Tae Kwon Do is more than a way of fighting and self-defense. It’s a way of life. What you learn will apply to everything else you do in life, in one way or another, particularly the tenants. This is what you will learn in class.

The first day:

You will learn the courtesy of the class: how and when to bow and how to line up, as in Introduction and Etiquette. One is not allowed to leave during class, for example to use the bathroom, except on an extended break, so you must prepare by using the bathroom, if you need to, before class. Of course, if you still must go, you must go, but you will have to do 10 pushups when you return, for each belt rank you have earned (10 for white belt, 20 for yellow belt, etc.).

You will learn some basic information about Tae Kwon Do:

• Tae Kwon Do is a Korean martial art. “Martial” means of or appropriate to war, so you are learning how to fight, chiefly unarmed, and how to defend yourself.
• Since the art is Korean, the class is taught with Korean language terms. You will learn the basic ones the first day, including attention (chah ryot), thank you (gah sah ham ne dah), and the names of some basic stances.
• You will learn a Tae Kwon Do yell, which is like saying “hi” using your stomach.
• The tenants, or principles which underlie, of Tae Kwon Do: courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, and indomitable spirit.

You will learn the proper way to make a Tae Kwon Do fist, with the thumb on top of the fingers. Then you will learn how to do a Tae Kwon Do punch, from the waist with the thumb pointing up and then the thumb pointing down on the strike, striking with the first two knuckles rather than the fingers. You will learn the first stance of attention (chah ryot), ready stance (joon be), and the horseback riding stance (ge mah suh ge), and then learn to punch from the horseback riding stance.

If you learn these things, you will learn the fighting stance (dah ryun joon be), and start learning the three basic kicks: front kick, roundhouse kick, and side kick.

More advanced

When you have learned the kicks well enough, you will learn the front stance (ahp suh ge), from which you will learn the low block, and to punch from the front stance. Then you will learn the side stance (hul gul suh ge), and the side block. All of these stances involve performing the proper footwork, which will take a lot of practice.

You will then have the building blocks for learning the basic pattern, or form (hyung) for white belts: Chun Ji Hyung. This involves performing 19 scripted techniques properly. If other students are also white belts, everyone doing their pattern at the same time should do each individual move synchronized with everyone else, so everyone does the same move at the same time.

As time allows, you will be taught some basic self-defense, such as how to escape someone grabbing your arm, with either arm or even both at once.

When you have learned your pattern enough so you can do the proper techniques in the proper order, you will be ready to test for yellow belt…if you have learned enough Korean terminology. Any or all of the following (in rough order of likelihood) might be asked during your test, and you must be ready to answer Korean to English, or English to Korean translations of all of them:

• Counting from 1 to 10 in Korean: hah nah, dool, set, net, dah sut, yah sut, il gop, yah dool, ah hope, yul
• Attention: chah ryot
• Front kick: ahp chug ee
• Side kick: yup chug ee
• Roundhouse kick: dol yu chug ee
• Punch: gey rug ee
• Ready stance: joon be
• Return to ready stance: bah ro
• Front stance: ahp suh ge
• Back stance (or side stance, or L-shaped stance): hul gul suh ge
• Thank you: gah sah ham ne dah
• Bow: gyun ayy
• Switch feet: bahl bah ko
• Turn around: dee doroh durah
• How are you? (said once to open class): ahn yung hah shim ne kah
• Flags: guk ayy
• Instructor: sah bum nim
• Judges: shim sah gwan nim

There is much more to learn and perfect, more kicks, more hand techniques, advanced self-defense, one-step sparring, and light contact sparring, to name some of it. Learning Tae Kwon Do is a journey that never ends, but has rewards along the way!