What's everyone's view on the TaeKwonDo LIFESTYLE?

[Master Law]

Hello all, I am definitely new to this forum, but definitely NOT new to this sport/lifestyle. I started at the age of 7 and am now 23 years of age, and currently a KukKiWon licensed 4th Degree black belt.

That being said, this is what I would like to hear from everyone: What does the TaeKwonDo lifestyle mean to you? Because of this lifestyle, what values do you now hold in high priority? How has TaeKwonDo changed the way you've acted? Are you just a sport practitioner, or do you take the art in full and embrace the values of TaeKwonDo?

I would like those of you that are posting to be really serious, none of this "TKD is cool cause I can learn to kick people" type of stuff.

 

[Gorilla]

It has helped shape the lives of my children!!! In a very positive way!!!! It is a part of them!

 

[ATC]

If you can incorporate the tenets you have a great start. As Gorilla has stated it is something that my kids also try to live by to make them better people.

 

[jthomas1600]

I'd say the TKD "lifestyle" is pretty much what you make of it. I don't think it's a magical thing, I don't see it as being much different than say "they boy scout lifestyle".

I agree with Gorilla though, it has had a positive influence on my kids. For me what it does is help re-enforce the ideals and principles we're already endeavoring to pass on to our kids.

I'm a mariner and am away from home for months at a time. Our instructor has become an extremely important role model for our kids, especially my 15 year old son.

 

[StudentCarl]

...none of this "TKD is cool cause I can learn to kick people" type of stuff.

Taekwondo is cool all by itself, but it really would be way less cool if I didn't get to kick people...so I can't agree with your exclusion.

For me, taekwondo is both a sport and a way of life. I like focusing on competition sparring (sometimes forms) as one aspect of my life...it's fun to "go" with people in the ring. I would like to win a national championship before I'm 60 (47 now), and that goal drives me beyond just kicking air and boards.

That said, sport is a subset of my world of tkd, though I don't find it incompatible with training to protect life. I try to live and teach the tenets and values daily, and I try to live what I would call the martial way--a life of discipline and balance while seeking to learn brutally effective combatives along with skills to avoid needing to get physical. TKD skills (outside of sport technique) are one part of my package of physical, mental and emotional skills. There is a great deal more to taekwondo than the sport world and the techniques it has evolved...if the dedicated student is willing to look.

Taekwondo, through training and the influence of my master, also makes me a better person and has led me to meet some excellent people who I look up to. I need role models too. Your growth shouldn't stop until you're pushing up daisies.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

TKD has become a catalyst for me improving many facets of my life. I originally did my 'first class free' because my 6 year old daughter was starting tkd and I thought if I did the first class with her it would help ease her into it. Now, several years later, Im a first degree black belt, I do a heap of excercise away from the dojang (mostly jogging) and I regularly stretch and I am conscience of what I eat. My whole lifestyle has become much more healthy and Im the fittest Ive ever been in my life which also coincides with me hitting my mid 30's so as most of my mates are getting 'beer guts' and putting on weight and eating poorly due to hectic lifestyle I am feeling the best I ever have. Technically tkd is only a small part of that but it is also the thing that spurs me on to be as fit and healthy and flexible as I can be because tkd is so much more fun when Im feeling good physically.

 

[Master Law]

Taekwondo is cool all by itself, but it really would be way less cool if I didn't get to kick people...so I can't agree with your exclusion.

For me, taekwondo is both a sport and a way of life. I like focusing on competition sparring (sometimes forms) as one aspect of my life...it's fun to "go" with people in the ring. I would like to win a national championship before I'm 60 (47 now), and that goal drives me beyond just kicking air and boards.

That said, sport is a subset of my world of tkd, though I don't find it incompatible with training to protect life. I try to live and teach the tenets and values daily, and I try to live what I would call the martial way--a life of discipline and balance while seeking to learn brutally effective combatives along with skills to avoid needing to get physical. TKD skills (outside of sport technique) are one part of my package of physical, mental and emotional skills. There is a great deal more to taekwondo than the sport world and the techniques it has evolved...if the dedicated student is willing to look.

Taekwondo, through training and the influence of my master, also makes me a better person and has led me to meet some excellent people who I look up to. I need role models too. Your growth shouldn't stop until you're pushing up daisies.

@StudentCarl, I didn't mean that kicking people is not cool, I just didn't want to see any immature answers... I came from another forum where the members were very immature and gave everyone really inappropriate answers. I have since left that forum and came here

This is exactly the type of response I was looking for. I wanted to see if people shared the same ideas that I have in terms of having TKD as a lifestyle. Those that practice any martial art, for that matter, have a different lifestyle than those that do not (obviously). The difference that really matters, to me, is where you live. For example, I live in Brooklyn. Those that know about Brooklyn, know about the violence and peer pressure, and persuasion into gangs that exists here. I teach with how I was taught, with a slight twist of how to defend and avoid confrontations in these rough neighborhoods. Because of TKD, I have developed a unique teaching style that fits into the environment that my students live in. I understand that TKD and our masters have influenced your children, but the type of response I was looking for was something along the lines of what it has done for you personally. I guess what I mean to say is, how were YOU taught from when you first started TKD? Because TKD is now a major sport, I feel that the old traditions and respect that come with TKD have been lost, and it saddens me.

 

[Master Law]

TKD has become a catalyst for me improving many facets of my life. I originally did my 'first class free' because my 6 year old daughter was starting tkd and I thought if I did the first class with her it would help ease her into it. Now, several years later, Im a first degree black belt, I do a heap of excercise away from the dojang (mostly jogging) and I regularly stretch and I am conscience of what I eat. My whole lifestyle has become much more healthy and Im the fittest Ive ever been in my life which also coincides with me hitting my mid 30's so as most of my mates are getting 'beer guts' and putting on weight and eating poorly due to hectic lifestyle I am feeling the best I ever have. Technically tkd is only a small part of that but it is also the thing that spurs me on to be as fit and healthy and flexible as I can be because tkd is so much more fun when Im feeling good physically.

Another great response.

 

[ETinCYQX]

Hello all, I am definitely new to this forum, but definitely NOT new to this sport/lifestyle. I started at the age of 7 and am now 23 years of age, and currently a KukKiWon licensed 4th Degree black belt.

That being said, this is what I would like to hear from everyone: What does the TaeKwonDo lifestyle mean to you? Because of this lifestyle, what values do you now hold in high priority? How has TaeKwonDo changed the way you've acted? Are you just a sport practitioner, or do you take the art in full and embrace the values of TaeKwonDo?

I would like those of you that are posting to be really serious, none of this "TKD is cool cause I can learn to kick people" type of stuff.

"Back in the day", it improved my self confidence and my attitude towards everything. It still does make me stand up a bit taller and walk with a little more confidence.

What has immensely improved my attitude and my confidence is adding Judo and getting more into MMA. It may be ridiculous but I have to say, having a "ground game" as well as a "striking game" boosts my confidence. It sounds juvenile, I know, but getting beat rolling hurts less if I think, "Man, I'd stack up better standing up.":ultracool. Training around 20h a week, it kind of does become more than a hobby, and trying to keep things closer to the "traditional style" of TKD is another part of that.

 

[StudentCarl]

I don't agree that they have been lost. I think sport TKD has offered fame and money, which has tempted some people to value that over honor and character. As always, it's the bad behavior that makes the news. At most tournaments, I believe and see that displays of good character and sportsmanship far outnumber the bad. I see some of the value of sport TKD as exposing people who need to work harder on living their tenets, just like it exposes people who need to work on their skills. All of sport has this value--that's a key reason parents want their kids in sports--it builds character.

It's one thing to talk about the tenets and correct behavior--it's clearly another to walk your talk when you just lost a match due to calls you disagree with and to a cocky opponent. Sport TKD is a test of your character as well as your skills. Character that is untested is like skills that are untested--there are many people whose confidence is built on unpressured training. There's an old military saying that "no plan survives the first shots in battle." Pressure changes the game.

Besides, depending on which books you read about the history of taekwondo, our history is not filled with masters whose behavior was always the best. Often, the good ones don't even like to be called master, as they recognize that they too are students on the path of growth.

 

[dancingalone]

Besides, depending on which books you read about the history of taekwondo, our history is not filled with masters whose behavior was always the best. Often, the good ones don't even like to be called master, as they recognize that they too are students on the path of growth.

I'm reading A Killing Art right now. My goodness, what a bunch of murderers, thugs, and thieves that have been at the very top of TKD!

 

[ETinCYQX]

I'm reading A Killing Art right now. My goodness, what a bunch of murderers, thugs, and thieves that have been at the very top of TKD!

That's how we do it.

It's interesting to find out how true the stereotype of the "bad *** martial artist" was at one point. Look at The Killing Art, or the original Kajukenbo guys in Hawaii who used to street fight after classes for example. For the most part we're all just professionals who happen to have this as a hobby now.

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

Taekwondo started me on my martial path and instilled the values that I now associate with the martial arts in general. Those values have certainly enhanced my life in non-martial areas as well.

Taekwondo practice has helped me to maintain my fitness into my forties, and hopefully well beyond. It has also allowed me to see an art in its relative infancy develop and change as time has gone by.

Daniel

 

[Balrog]

The majority of people start martial arts training as simply something to do. It's a sport, no different from baseball, basketball, etc. But after they stick with it and have been in for a while, there comes a change when it becomes more important than a sport. It escalates to a hobby and they are willing to put in more time and effort.

Then there are the few who go past that. There's even more of a change and it becomes a lifestyle. You live what you were taught and what you teach: honor, integrity, discipline, courtesy, loyalty, respect, perseverance. These people usually wind up becoming high-ranking masters of their chosen martial art.

Everyone places their own value on it. But given that the average person who starts martial arts training lasts less than six months at it, you can see how the ones who stick to it are rare birds indeed.

 

[ForeverStudent]

Taekwondo for me, is martial art. It's way to develop mind and body. It's art, skill, not just sport for me. Some people say that art is everything you do when you stop with your sport career. I enjoy practicing and perfectioning all of Taekwondo disciplines, five of them (tuls, sparring, breaking, self defense, and special tehniques), so as trying to live by 5 tenets of Taekwondo. I devoted myself to art, and my life changed so much since then. First time i made change in my mind to better, i started to respect what i do.

I even think some things are above the tehnique and fighting, like being good and lovefully person. I don't say someone shouldn't know tehnique, but ain't it inner what are we made of?

Even without any deeper views, Taekwondo is beautiful sport, and sport by itself leads to mental progression, if one want it.

I see so many people train, from childrens, to older people. Most of them are so good persons, sometimes i really found myself stunning in watching how much people gattered around this art, and they are good people, or on it's way.

Most of it started to happen in me when i lost interest for competitions. I started to lose reasons why do i train. It was few months after i becomed 1. degree. Then i was at the seminar by Master Parm Rai. After seminar my master, me, four more students, and Master Parm Rai was on the dinner. There Master Parm Rai talked few really emotionally stories about Taekwondo and about his life. It was so beautiful and touching experience! After meeting with him something waked up in me, i started to feel deeper and spiritual meanings related to Taekwondo, and since then i know, i will never stop doing this beautiful art which connects people and develops them.