So now you're a Green Belt / Blue Belt

We, and other TKD schools, lose most students somewhere between green belt and blue belt. Why?

1. It gets harder;

• breaking gets more difficult e.g. reverse turning kicks
• you need leg and core strength to do a decent side kick in Won Hyo / Yul Gok / Joong Gun
  
• you need to demonstrate power in your patterns and speed/ agility in sparring
  

This all takes sustained effort, time, and will power.

2. People feel they’re not making progress;

• it takes longer between gradings
  
• you ‘learn’ a new pattern quickly, but still can’t grade
  
• it looks like people of lower grades are catching up with you
  

You are making progress - leg and core strength, flexibility, timing, power, agility, accuracy of targeting in set sparring and free sparring are improving week by week – but it’s subtle.

Lower grades may appear to be catching up but will also get stuck at green / blue stripe / blue belt.

Sometimes they really are catching up with you and may overtake you, (because they’re younger /older, more flexible etc), but so what?

Categories

All
Children
Etiquette
Fear
Fitness
Gaining A Belt
Grading
Humbling Lesson
Power

Stick with it, and one day, seemingly out of the blue, you'll smash that breaking technique, win that Gold, perfect that elusive technique, realise your own power...... and think 'Wow, where did that come from'