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Authentic Tae Kown Do's New Philosophy of TaeKwonDo Practice as the "Experience of Accomplishment."
Authentic Tae Kwon Do's Philosophy of Experience is intended to serve the vast majority of students whose fundamental interest is not in preparation for athletic competition but, rather, in the experience of progressive physical self-development in regular practice (two or three times a week) through to graduation as a black belt, in a reasonable, predictable period of time (about four years, like high school). We refer to the cumulative experience of accomplishment in practice, from white belt beginner to graduation as a black belt, as "A Course of Black Belt TaeKwonDo".
We believe that most students who begin TaeKwonDo do have the physical ability required to become competent black belts by strict WTF standards. But we believe that only a very small percentage of students posess the physical talents to advance as competitive athletes beyond friendly local tournaments. We further believe that only a very small percentage of students have a fundamental interest in competition, a competitive attitude that would sustain them in practice through to a black belt. But we also believe very strongly that most of the students who begin TaeKwonDo do have their own equally legitimate interest in the sport, a completely appropriate interest in an experience of extraordinary, individual, progressive physical accomplishment through regular, reasonably challenging practice, which will culminate in their becoming well-rounded, competent black belts in a predictable, reasonable period of time (about four years).
We believe that most TaeKwonDo students want two basic rewards for the time, effort and money they invest in TaeKwonDo practice. They want both an encouraging experience of physical self-development in every practice and the cumulative accomplishment of black belt expertise and status.
We believe that most TaeKwonDo students want a regular, progressive physical experience of successfully learning TaeKwonDo in practice that is not easy but that they believe they can continue to achieve,one regular practice after another, through reasonable hard work and concentration, with the individual help of their instructors. We also believe that most TaeKwonDo students want an experience of individual physical accomplishment, that is clear to see on a continuing basis (in practice), at regular levels (the coloured belt tests) and ultimately at graduation (the black belt test). At Authentic, we refer to serving this fundamental combination of our students' interests in both the physical experience of self-development in practice and the ultimate achievement of a black belt as A Philosophy of Experience in a Course of Black Belt TaeKwonDo.
But precisely because we do want to serve the true interests of all our students, we also encourage the ambitions of the small percentage of students who show interest in competitive advancement. Of course we continue providing them, like all our students, with the solid foundation of a full World TaeKwonDo Federation (WTF) sanctioned curriculum (all patterns, all skills). But we also provide these students with additional coaching for competition, competitive sparring practice and participation in safe, properly officiated, managed and supervised entry-level competition. That experience gives them sufficient exposure to the world of competitive TaeKwonDo that they can realistically consider what level of further commitment and achievement interests them. If a student wants to be regularly involved in competition and demonstrates a continuing serious interest in and commitment to competitive advancement, we introduce them to successful competitors and coaches for appropriate advice and guidance and further training.
There is another small group of students, called "special students", who are students with disabilities that prevent them from achieving strict WTF belt test requirements. In this essay we will not discuss the specialized instruction of these students, but TaeKwonDo classes for special students are already being offered in Toronto and we believe that their practice will succeed as an example of the philosophy of the experience of accomplishment. That philosophy inherently encourages these students to practice TaeKwonDo for their special interest in the experience of accomplishment, which, as for the vast majority of students' interests, are not to prepare for athletic competition.)
2.1. The WTF Curriculum
To provide our students with an experience of self-respect for honest accomplishment, we teach all students the full basic curriculum defined by the WTA and taught at the Kukkiwon. When students reach black belt, we expect them to be able to perform all eight patterns with confidence and to have achieved well-rounded competence in all areas of skill and strength. So we concentrate individual attention on students of every belt level to assure that their experience of that level is balanced and integrated. Otherwise a student can acquire an uneven competence with the various requirements of a lower belt, get to practice some requirements very well and others very poorly (or not at all) and always know thereafter, quite correctly, that their experience of higher-level practice is not what it could be or should be and therefore is not fully worthy of their own respect.
We focus on keeping each individual student's new foundation complete and rebalanced at every belt level. We want every student to accomplish an integrated, balanced competence of all patterns and skills at each belt level because we believe that all around competence at every belt level is fundamental, central, and absolutely necessary to progressing to legitimate black belt graduation. Further, we believe that without accomplishing that integrated, balanced competence at any given belt level, the student is likely to drop out within the next two (of ten, total) belt levels.
2.3. Keeping Graduation in Mind: Communication, Imagination and Memory
As students progress in developing separate individual skills and then connecting them into increasingly complex sequences of movement, instructors at Authentic explain why these actions are done and sequenced the way they are for specific practical, physical reasons. These reasons are dictated by both the opportunities of the body's natural flexibility and movement and the demands of fighting against another moving body that is similarly constructed and may be similarly trained. If students are shown why one particular action or movement is taught and how it reaches its fighting purpose more effectively and efficiently than any other that the student can imagine and try, then the student will understand the place of the action involved in the larger context of movements they cannot accomplish now, but will learn in due course later.
If instructed this way, the student will never think of or practice individual actions or movements as isolated, arbitrary gestures or postures. The student will always think of Ð imagine - what they are practicing today as part of what they will be practicing later. This imagining will combine with the student's memory of earlier, more basic practice in which they first learned skills as individual actions and movements that they now practice in larger, more complex sequences. The student will in this way learn to think constantly of their practice as integrating over time.
In this way the student will also routinely be talking to their instructors about what they are practicing now as part of their future experience of accomplishment. They will specifically imagine what they will be learning at higher belt levels and how that will incorporate what they are learning now and have already learned. Because black belt practice is when all of the actions and movements a student learns are ultimately fully integrated, the student will be routinely talking to their instructors about how what they are practicing today and have already practiced leads to their graduation as competent all-around black belts. In this way, the student keeps constantly in mind that their experience of accomplishment in every regular practice is always part of their complete experience of accomplishment in the whole Course of Black Belt TaeKwonDo and their ultimate graduation as a black belt.
His ongoing discussion begins with the instructors' simply demonstrating the body's potential for action and movement to accomplish a practical fighting purpose. This keeps the physical basis of practice, the reasons for learning this action and moving this way, coherent and integrating in the student's awareness of the body itself. Then the discussion of how today's and yesterday's practice will be integrated in subsequent practice at higher belt levels keeps the students constantly aware of the progressive nature of practice and the value of learning these skills in this order to achieve their ultimate goal of graduation as black belts. And by occasionally referring to when students can look forward to some future practice, instructors can keep students actively aware of the actual time they've put in toward their goal of graduation and that as they just stay with it, and time passes, they really are getting closer to their black belt with every practice.
