It's that time again! Life just seems to fly by when you are having fun and I always have fun when I'm at our Martial Arts School!  We have only 6 opportunities per year for rank advancement and even though it seems like the last rank advancement was just yesterday, it really wasn't.

So why do we make such a big deal about rank advancement and testing? Because we have seen historically how to be a successful martial arts athlete!  We have seen over and over, the students who have the greatest success in our programs are the ones who take advatage of every opportunity to better them selves, which includes rank advancement.

Kids and adults feel a great sense of accomplishment when they show off all the skills they've been working on during the cycle.  They walk away with a, "Yes! I can do it!" feeling.  The taekwondo students feel proud and empowered.

The students who do not test, tend to feel disappointment that their freinds have advanced and they have not.  They also tend to get a bit bored in class reviewing the same material they just finished.  Occassionally I'll get a parent who says I just don't think they are ready.  But if they have their stripes, at least one instructor has signed off on their skill set.  We try to get the best out of each student but we do not expect a white or yellow belt to look like a black belt.  But the opposite is true as well, we do not expect our black belts to look like beginners.  The artistic expectation increases with rank.

Now obviously I'm talking about students who have earned all their stripes.  We will occasionally find a student who due to unforeseen situations is not able to attend classes regularly and will not be able to earn all their stripes, or a very young student who simply needs a bit more time in their current rank; but these are the exceptions not the rule.  Students in this latter situation will need a little bit of encouragement to not lose their focus on their martial arts goals.  This is where perseverance is learned.  And soon they will be advancing regularly along with their teammates.

Thank you for letting us work with you and your children to help create martial arts athletes who have the character to be a success in the game of life!