Learning an art takes time.

TaeKwonDo is a fun, exciting and challenging martial art, but like any art form worth learning, it takes time to become proficient. Many schools rush the students and don’t teach proper techniques, stances or pivoting and give parent’s falsehoods, playing to the parental instinct of feeling their child is better than the rest.  These schools test the students monthly or sell parents the “upgraded” courses and unnecessary privates.  Even with all these costly privates, they don’t teach the students properly. To ATC, this is just a shame and not professional.

ATC normally does not charge for private classes.  We are happy to assist you after class and we don’t push private classes. ATC only charges for privates if a student has been missing classes or needs the extra assistance in cleaning up his/her techniques for competitions.  Private classes do not give you a testing advantage over other students, they just give you technical improvement at higher levels.

In martial arts, as with dance, painting and music, only time will tell who the best is. The student that has the best technique today and quits tomorrow will be surpassed by the student that never gives up. Remember, most parents who walks in the door thinks their child is special and the best, and even though ATC feels that everyone who enters the Dojang is special, only  a parent’s dedication in bringing his/ her child/children to class will develop a student’s real talent.

In the old days, testing every 2 months was okay, especially since students practiced 2-3 hours per day, 4 to 6 days per week.  In today’s world, many martial arts schools have turned to the “you will accelerate quicker with the private” pitch to make income at the cost of principle and good technique.

ATC feels that testing every month is ridiculous and too accelerated to balance the student’s techniques, which does not benefit the student; this is why ATC schools test every 3 months. This is a balanced time and waiting longer than 3 months does not benefit the student in his/her training either as a loss of motivation may occur.

When a TaeKwonDo student advances to the next belt level, this shows they can perform the techniques at a basic level. As students progress through the TaeKwonDo belt system, they will continue improving until they reach Black Belt which only signifies they have mastered TaeKwonDo basics and are ready to start learning the true meaning and advanced techniques of the martial art.

If you are just looking to slide through to Black Belt or are looking for a school that will give you Black Belt in one year after 50 classes, then you are not learning martial arts, but only are buying a belt. If you are just looking to hang a belt in the closet to get dusty, it is a waste of knowledge and time, so don’t throw away your invested monies, just go buy a Black Belt for $20.00.

Don’t be confused, to earn a Black Belt takes time… about 3 to 5 years depending on your time and effort invested. The accomplishment is not the end, but the beginning of a student’s training, since there are 10 levels of Black Belt which are called Dans or Degrees.

ATC students are not just graded on good techniques, but are graded on strong character, confidence, control, inner strength, power, speed, forms, self defense, superior academics, etiquettes, manners, and a winning attitude, all which take time to improve and master.

To learn TaeKwonDo or any other martial arts with out these aspects means you are not learning the art form, you are just learning a sport. In that case, you just need to learn 3 kicks and make them fast, and you can compete. That is why at some schools they hand out Black Belts like candy and end up harming the students in the long-run.

“Anything worth learning takes time.”