BEYOND BLACK BELT

What Happens After You Reach Black Belt? Most students of taekwondo feel that they must reach 1st degree Black Belt to reach their goals. Once they achieve this, what happens next? First, the student must realize what a 1st degree Black Belt means. This is just the first step on the ladder of improvement. The average first degree has only trained for three to five years. They have learned the basic Moves of taekwondo, been introduced to free sparring, demonstrated moderate power on at least their dominant side, and are able to focus and concentrate well enough to effect change in their technique. They have learned thirteen of the possible twenty-nine patterns with the addition of three more at 1st Degree Decided, but are finding that each of the patterns present a much higher degree of difficulty than those previously learned.

Clearly, there is much more to learn, and Choong-Sil makes this a part of the philosophy by emphasizing the resetting of new goals upon reaching prior goals.

Choong-Sil Taekwondo offers several different avenues for continuing improvement. Some students may wish to continue training for higher ranks, others may just wish to maintain their skills and physical conditioning without continuing to move up in rank, and others may wish to train to be instructors. Competition at the Black Belt level is very rewarding to some. The CTF offers a variety of competition for its members. The CTF sponsors various regional tournaments throughout the year that are open only to CTF members. These tournaments culminate in November with the CTF National Championships. Black Belts may accumulate points in the regional tournaments that may allow them to qualify for the National Championship Jackets. These tournaments offer our students of all ages and rank the opportunity to compete in forms. Green belts and above may compete in sparring, and adult red and black belts in board breaking competitions.

All Black Belts should set lifetime goals for physical fitness, improved technique, and significant mental achievement.

Those who seek to help others by becoming instructors will find that they rapidly develop their own technique as well as their teaching and human interaction skills. Those of you who stood in front of a class to show your pattern understand that you always must demonstrate your very best technique because others are watching you and making you their example. This is a very strong motivator for personal improvement. Learning to be a good instructor also means developing leadership skills and the ability to deal with many different types of people.