Taekwondo as a Parent – week 1

What I Did

I joined Taekwondo last week, at age 39. My five year old has been obsessed with learning a martial art. I figured that it would be a good activity to share.

Some Other Observations

Picking up something new is not necessarily an optimal thing for me. I have a tendency to do everything with diligence and substantial consideration. I also already have a metric ton of other hobbies I balance perilously: endurance cycling, distance running, guitar, bass, Japanese, keeping up on my Spanish conversation skills, product research, data analytics, etc.

The Background Research

I did a more-than-negligible amount of research to decide on the martial arts discipline. My main limitation was geographical area and kid-friendliness. There was also a small lean toward Japanese, given that I’m pretty comfortable with the language. I initially was leaning toward the local aikido and kendo dojo, but the program wasn’t necessarily all-ages. I think the one nearby also leaned quite old — I had a friend in high school who constantly commented that keno was an “old man sport.” It was hard to eliminate these options; I always wanted to try out the hakama and wooden sword combo. I think my son would have really cottoned to weapon-based combat.

After that, I did a search for judo and karate. Karate always struck me as a vanilla option, but research showed that it’s still a good core option for children starting in martial arts. After reading up on judo, I really leaned toward it. The angle toward throws over striking helps with muscle development (something I want) and de-emphasized punches and kicks (something that I wanted for my young son). But, alas, the dojo hours were weird and it looked a little too intense for a small child.

From there, my options were capoeira and taekwondo. My son had absolutely zero interest in Brazilian dance-fighting contrary to my wife’s wishes. So we went with good-old Korean taekwondo, and it turned out to be a good choice.

How It Went

We started last Saturday and the event felt like an old school Boy Scout meeting at the local dojang. Line up, salute the flags, bow to the master, stand at the ready position, and then off to the races. In a way, the actual taekwondo movements felt like fencing, but with your feet. There was a fluidity that felt eerily similar to the back-and-forth dance you do with the foil, épée, or saber. It does seem very true to say that your foot strikes stand in for your sword — forcing your opponents to keep their distance with your feet with well timed strikes.

Anyway, Saturday morning was an all-ages session, so we trained together. I took him back on Monday for the kids-only session and he did that also. My son seemed to gain more energy each time. He enjoyed every second of the Monday session and I noticed he picked up on the striking patterns pretty quickly. After the session, I gave him a few packs of new Pokemon cards (not as a reward; just as a hobby that I enjoy with him) and we opened them up at home.

I am planning on an adults-only session tomorrow. Do I hate being a 39 year old white belt? Nah. I normally have a sense of inner embarrassment that I don’t carry expertise in something I’m interested in. It’s my personal driver. But in this case, I’m just going to relax and enjoy the process. I’m not going to push myself or my son beyond what the situation demands. We’ll just let the learning process play out this time.

I will definitely need to learn to count to ten in Korean over the next few weeks, plus:

• Chon Ji
• Two step sparring
• low block in walking stance
• high block in walking stance
• middle block in L stance
• middle punch in walking stance
• front kick (rear leg and skipping)
• front turning kick (rear leg and skipping)
• step behind side kick (board break)

Ah see, now I’m already pushing myself. I’ll make sure to not overload my son, and just let him pick up abilities at his natural pace. Best not to let a hobby turn into something more serious until he’s old enough to decide that.

HANA! DUL! SET!