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View A Class
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All classes at London Taekwondo follow a structured training session that can easily be taught to a beginner student through to the more advanced practitioner. Using correct warm up and cool down exercises the techniques of Taekwondo can then be practised both effectively and safely, without the fear of injuries.
Training sessions are adapted every lesson, so no class is ever the same, making Taekwondo enjoyable and fun to learn. Fundamental drills are performed relating to the grade of the student, meaning all skill levels can work together to the instructors command.
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This section describes the different stages of a typical 1-½ hour Taekwondo class, including an overview of some of the main areas of Taekwondo. The stages between warm-ups and cool-downs may differ.
Warm Up
The main effect of the warm-up is to raise body temperature including, of course, muscle temperature. It also prepares you for more strenuous exercise by speeding up your heart rate and increasing your metabolic rate so that energy is released faster.
An active warm-up will divert some of your blood supply to the active muscles so that fuel and oxygen get to them more quickly. It will reduce placing any unnecessary stress on your heart and make your muscles more flexible and elastic, exactly what will be required for the kicking and punching techniques that are to follow.
It will also prepare you mentally for the exercise to follow, increasing alertness and speeding up the nerve impulses to your muscles and the speed at which messages travel from your brain to your muscles.
It is particularly important for those new to exercise and Taekwondo that the warm up exercises and fitness training are set at the correct levels. This will ensure the student’s level of fitness can develop and will increase their enjoyment of Taekwondo training.
Fitness Training
In the first section of the class, fitness training will be incorporated into the warm up. Once the body is warm enough, specific exercises will be introduced to increase the student’s cardiovascular endurance, needed in maintaining a healthy heart and giving the student extra energy to develop their Taekwondo skills.
A variety of resistance exercises will be included using the students own body weight. This will increase lean muscle tone and improve the practitioner’s power when performing kicking and punching drills.
Plyometric’s (Developing Power, Acceleration and Jump Height) is used in the training of many different sports and is very important in most dynamic martial arts styles. This type of fitness training improves the ability to accelerate of the mark, jump to gain height or distance and move with power. It is also an excellent fat burner as it increases the heart rate, using short bursts that can actually have a longer fat burning effect after exercising, than some longer aerobic training methods.
Dynamic flexibility is increased using safe and effective stretches to prepare the body for using its full range of movement. This aids in keeping joints mobile and helps protect us against overstretching whilst training.
Fundamental Exercises
Once the warm-up and fitness training section is over the different areas of Taekwondo can begin. Fundamental exercises break down the vast amount of the blocks, strikes and kicking techniques, so the student can practice them to build up their foundation of Taekwondo techniques. It allows the instructor to demonstrate, teach and correct the student’s movements.
Through practice of these movements the student can then begin to perform them correctly within Patterns and Sparring. As the beginner student starts with the basic foundation and learns more Taekwondo techniques, they can grade up through the rank system from white belt to black belt.
The object of these drills is to give the student clear purpose, principle method and logical procedure of exercise of each fundamental movement. These sequences can be practised outside of the training hall to improve the student’s skills and ability.
Pad work
This is where training aids such as focus pads, padded air-shields and punch bags can be used. This is a fun and effect way to practise the Taekwondo kicks and punches the student has been learning on an actual target. It develops great focus and timing, as well as improving power and fitness levels.
It is usually performed as partner work, so the students can develop their Taekwondo skills together. As their abilities improve, more new and exciting combinations can start to be threaded together. The use of pad work allows the student to practise combinations that can then be applied in sparring or self defence situations.
As sparring is semi to light contact it also allows the practitioner to use full power on the heavier pads. This will ensure the techniques are working and being performed correctly for the use of self-defence.
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Sparring
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Sparring is the physical application of attack and defence techniques gained from Pattern and Fundamental Exercise against an actual moving opponent. It is indispensable in promoting the fighting spirit needed to read the opponents tactics and manoeuvres and develops the student’s own skill in attacking and blocking.
There are a variety of different levels of sparring dependant on the student’s grade and level of progression. The beginner student will learn pre-arranged sparring
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to familiarize using the correct attack and defensive techniques with a partner. Again, the student’s progression and level will depend on the type of pre-arranged sparring they practise.
The next step up is semi-free sparring, which allows a bit more freedom of techniques, but still follows some pre-arranged protocol. Once this has been mastered and the student’s skill level and control of technique has been achieved, free sparring can be practised. This involves light continuous sparring between students trying to score techniques from kicking and punching combinations they have practised.
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Patterns
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Patterns are various fundamental movements, most of which represent either attack or defence techniques, set to a fixed or logical sequence. The student systematically deals with several imaginary opponents under various assumptions, using every available attacking and blocking tool from different directions.
Pattern practise enables student’s to go through many fundamental movements in series, developing sparring techniques, mastering body shifting, building muscle and breath control, as well as developing smooth and fluid movements.
There are 24 Patterns to learn and each are taught as
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the student progresses up through the belt ranking system. The 24 patterns represent 24 hours in a day, which interprets to the life of a human being, in that although we may live for 100 years, this can be considered as a day when compared to eternity.
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Destruction
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Power tests are used to demonstrate an advanced students skill in delivering certain Taekwondo technique’s. Re-breakable special boards are usually used when the student is ready to try out the power he or she has gained from their practise in Taekwondo.
Special forging and strengthening exercises will have been taught and practised regularly before the student can move up to this area of the martial art. These exercises will also
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develop the human body parts into “human weapons” for self defence situations.
Breaking is also popular in demonstrations using a variety of different materials from pieces of wood through to household bricks for the experts of the art.
Stretching
At the end of a class and outside of a class is usually the best time to develop flexibility. Developmental stretches are very different to the sort of active stretches used in the warm up section. These stretches require slow sustained movements, which gradually place the muscle into a lengthened position. They tend to be passive stretches, involving the use of an external force such as gravity or other body parts.
From following the structured training given at London Taekwondo and the regular practice of this type of stretching, the student will see increased flexibility and achieve a better range of movement.
It is a common myth that flexibility is inborn, like strength and endurance training, it can be brought to high levels by anybody and at any time in ones life, through simply following a regular stretching programme.
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