Mikey: Fourth Month of Tae Kwon Do

This year has been a great start to Tae Kwon Do with a lot of things happening and a lot of of things are changing about the way our Saboom (teacher) was running our lessons. This edition of the series will be long as there is quite a lot to unpack, so let’s get into it!

First Week:

Before we even got to our first lesson of the week we received an email from our teacher with a new timetable showing us exactly what he wanted us to do. This was a great improvement from what we did have as we went to the lessons not exactly knowing what we were going to do. Now we had a plan and knew what we needed to bring to each lesson. Now that we knew what we were doing we packed our sparring gear (I don’t have one as we aren’t allowed to spar yet until we are a higher rank). When we got to our lesson we were ready and excited to start our new year.

In our first lesson, we did sparing and 3-steps (as I don’t have the sparing gear I did non-contact sparing). This lesson was mainly spent focusing on holding our guard up and blocking things as well as working on our spacing to land kicks and to not get hit. Our second lesson was also largely based on the same thing with a focus on blocking and landing combos as well as working on our spacing.

Second Week:

For the second week, our focus for our lessons was our patterns, pad work and endurance. We did many different kicks and drills sometimes even practicing doing kicks while on benches to practice our balance and control. Most of the time I practice retraction, control and being able to chain different kicks and punches together, while also working on my breathing. For me at least it doesn’t matter how much power you can output if you can’t retract quickly enough after all if you miss your kick. We then tend to finish each lesson with a quick theory quiz or a reaction test.

Preparing for Grading:

As the year continues we begin to get closer to my next grading where I will be grading for a yellow belt. If I pass I will then be able to start learning dan-gun, my last grading went rather well but I felt as though it was quite easy and relaxed rather than what I was expecting. However, some things have happened recently and our gradings are going to change soon and become harder than before.

Things that are changing:

• The amount of theory that we are going to be asked is going to be increased
• Everyone at every grade will have to do some type of sparing(from green belt you will do contact sparing)
• From Green Belt up there will be a spirit test

My grading will take place in the upcoming month so it is coming up.

Week Three:

Week three was focused on free sparing and how to get around our opponent’s guard. For me, this type of lesson was incredibly useful as getting around guards is important in a match as you are not allowed (for obvious reasons) to hit them in the back of the head or below the legs, and each hit has to be controlled not full power. So for me getting around your opponent’s guard is a crucial thing to be practicing.

Week Four:

In week four we will be focusing on balance, patterns, pad work, and control. For me, control and pad work are incredibly important and personally, two of my favourite things to practice, as I believe that they are really important and crucial to improving at Tae Kwon Do.

Bojutsu:

Our Teacher is about to start to teach us the BO staff as well as Tae Kwon Do, this will be a great experience as I love the BO staff and JO Staff so I would love to learn it.

World Championship:

Both I and my Dad have been invited to compete in the World Championship that will take place on the 22nd of March while we may not win anything we both believe that it will be a good experience to contend in a world championship tournament.

Thank you for following me on my journey to Tae Kwon Do, I hope you enjoy it and catch you in the next one.