Practicing taekwondo means embracing not just one type of martial art but also to embrace a way of life, a way of thought that will change you forever from the moment you step foot on the dojo for your first training lesson.
For a start one of the things you will learn is discipline. Not just during the training session but all through your life and you will need to be constant in your training, not just of taekwondo but also your physical training routines and sessions.
And to be in the best shape possible you know that exercise is part one, you need to have a healthy diet, and if you go into the competition you will need to sacrifice seeing your friends, your family and many things that your peers might be doing like going out to the movies for example.
Discipline also means paying attention to your trainers in order to achieve all your goals, both physical and mental.
Can everyone do it?
Technically the answer to that question should be yes, of course, one of the things that we have to analyze is that each person has its own personality and it’s own capacities.
Taekwondo will put it all to the test but one key element is that you must not guide yourself based on the pace of others, this is critical, one might be more skillful than someone else and might advance faster, as well as there will be someone slower than you that will not advance as fast as you do.
Trainers have the job of determining the pace each of their students has, the level of skill the poses and prepare their training accordingly, that way students will be able to advance in taekwondo without the strain of comparing themselves to others.
Also, trainers need to evaluate their new students in order to see how much they can be pressured and how they handle it. Let us not forget that the more you advance, the more you will need to dominate and learn, and that means your mind and your body need to be ready to undertake the strain.
And this is very important. A trainer needs to be able to know the limits of the bodies of each of its students in order to avoid injuries, especially when performing stretching routines.
Not everyone can stretch at the same pace and length so it is very important for a trainer to make sure that nobody gets injured.
As a student one needs to be realistic in one’s physical limitations and never, ever, try to push further than one can do it. Consistency in exercise will take you the length but you need to be patient in order to achieve the desired goal.
Taekwondo is a beautiful martial art that anyone can learn if they are willing to put their mind and body to the max, but at the same time, know that to reach the goal you need to know how to walk the road.