Taekwon-Do School Programmes

The experience gained over a number of years as co-instructor of the juniors at Miramar provided me with a good understanding of teaching and motivating children and perceiving what works and what doesn’t.

This knowledge, combined with a personal desire to support the development of our children’s health, well-being and safety, motivated me to accept a request to develop and facilitate a number of primary and secondary school Taekwon-Do programmes on behalf of ITFNZ and the Miramar School.

As part of the annual curriculum, many schools co-ordinate programmes of weekly sports or community activities to provide exposure to the diversity of activities that are available to our youth today. Taekwon-Do is one such activity, and I suggest it offers quite a number of positive aspects to children’s development and wellbeing – the obvious being improved personal awareness, confidence and safety.

Mr Brunton sets some basic ground rules for a group of school pupils.

Increasing numbers of younger students within the dojang suggest that parents and perhaps children themselves are recognising the changing world and subsequent increase in negative, anti-social and violent behaviour in society today.

As many children or potential students have never considered or had exposure to a martial art, let alone commit to an ongoing training regime, the offer to bring Taekwon-Do into the school environment is a positive initiative… and extremely well received, judging by student and teacher feedback to date.

I continue to be impressed, motivated and rewarded by the results and development achievable in six weekly one and a half hour sessions. All students’ abilities are catered for and considered; a recent programme included a young lady with autism. This young lady was truly spirited in her personal development – no less than any other participant in my view.

As an aside, I was recently asked by an autism support group to facilitate holiday programmes for youth with this ailment. I understand that a recent study and book on autism recommends Taekwon-Do specifically for the teaching and learning approach, and that the author has personal experience or knowledge of benefits and improvement.

Class numbers generally consist of 20 to 30 students. This is manageable, as I have conducted the majority of the session by myself. At times a number of senior club members supported me, which also provides excellent opportunities for their personal Taekwon-Do teaching development.

There are some challenges and aspects that need to be considered when conducting Taekwon-Do sessions in a less formal school environment than within the dojang. These include:

• actual programme session content, emphasising fun
• balance of formality
• philosophical content
• appreciating different motivators for students to select Taekwon-Do
• girls and boys often appear to be reluctant to work with or touch the opposite gender.

…and yes, there have been a few “naughty” students, who I manage by firmly expressing my expectations.

They may not be the best kicks in the world yet, but these students are having a great deal of fun!

Experience to date suggests utilising a diversity of activities within each session. Favourite activities to date seem to include pad work, flying kicks and (controlled) sparring. I take club sparring gear for the last session to provide a pseudo real opportunity to go “one on one”, which also appears to be a frequently requested highlight. I introduced activities utilising balloons and other common items, and I teach less onerous challenges for the primary school market, where students are younger.

Recently, I focused on teaching everyone to try to perfect a flying 360° turning “tornado” kick as the personal challenge

element of the programme objective. Albeit a challenging kick, most students achieve a really good and personally satisfying result by the final session and probably don’t realise they have combined a number of fundamentals into one quite challenging technique.

The participation certificate I hand out at the end of the programme is also well-received. I ensured that the certificate is professional (glossy photo paper) and includes the school logo as well as ITFNZ branding and contact details (0800 800 495 and web-site address) by incorporating the ITFNZ A3 poster graphic.

As a result of this exposure, we have been invited to perform demonstrations at school fairs and other events. A number of current ITFNZ students were motivated to try out and join a Taekwon-Do club after participating in school programs or having watched one of the demonstrations performed by club members.

I always look forward to the sessions and have certainly enjoyed the participation to date. I recommend that we all consider this sphere of opportunity.