Have you ever heard yourself saying this: “This year I will get into shape?” Or, “This year I will become more focused on my work and what I need to get done before next year happens.” I know I have. Once I met my sister’s friend Felicia a black belt in Taekwondo, I found out how I was going to achieve some of my goals.

Upon meeting Felicia I began asking her questions about Taekwondo and the dojang she studied at. Felicia felt that it would be better for me to go to Park’s Champion Taekwondo Center and speak with Master Park, the instructor, and decide for myself what I wanted to do.

It was through this first meeting and the classes I took afterwards that I was able to learn not just about Taekwondo, but the language and a bit of the culture that surrounds the sport. Before I tell you about TaeKwonDo I want to take a minute and tell you about the school I go to, the instructor and the students I’ve met since starting classes.

Master Park is a fourth degree black belt from Korea with 26 years of experience. He is a certified referee of the United States Taekwondo Union and works to instruct the Taekwondo clubs at Harvard, Brown and LaSalle academy. Master Park’s Taekwondo center has been in the Smithfield, Rhode Island area for sixteen years and trains students as young as four years old up to senior adults.

At his current location on Rt 44 in Greenville, Master Park offers classes Monday through Saturday and involves his students in local and out of state competitions. Master Park is the main instructor at the dojang and utilizes his Psychology degree from Brown University to help patiently guide students to achieve their goals in Taekwondo and in life.

As with any sport or form of art, it takes a combination and balance of physical ability and the emotional will to get the most out of what being taught. Master Park recognizes this and begins each class making sure that his students are ready to learn and ends each class with reflective meditation, asking the students to think over what was taught that day. In this way Master Park promotes a positive learning environment in which his students can learn Taekwondo.

The students’ response to this environment is also positive; as they understand that they have only themselves to compete with and knowing this they support one another during class. For example, if a student is lagging behind during kicking practice, the others cheer them on until they finish.

At the dojang, it is possible for students to build their self-esteem and confidence in their abilities to face modern day issues utilizing a style of physical training started in Korea.

The history of Taekwondo starts two thousand years ago in Korea and continues into the modern age as a recognized sport in the Olympics. However, the competition aspect of Taekwondo only represents one side of the sport. Taekwondo was originally developed as an “effective method of defending oneself, his country; a way of life filled with high moral standards and values.”

One part of teaching students how they can defend themselves involves forms or Poomse that each belt has to learn in order to progress to the next level. The Poomse consists of stances, blocks, punches, strikes and kicks arranged in a certain way so that an individual can defend oneself from more than one opponent. At first these forms were the only means a master had to share his knowledge of Taekwondo with his students.

At Master Park’s time is given each class so that the students can practice their poomse as well as other forms of self-defense. Each belt or rank that a student gains comes with its own poomse and one-step-sparing that the student has to learn in order to progress to the next level.

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Another aspect of the class involves time spent allowing the students to spar in pairs with their protective sparing gear. This time helps students put to work what they have been practicing during class.

During all of this, Master Park takes the time to instruct the students in English and Korean making sure that the students understand the terms he uses before moving on. (If you watched the Taekwondo portion of the Olympics this year, you would have noticed that the judges and referees gave commands in Korean.) Some of his more advanced students have also begun learning Korean so that when they go on trips to Korea with Master Park they can communicate with the people there.

Senior students are allowed to and volunteer on a regular basis to help train students of lower ranks. It is a school that promotes the development of a strong character, self-discipline, self-confidence and the ability to stand up for themselves in peer pressure situations. And although the school teaches students how to fight, it is understood that fighting is to be used as a last resort in any type of confrontation and that students should always be looking to find alternative routes to fighting.

At Master Park’s dojang time is set aside so that the body, mind, and spirit can be brought into harmony. Each class begins and ends on a positive note as each student thanks his or her classmates for the class they participated in.

(Image from the Korea Taekwondo Association)

About the author, Cathy Landry: Cathy is a graduate of Rhode Island College, currently a substitute teacher for the Cumberland School department and a student at Master Park's dojang.

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