Future Events- As this year progresses, there are still a few opportunities for travel with Axe Taekwon Do.  Listed to the right are the upcoming events our organization plans to participate in for the rest of this year.  All students are able and encouraged to attend any and all events they can.  Axe TKD only participates in sanctioned USTF events which follow strict guidelines to ensure the safety of all. 

Next Promotion Testing- The next testing will be at the Youth Center on Saturday, August 17th.  Promotion testing will begin at 1230 and should end by 4pm.  Those who are eligible to test will be closely observed to determine if they will be permitted to test.  Mr. Bushor will pass out testing forms to those who are ready!  Remember:  although class is two times a week, students are encouraged to practice what they have learned outside of class in order to progress quickly.  Those who do the minimum may take longer to test than normal testing cycle.  It is never appropriate for you to ask if or when you will be testing.  When the instructor feels you are ready to test, he will let you know, until then just keep working on improving youself and your Taekwon Do.

School- School will be starting soon and along with that comes homework and extracurricular activities. If you know you will be missing any amount of TKD classes please let one of the instructors know.

Tournaments-  We have three tournaments before the end of the year! First is Casper, WY hosted by Sr. Master Martin. We will leave on Friday and return Sunday. This is an 11 hour drive. Second is Kirksville, MO hosted by Sr. Master Stephenson. We will leave Friday afternoon and return Saturday after the tournament. The drive time is 5 hours. Third is Denver, CO hosted by Sr. Grand Master Sereff. We will leave Saturday and return Monday. This is an 8 hour drive. We encourage everyone to attend whether you are competing, refereeing, or supporting Axe TKD students. They make an effort to come to our tournament so we should try and do the same for their tournament. Also, we can chaperone any student who wants to go, but as always, parents are welcomed to travel with us. 

Motivation:  By Master Todd – Do you have a rough time staying motivated (or motivating your child) to attend class or stick with it?  Taekwon-Do is not like other sports or school activities.  There are no off seasons or time off.  However, schedules are pretty easy to work around, classes are Tuesday and Thursday.  We have tournaments and courses we can attend for motivation.  So how do you stay motivated?  I have been training for 30 years now.  My last vacation I missed 3 classes and yes that was rough for me, once I took off 4 classes!   Time away isn’t always bad as sometimes people need time for family etc., however, too much time away is bad.  Students find that it’s easier to sit at home and watch TV or hang out with friends, play on the internet, chat on Facebook, or whatever.  None of these extra circular activities can give you what Taekwon-Do does.  Attending class on a regular basis will allow you to become better at the martial arts.  It will build self-confidence and if you train hard, it will develop your mind and body to be stronger.  Often when a student quits it follows the same cycle.   First, they start having trouble remembering patterns or certain techniques, then they complain that we don’t work on something (like sparring) enough, then they start missing classes, and finally quit.  These students rarely return.  Class instruction is cyclic which means we eventually cover all aspects of Taekwon-Do.  Remember in a one hour class we can’t possibly cover all topics such as hand techniques, kicking, flying kicks, step sparring, sparring, patterns, breaking, self-defense, and history.  However we do try to cover everything.  This is one of the reasons that students (especially black belts) should attend more than just 2 hours of class per week.

Are you frustrated that you can’t spar well?  Sparring, remember is not self-defense.  Being able to defend yourself is more important.  Sparring is just a game of tag, who is faster and smarter, who can think faster.  Sparring follows a cycle of first being scared (except guys say they are never scared), then not being able to block anything, flinching and closing your eyes.  Then you finally learn to keep your hands up and block a few things.  Then you start to see what you should have done, but typically you aren’t fast enough to react.  Then finally blocking a few techniques and/or countering, to finally being able to anticipate the way your opponent will move and blocking striking them with ease.  This is not an easy process.  It’s filled with bumps and bruises, tournaments, many losses, and frustration.  We all go through that.  You can choose to either give up and have an excuse, or you can just stick with it and get as good as you can.  The anticipation and counter attack does help for self-defense but sparing is only one aspect of Taekwon-Do.  There are over 3000 techniques in Taekwon-Do and we are limited by rules and safety to using less than probably 20 techniques.  In reality you need to concentrate on about 5-7 techniques and master them.  I trained to the point that people knew what I was going to throw but it didn’t matter as I had polished about 5 techniques to be able to hit at will.  I am not bragging, just sharing what worked for me.  I also concentrated on blocking.  I loved when sparing (win or lose) if I could leave the competition without actually being hit.  Yes in competition you will have points scored against you that never hit you, but you actually know if you are hit or not.  Concentrate on blocking, not taking the hit to the body or arms, but blocking!

There are many things you can get out of Taekwon-Do if you remain motivated and train hard.  Not just show up at class for the social aspect. This is the same as many things in life, you will get out of it what you put into it.  Don’t focus on anyone else except yourself.  Judge what you could do last week, month or year against what you can do today.  Are you getting better?  I can tell you, but deep down you will know.  If you are not getting better, are you really trying?  If yes, then see me and I can help you out of your slump.  We all get them (I hear).  I never needed the cheerleader speech to remain motivated.  I wanted to be Bruce Lee.  As you can see, I am not, but I push on, still trying.  I wish the same for you also—keep trying!