Translated, Taekwondo means "The Art of the Hand and Foot," and originally comes from Korea, where it is still practiced as a national sport. Taekwondo is an exciting and powerful martial art known for its dynamic kicking and hand techniques. Taekwondo is also one of the world's newest martial arts, formally getting its name in 1953. Its roots, however, are based on techniques tested for thousands of years. Martial arts techniques provide training of both the body and the mind toward the goals of physical fitness, self-defense, self-control, and self-realization.
The focus has remained the same throughout the years -- to provide students the highest quality martial arts instruction available in a safe and positive learning environment that people of all ages can enjoy. Our instructors combine excellent student instructor ratios with state of the art training facilities and methods.
Today there are hundreds of thousands of Americans studying Taekwondo. The American Taekwondo Association (ATA) is the heart of this martial art. The ATA is Taekwondo's quality control, providing instructor training, belt rank testing, and supervision of competitive contests. We are proud to be an accredited member of the ATA family. Founded over 35 years ago, and having trained more than 150,000 men, women, and children, the ATA is the parent company to more than 1000 schools in the United States alone. One of the many advantages of the ATA is that all of its member schools teach the Songahm style of Taekwondo uniformly throughout the organization. Therefore, if you are taking classes in one state and then move to another, you can retain your rank and continue your training from where you left off.
WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM TAEKWONDO?
Who can benefit from Taekwondo training? Everyone can! The ATA has practicing students from three years old into their seventies and also has the largest number of active women black belts of any martial arts organization in the world. Taekwondo offers something that no other sport can. It's a "learning style" athletic activity that develops a combination of balance, coordination, and flexibility while instilling a sense of self discipline that can carry over into all aspects of life.
As we age our flexibility and agility often tends to decrease. This decreased level of flexibility can have a negative effect on the activities we do or the style of life we lead. When people first see Taekwondo techniques, they are fascinated by the strong, high kicks, often over their heads. Not everyone can achieve super flexibility but the flexibility gained by practicing Taekwondo techniques can benefit anyone no matter what age they start. So why has Taekwondo grown so popular? Because it's a comprehensive martial art that can benefit anyone and help them meet their own individual goals.
LEARNING THE TECHNIQUES
The principles of Taekwondo technique are based on the design of your body. For power, you develop the larger, powerful muscles of the torso. The speed of the techniques come from the fast, agile muscles of the arms and legs. When you learn to coordinate this speed and power through your smallest muscles, you can develop the concentration to focus all of your body's strength into a small, hard striking surface like the edge of the hand or the heel of your foot. When you have mastered this "Focusing" of your strength, the idea of shattering boards becomes quite real. When used in a self-defense situation against the soft and vulnerable parts of an attacker's body, this power can be incredible. Knowing how you can use these techniques to defend yourself, your self-confidence and self-disciple will grow and can carry over to all aspects of your life.
WHAT CAN TAEKWONDO PROVIDE FOR YOU?
By using developed proven teaching methods that will not only help you learn the art of self-defense quickly and easily, but also provides a wide range of other exciting benefits for students of all ages and abilities. We realize that each student possesses different physical abilities. Size and strength vary with each individual. However, once you have acquired a strong foundation in Taekwondo basics, our program will enhance your physical capabilities and maximize your self-defense skills. We train our students to the best of their abilities. All that is expected of you is a willingness to try.
Physical Benefits:
• Improved Reflexes and Coordination increase performance in all physical activities
• Increased Strength and Stamina boost energy, so you feel great all day
• Increased Flexibility & Weight Control for better overall fitness
• Great Cardiovascular Work Out keeps you in good shape physically
Mental Benefits:
• Improved Concentration for better work and study habits
• Stress Reduction & Increased Levels of Relaxation for a longer, healthier life
• The Peace of Mind that comes from knowing that you are able to Protect Yourself & Your Family
• Increased Self Confidence & Self Discipline to develop a positive attitude toward life
We are not interested in just teaching self defense, we are interested in the complete personal development of each student. Individual attention is a feature of each and every class, allowing all students to progress quickly and confidently toward their personal goals.
BELT RANKING, YELLING, AND DISCIPLINE
Your first visit to our ATA Black Belt Academy will show you many things that may be new to you. Taekwondo is a martial art with time honored traditions. Each class begins and ends with a bow. This bow, often combined with an American-style handshake, is simply a courtesy and a nice remembrance of the homeland of our martial art. Each student wears a clean, white uniform; its cleanliness reminds us to come to class with a clean, clear mind that is ready to learn. Around the waist, each student wears a colored belt. The white belt of the beginner indicates that the student is like a blank sheet of paper, ready to record new knowledge of Taekwondo. As students progress in knowledge, the color of the belt gets progressively darker: orange, yellow, camouflage, green, purple, blue, brown, red, red/black and finally black. However, although earning Black Belt is a major goal, it is not the final objective. At Black Belt is where you really start to learn, somewhat like going to college.
As you watch the class, you'll no doubt hear many of the famous martial arts yells, called kihaps. These yells have several purposes. In addition to distracting an opponent, the kihap gets you excited. This combination, together with the strength-building effect of increasing your adrenaline level, greatly increases the effectiveness of your techniques. After all, yelling is probably the world's most popular form of defense - just ask any ten year old who has been caught with a hand in the cookie jar!
One of the more subtle things you'll notice is the air of dignity and discipline in a class. The discipline of the practice is what makes it safe. When students maintain constant respect for each other, there is little danger that anyone will get hurt in practice.
SPECIAL PROGRAMS
The ATA Black Belt Academy offers a variety of specialty programs to provide the most complete martial arts training available:
* Individual Instruction: The ATA Black Belt Academy provides individual instruction by appointment to all students. This allows students to improve and augment their skills in intensive one-on-one sessions.
* Weapons Training: The ATA Black Belt Academy also provides weapons training. While development of unarmed self-defense in our primary goal, weapons training provides improved upper body development, better hand-eye coordination, increased concentration and a great deal of challenge and fun. The use of weapons also provides a solid basis of how to disarm an armed attacker. The weapons included in our martial arts program include the single and double nunchaku (Ssahng Joel Bahng), single and double Escrima sticks (Bahng Mahng Ee), short staff (jo), midrange long staff, long range long staff (bo), hook cane, three sectional staff, kama, tonfa, sai and sword (ken).
GETTING STARTED
New beginners start class everyday. Each new student starts slowly and progresses at his or her own rate of speed. You should begin by attending at least twice per week, You may however, attend as often as you'd like each class lasts about an hour. Don't be concerned if you're out of shape or if the techniques look too difficult; there'll be other beginners like yourself in class. We really hope that you decide to join us. It was once said, "The hardest part of any journey is taking the first step." Congratulations, you have already taken it!
Click here to come by to try a FREE lesson! Whatever your reasons or goals, the ATA Black Belt Academy can help you to become physically and mentally fit. Start Your Training Today !
