How to Choose the Right Taekwondo School for Yourself or Your Children

How to Choose the Right Taekwondo School for Yourself or Your Children

Taekwondo is practiced worldwide in over 120 countries, by millions of people from all ages and walks of life. The Korean national sport, is widely popular for a lot of things, some people love it as Olympic sport while others love to practice taekwondo because of it’s traditional values. Like many other forms of martial arts it can bring different benefits to different people.

If you want to start practicing taekwondo then you will have to join a taekwondo school. The school you choose to join will have a great impact on the training’s effects for you. For this reason you should consider first what your needs are, or maybe you just want to sign your kids up, either way you should ask yourself why? Are you looking for fitness, self defense or self improvement?

Once you are clear about who is going the train and why, you need to check out some schools. Observe the other students and the instructors, chances are that if there are people that fit your own profile then the school will be ok for you. So far so good, now try to notice what the school is focusing on with its training. You can tell for example if the students are practicing maneuvers for self defense or if it is competition type of training. Also you can find out if they are all about child or adult training.

Overall you need to keep in mind that it’s not enough just to take a short look, you can make a better opinion of the matter if you talk to some students or ask the instructor some questions. After you can compare some schools you will be able to choose the one who has the perfect mix for you.

It’s very important to choose a good school but it’s not the whole of the matter. Another very important aspect of taekwondo training is having an instructor who can motivate you and relate to you. The instructor who is going to work with you or your child should have experience. Take a look at his teaching style, what’s his attitude towards training? How does the instructor interact with students?

Remember, each training group should have a single instructor for an extended period because you will develop a long term relationship between you and your instructor. Taekwondo training works best when you are the most comfortable doing it – for the rest: practice makes perfect!

Markku Parviainen
www.markkuparviainen.com
www.ledarskapsakademi.com

Markku Parviainen has studied Taekwondo (WTF) over 30 years and was member of Finnish national team for 10 years. He has a Coaching degree from the Finnish sport institute and has coached the Finnish junior national team. He competed in over 100 tournaments and his best results were a Bronze medal in the European championship and numerous national and Nordic titles. His students have received medals in World championships and European championship games. Currently he lives with his family in Sweden and runs his Taekwondo School in the city of Gothenbourg.

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