Taekwondo Class, Taekwondo Lesson, Taekwondo… Seminar?!

Yes, that’s right. You read that correctly. Taekwondo seminars. They really do exist, but what are they like?

Last month I attended a taekwondo seminar. My first one, actually. This one was specifically for competitive Poomse, and it was incredible. Probably o e of the most intriguing, educational, and brutal classes I have ever had. It was absolutely worth it, and here’s why.

When someone begins their taekwondo journey, they often do so with their first lesson with their first instructor. There they learn the very basics. How to form a good fist, how to go into a fighting stance, possibly even how to do a front kick! As a students expands through their training, they go to countless classes. If they get involved enough, they go to competitions. That’s when the real fun begins.

These competitions, whether seen on video or seen live are incredible to watch. This seminar was no exception. Here I trained with the best for several hours during the weekend. In fact, it was probably one of the most intense workouts I’ve done since my 4th Dan black belt test. There is no way I could properly describe in detail what I learned at this seminar, so I will just give a synopsis of my perspective of just the first day and recommend that, if you want to enter competitions, you attend one of these.

When I arrived at the school, I arrived 30 minutes early. Reasonably, I thought I would be the first there, as I don’t particularly like to risk being late. How sorely wrong I was. When I walked into the dojang, the top floor of a building in Boston, I saw multiple athletes already dressed in their sharp, probably dry cleaned, competition doboks. Most of them were already warming up or stretching. Those who weren’t were chatting with people like they were old friends. I was very much the odd one out. As I walked up to the dressing room, I saw a friend of mine walk out. What a small world we’re in. We chatted very briefly before the instructor called us all to the mat.

As we walked onto the mat each of us habitually bowed towards the flags, as many of us had been trained to do since we started our taekwondo journey.

“Which of you are brave enough to line up front?” The coach said, I thought, jokingly. I, my 3 friends, and 3 other black belts lined up front on the mat. Again, almost habitually people typically fell into line by rank, followed by age, equidistant from each other, as we all seem to have done at our various schools. We just fell into place.

Our instructor, it turned out, was a very experienced taekwondo athlete, having won multiple sparring competitions before moving to poomsae. He had brought with him a few instructors, some of whom were national athletes themselves. After giving us a greeting and general introduction the instructor had us go to the back of the classroom and do warm ups. However, these weren’t just the typical laps.

After doing what one might consider routine laps, bear crawls, army crawls, and several other lap warmups, our instructor had us doing front snap kicks (the anglicized Korean term is “ap chaggi”). However, they weren’t just the general motion one might use in a sparring match or speed drill. Our instructor had us reviewing every single part of the front kick. From lifting the foot, to extending it extremely slowly. They weren’t focusing on every part, they were focusing on every muscle and joint. And I mean that literally. They talked extensively about the importance of hip rotations in proper leg lifts in front kicks.

After warming us up, stretching, and doing technique we were given a break to drink water and take a breath. I took it as an opportunity to get to know some of the people around me. As I went around I learned more about what it is like to be a professional poomsae athlete. Not only are they passionate about, they are often also quite knowledgeable. I learned from some of the more experienced athletes how much of their training focuses on flexibility and technique over simply knowing the form. Many of them were able to tell me what stretches they prefer to do for certain flexibility. In fact, a couple debates over this. I was quite impressed, and could really see how much devotion these athletes have for taekwondo.

After our longer break, we were divided into groups and we practiced our forms. The seminar was focused specifically on competition forms, so the instructors focused on the criteria which the judges would care about. Our instructors walked us through each specific technique to maximize performance. We only covered a couple of forms, but each detail was extremely helpful. In fact, I caught myself habitually covering the details when I later went to practice on my own.

After training ended that day, I felt very tired, quite sore, and extremely happy. This was only the first day and I was already excited about our next. When my friends asked me about it, I had a very hard time trying to keep my excitement down. How could I? I hadn’t felt this much exhilaration since my last black belt test! I had learned, and done, so much that day! I went to bed both tired and excited for the next day.

So, did I enjoy myself at this event? Well, if you read the article then you probably already know the answer. Yes! On top of learning so much and getting such extensive amounts of exercise, I also felt a significant amount of community and camaraderie. Though all of these people competed with one another, sometimes quite aggressively, they all came to training together as friends. They traded tips and training methods. Discussed the best way to help improve performance at competitions. They even chatted among eachother and talked about their progress in training. it was quite a shift from the focus and sportsmanship they portrayed on the mat!

This was an incredible event and I learned so much and grew as a black belt. I don't typically compete, but if I did I would consider these to be extremely helpful events.