On a New Model For Taekwondo Schools

Taekwondo as a martial art, has been dying in the limelight recently. MMA has been grabbing a lot of attention, and to become good at MMA, one should probably practice Muy Thai and some kind of wrestling, Judo, or Juijutsu, or just tie them all together with Russian Sambo. Taekwondo is good training for people who want to have gymnastic like kicks, and most movie stuntmen or Martial Arts actors have some sort of Taekwondo training, but it would also be wise to learn some wu-shu for the fancy blocks an punches.

With all that said Taekwondo does have some benefits that might appeal to some niche consumers.

1. It isn't as dangerous as other martial arts. This is a major bonus for parents who want to enroll their kids in a martial art, but who might worry about injuries or the potential for turning their kid into the school thug, which leads to the next part.

2. Taekwondo has moral codes that go along with it. Most martial arts do. Granted many of the things that kids have to memorize for their belt tests are a bit cheesy, but they aren't too harmful. (Different schools might have different sets of lists that students might have to memorize for their belt testings. I have heard of some schools that use them as a means to preach a sort of cult of personality for the instructor. Stay away from those schools, an instructor should let their resume speak for its self, also you should challenge your instructor for the meanings or some sort of explanation of what you are expected to regurgitate. Some schools are run by fanatics who might alter some sort of Confucian text to give high praise to a god or a country and actually try to brainwash their students.

3. Lastly Taekwondo is a good workout.

It is with this point that I would like to build a framework for a training style that looks at both Korean and American cultures to see where there is some overlap or to cut out something that doesn't work and replace it with something else.

Many people join Taekwondo gyms because they might seem like a nice way to loose a few pounds or at least get into shape. For some people though, loosing weight isn't going to be achieved mainly through exercising. In fact, joining a Taekwondo gym just might make people loose confidence in their weight loss goals. So I think that such schools should have libraries. Now included in each library, there should be three basic books for Taekwondo schools 1. The Art of War 2. the Book of Five Rings and 3. Moo Yea Dobo Tongji. These are the big three Chinese, Korean, and Japanese martial arts strategy books, so having them is just the foundation.

On top of that though, it might be wise to stock diet books that can be loaned out to students who might want to increase the effectiveness of their workout goals with a diet. Last Spring I tried a diet of my own. I went on the "Instinct Diet," for 2 weeks and lost 10 pounds. I still have the book and I am willing to try it again. I have a few problems with the book its self though. First it is too pop-psychology like. It makes a lot of claims with out any scientific citation. It was written by a woman who claims to be a scientist though, and she refers to her own research at a weight loss clinic extensively. The downside though is that a lot of the reference to her research doesn't explain a lot of things, but rather it seems to be more for self promotion. (Look I already bought the book, you did your part.)

Another drawback has to do with the fact that the book has a lot of cooking in it. That is good for people like me who make delicious food. For people who are hopeless in the kitchen, too bad. On the plus side though I found the diet to be really healthy. Normally I suffer from heart burn, and while I was on the diet, that was never an issue. Another bonus is the fact that the recipes in the book are really good, and I did manage to loose some weight.

Now this diet isn't for everybody, so a few diet books might fit well into the collection, there are others like the South Beach Diet, or the Adkins Diet. Whatever. I recommend stocking some of those books, reading them and then maybe a creative instructor could make a special weight loss curriculum for such students. I envisioned a system where in the first week of training (A special weight loss student) a student could keep a diet journal to write down all of the food that they eat in a week, and how much the food costs. They could review it with the instructor who can tailor a diet to their needs and check up on them when they come to class. The first two weeks of training wouldn't even involve any practice of techniques. Just a bunch of conditioning exercises to get the students into shape (and feel good, maybe some rope jumping, easy jogging, and a lot of easy stretching).

Now their are dangers to this. Said students and teachers should consult with physicians before doing this kind of thing, and the instructor has a responsibility not to make these students feel self conscious, but rather the training and dieting should be goal oriented, and both should realize that progress won't come over night, and it may not even come ever.

It should be also pointed out that most Buddhist monks who train Martial Arts in temples are all vegans. Temple food contains no meat, but it has a lot of vegetables and is incredibly healthy. So dieting has long been a part of martial arts anyways, and any instructor who can actually help their students feel better about their appearance can go a long ways towards boosting that student's confidence and can turn that person into a loyal customer, and good reference.