Taekwondo Street

It needs to be asserted that Taekwondo can be very physically demanding, which might discourage the older and less agile folks in Street from getting involved. To be fair, the most frequent participants of Taekwondo classes are children and the younger generation, but of course older people who are in decent physical condition can easily get involved and benefit from this sport.

Based largely around high-kicking manoeuvres and moves like spinning/jumping kicks, head kicks and fast kicking strategies, Taekwondo was created from the practices of various diverse martial arts, by a group of Seoul martial arts specialists in new schools called "Kwans" in the nineteen forties and fifties. These "Kwans" had the names Chungdo Kwan, Changmu Kwan, Songmu Kwan, Jido Kwan and Mooduk Kwan.

Taekwondo has grown to be really popular in Street and all across the globe, with over sixty million practitioners worldwide. Registering with a local Street Taekwondo club or class is an excellent way to become involved in this sport which has even been included in the Olympic Games since the Sydney Games in 2000. Though you might not have any ambitions to get involved in Olympic competition, there's no reason why you should not become a maestro of this exciting martial art and have some fun in the process.

A key element of Taekwondo is self-defence, and obviously this is one of the primary reasons that people in Street get involved in classes and take up the sport. There's been a disturbing escalation of violent conduct in recent times and this is particularly rife in city and town centres around Somerset and Britain as a whole. The beauty of Taekwondo though, is that it also encourages self-discipline and respect for other people, not such common characteristics in Street nowadays.

While its good to know they're there if you need them, with luck you will not ever have the need to use your newly perfected Taekwondo techniques for defending yourself outside of your local club environment.

Your First Street Taekwondo Lesson

If you come to a decision to register for a Taekwondo club in Street, the first thing you'll want to know is what is going to transpire on the very first lesson and what will the coach be expecting of you. Different Taekwondo masters in the Street area will devise diverse routines for this first lesson but you can expect to do a fifteen to twenty minute warm-up to get the blood coursing and loosen your muscles, learn a few Poomse (forms, go through some practical training (hand attacks, kicks, stances and blocking techniques), do some sparring, and to finish, warm-down.

Everybody who's a member of a Taekwondo club in Street or any place else in Great Britain, is also required to join British Taekwondo, which is the official governing body of the sport. By exploring the British Taekwondo website you will be able to read details of news, health and safety, coaching courses, members and clubs, first aid, coaches and tournament referees, equality and safeguarding, events, launching a new club, and many more Taekwondo related facts.

Taekwondo for Beginners

As with any sport or activity we need to begin somewhere, and Taekwondo's no different. Even the uppermost Street Taekwondo exponents were complete rookies at one point. So, what can you expect as a total beginner at Taekwondo? Beginner classes should give their students enough coaching to give them the basic principles and allow them to gain confidence as they move forward. The perfect beginners class needs to be enjoyable as well as instructional, when students are enjoying themselves they're far more invested and will learn faster.

Taekwondo Belts

With there being many different styles of Taekwondo there has never been any standardized arrangement for assigning belts (ranks). What does exist is however quite similar and involves a couple of belt groups "junior" and "senior" ("colour" and "black"), each of these groups is split into levels, eight to twelve colours for juniors and 9 "blacks" for seniors.

In the UK Taekwondo has a set of ranks (belts) that are known as "Kup", these ranks go from Tenth (lowest) to First (highest). If you're curious about the Taekwondo belt order, it is as follows, and is indicated by a range of different colours i.e. white, yellow, green, blue and red, with intermediate 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. Beginner students of Taekwondo in Street will begin with the Tenth Kup (White Belt), and proceed through the coloured belts until they achieve the First Kup (Red Belt With Black Stripe)

After this has been completed, Taekwondo students in Street are considered to be "black belt candidates" which involves them moving through another 9 ranks (Dans) until they achieve the ultimate accolade of "Black Belt" status. So, putting it simply, there are 3 primary groupings in the Taekwondo belt order, namely Junior Belt, Senior Belt and Black Belt. The Junior division Taekwondo Belts are; White (Tenth), White With a Yellow Stripe (Ninth), Yellow (Eighth), and Yellow With a Green Stripe (Seventh). The Senior division of Taekwondo Belts are; Green (Sixth), Green With a Blue Stripe (Fifth), Blue (Fourth), Blue With a Red Stripe (Third), Red (Second), and Red With a Black Stripe (First). The Black group of Taekwondo Belts comprise First to Ninth Dan rankings, and demands many years of training and dedication. (Tags: Taekwondo Ranks Street, Belt Order Taekwondo, Taekwondo Belt Order, Taekwondo Belts Street).

Taekwondo Kicks

There are lots of different Taekwondo kicking moves, here are just a handful of them: Side Kick, Hook or Whip Kick, Roundhouse Kick, Back Kick, Crescent Kick, Front Kick, Push Kick, Axe Kick. Blocks: To stop and deflect an incoming attack, blocks (called Makgi) are used. Using the hand and different areas of the arm, they are held in specific positions. Certain attacks require particular "blocks", but blocks can also be transformed into counter-attacks by the combination of retaliatory punches or kicks. The primary Taekwondo blocks (makgi) include: Rising Block, Double Forearm Block, Nine Block, Double Knife Hand Block, Knife Hand Block, Upper Block, Palm Block, Single Forearm Block and Low Block.

Taekwondo Forms (Patterns)

Beginners in Taekwondo do not need to fret too much about forms (patterns, Poomse) in the early days, but they will have to learn some standard ones for starters and move on to more complex forms as they move up the belts (grades/dans). A "form" is signified by specified areas of Taekwondo including stance, technique and direction. Learning such techniques is a crucial part of perfecting Taekwondo.

Summary

So, what are you looking to get from Taekwondo? Well, that's a good question, and the answer will be different for individual people. The majority of participants will just look to meet new people, gain more self-confidence and improve their levels of fitness. We are definitely not all going to scale the dizzy heights of Jade Jones or Lutalo Muhammad, although maybe you will, who knows?