easily recognised. These colours are white, yellow, green, blue and red, with transitional belts with stripes in-between, specifically - 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. Beginners of Taekwondo in Littleborough will start out with the 10th Kup (White Belt), and advance through the different colours until they attain the Red Belt With a Black Stripe (1st Kup).

Taekwondo trainees in Littleborough become "black belt candidates" after they've succeeded with this challenge, and they'll then need to move through a further 9 ranks (Dans) if they plan to achieve the consummate distinction of "Black Belt" in Taekwondo. Thus, the Taekwondo belt order can be put into three groupings; Junior Belt, Senior Belt and Black Belt. 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 go from 1st to 9th Dan, a qualification process which will take a considerable number of years. (Tags: Taekwondo Belts Littleborough, Taekwondo Belt Order, Belt Order Taekwondo, Taekwondo Ranks Littleborough).

Safety Gear

British Taekwondo matches call for certain safety gear to be worn to protect contenders from being injured due to the forceful kicks being used. These safety solutions include: a blue/red head protector, a red/blue body protector (hogu), forearm protectors, a groin guard, hand protectors, shin pads and a gum shield.

Summary

Precisely what you acquire from Taekwondo are going to be proportional to what you put into it (as is the case with life in general). Many of you will only wish to make new friends, meet different people and improve your fitness levels, some may want to move on to competitions or tournaments or possibly even the Olympic Games. But bear in mind, we can't all end up being a Jade Jones or a Lutalo Muhammad. 👊