Adult Homework: Physical Fitness

By Ace A, brown belt

Physical fitness is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Movement and exercise improve your health and help you lose weight or maintain your current weight. Often overlooked although are the benefits to your mental and phycological wellbeing. Physical exercise greatly increases levels of dopamine in your brain making you feel happier and more content.

By exercising more often we counteract the effects of modern life where all of us spend hours and hours a day sitting and not moving or only moving our fingers at a computer. Simple daily movement, even just standing up and walking around for a few minutes every hour can help maintain your positive attitude and mental acuity but more often than not can give you that small break you need to solve a difficult problem or o help you focus better on the task at hand. More vigorous exercise, even if it is only twice a week, will increase your metabolism allowing for better overall health and maintenance of your body.

Mentally, the release of adrenalin and dopamine during exercise will make you feel better and think more clearly. It will also provide a better sense of self and better opinion of yourself. All this added to the way exercise help us sleep better every night keeps us from feeling depressed, closed off or alone.  The better you feel on the inside the you want to do on the outside and the more often you want to exercise or simply just move around. The people in life that turn to drugs and alcohol or have a deep feelings of depression or anxiety are more often the people whose physical activity is minimal and are looking for something in life to help the feel better. The simplest answer is exercise and activity.

Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo and martial arts and the variety of movement offered during a single class not only gets us asleep better but will get you out of bed in the morning excited for a new day and for the opportunities to learn, to grow, to push yourself and to feel better about life.  It is the act of repetition of movement and the drive to excel and to succeed in class that will translate into a more focused mind and a more healthy body.

This Weekend: The CTI Superbowl!!

This Friday and Saturday is the 48th CTI Superbowl at Alameda International High School. This is our "year end" tournament and one of the most excited events of the year. There will be competition for students of all ages and belts.

Friday night will be black belt competitions, starting at 6:00pm. This is free for spectators to come and watch the action! Saturday morning will continue with the black belt competitions, and then will have the under black belt events.

Competition and Arrival Times:

Black Belts will compete on Friday night at 6:00pm. Spectators are welcome. All other students (white through red) will compete on Saturday.. You will find details on your competition time below. You will need to arrive 30 minutes prior to the start time of your competition to check in, etc. Some divisions may begin early, so please be at Alameda at your arrival time. Thank you. Note: You will be entering the large gym from the end doors to the right of the gym. You will NOT be entering through the doors that lead directly onto the large gym floor. Signs will be posted, and you can also refer to the map below.

• Purple, Brown, & Red belts, all ages (8 am start time, 7.30 am arrival time)
• Ages 8 and under; white, yellow, orange, green, blue belts (10.30 am start time, 10 am arrival time)
• Ages 9 and up; white, yellow, orange, green, blue belts (1 pm start time, 12.30 pm arrival time)
• School program students will be competing with the correct age groups so 9 yrs and up will start at 1pm.

Location details, parking:

The tournament will be at Alameda International High School which is located at 1255 S Wadsworth Blvd., Lakewood, CO 80232. Please note that Alameda is undergoing a large amount of construction at this time, and the parking situation will be tight for the next few tournaments. We have included a graphic below to help you find parking and the entrance to the gym.
Upper belts and black belts, please park in the old main parking lot (labeled 'overflow parking' in the graphic below). All other families and students can park in the new main parking lot on the south side of the school off of Louisiana Avenue. Once this lot fills, you can also use the overflow parking on the corner of Louisiana and Allison St. Please do not double park and/or block someone in. If both parking lots are full, there is a lot of neighborhood street parking available in the area.
Please Note: Due to the construction, parking will be hard to find. Please give yourself time to adjust for this.

You will enter the gym through the doors on the right far side of the gym. It is marked with a red star in the graphic below. You are welcome to drop age-appropriate students and/or equipment off near the entrance if you need to park farther away.

Checking students in and getting them to their rings:

Once you enter, you will be directed to a check-in table. Due to the construction, we are going to have you enter the school, walk down the hallway, up and across the gym ,and over to a larger hallway area on the other side of the gym. While we know this isn't ideal, this will allow us to have more check-in space than what we can fit in the smaller entrance hallway and help us avoid a back up. The check in will be divided up alphabetically by last name so please procee
While checking-in, someone will write ring numbers on your hands. You will have a green number on your right hand and a red number on your left hand. Once you have your ring numbers, you will head to the upper bleachers of the gym to settle in. You will be called down to the floor for the group photo and will proceed to the green ring number after the group photo.

Older students, you will then proceed to the GREEN ring number on your hand RIGHT hand. Your judges will direct you on the order of your competitions.

Parents of younger students competing at 10.30 am, you will take your student down to the gym floor when called for the group photo. After the group photo, it would help if you could help the youngest of our students get to their correct ring number which will be the GREEN number on their right hand. The ring number will be labeled with big signs. These ring signs are not color coded, so please go to the number on your hand that is green and disregard the color of the ring sign. There may be a prior division already happening in the ring as your student arrives, so please make sure to help them quietly sit behind the students already sitting on the floor so as not to disturb the ongoing competition.

Once students are settled at their rings, we ask that spectators stay in the upper bleachers and off the gym floor for safety and to provide more room for the competitions. Please show your students where you will be so they know where to find you. If you have a very young child (tigers ages 2 - 4) who needs assistance, it is okay if you need to stay nearby on the gym floor.
Tiger students (2-4 and some 5 year olds who attend 30 minutes classes) will compete in two divisions in the same ring and then will be dismissed for the day

All other students will compete in poomse first. After that competition ends, students will then go to the RED ring number on their LEFT hand. School Program students will compete in Most Kicks and other other students will compete in sparring. Sparring or Most Kicks will conclude the competition for 8 year olds and unders.
After your student is done competing in all three divisions, then please come down to the edge of the gym floor to collect them. Thank you.

Sparring will also be the final competition for white and yellow belts ages 9 - 11.

Orange belts and above, ages 12 and up, will also compete in breaking. After their sparring division concludes, please stay in the gym and listen for their name to be called to their breaking ring.

Etiquette and Uniform

All students should arrive already dressed out in their uniforms with their belts tied. Anyone with long hair will need to have it tied back securely. No jewelry is permitted, and freshly pierced ears need to be covered from front to back with medical tape and/or bandaids. Students should wear a white crewneck t-shirt beneath their uniform top. Students should not wear jeans or secondary pants underneath their uniform pants as this will inhibit their ability to kick.

Boards

If your student is competing in breaking (students age 12 and up, orange and above), they will need to provide their own boards for this competition. Please touch base with your instructor with any questions you may have here.

Lastly, please do not attend the tournament if you or your student is ill or if anyone in your household is symptomatic or has tested positive for Covid. Thank you.

If you have any questions at all, please reach out to your instructor. We are so proud of all of our students' hard work and preparation, and we look forward to Saturday! Thank you.

Teen Homework: Physical Fitness

By Evan M, Junior Red Belt 

Exercise should be incorporated into everybody’s life. Exercise is the practice of strengthening your body which is important to maintain your health. Your muscles, your heart, your lungs, your brain rely on the blood and nutrients that is helped by maintaining a healthy body. 

The two forms of exercise are aerobic and anaerobic. Aerobic exercise is beneficial for your cardiovascular system and requires oxygen to be completed such as is required for doing jumping jacks. It strengthens your heart which pumps blood to your muscles. If you don’t do aerobic exercise then your muscles don’t get enough exercise. Anaerobic exercise makes your muscles stronger, like lifting weights or doing push-ups. 

So, exercising consistently has many benefits. And we do a lot of regular exercise in our Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo classes! In addition to getting stronger, you will have heightened cardiovascular endurance and energy. You will feel a lot better about yourself if you exercise than if you don’t and you will likely live longer and better if you exercise routinely. Although TKD already adds exercise, you should still exercise outside of class. Exercise is very beneficial and good for you.

CTI Martial Arts: Littleton Campus

For anyone interested in martial arts in the Littleton and Morrison area in Colorado, the Colorado Taekwondo Institute is a great option due to its commitment to developing its students into life-long leaders through educational excellence and martial arts traditions. 

Martial arts is an activity with different origins, revolving around self-defense and self-protection. From taekwondo to karate to judo, the physical, mental, and spiritual development of martial arts can benefit people of all ages. With the combination of culture, discipline and self-defense, martial arts is useful for everyone and can be enjoyed with all circumstances and lifestyles. Amongst the several martial arts schools in the Littleton, Colorado area, there is one specific school that provides so much more to its students than just increasing belt rankings or learning how to defend oneself; this is the Colorado Taekwondo Institute. 

The Littleton Colorado Taekwondo Institute is located on South Simms Street and is encircled by several neighboring school areas, making it an easily-accessible campus for children and adults. The CTI has something to benefit people of all ages from the tiger age (2-4 years old) to adults (18+). For all ages, taking classes at the CTI is an amazing form of physical activity and exercise, ensuring
physical fitness created by Taekwondo’s utilization of all five components of fitness. Working out at least 2-3 days a week improves everyone’s lifestyles and keeps them in shape for a bright future. Additionally, the CTI teaches several forms of self-defense that can be used at any time when facing a dangerous situation. The realism in the techniques make self-defense easily applicable to reality. 

This Littleton martial arts school stands out because it has so much more to offer than physical activity and self-defense; classes also stimulate the brain, develop the mind and teach social skills.  The instructors at this Littleton martial arts campus are very diligent and caring when working with children starting at a young age, ensuring that their pent-up energy is released through the development of motor skills when punching, kicking and yelling. Along with this, toddlers are encouraged to show respect at a young age by learning how to listen and exercise self-defense to overall build up their confidence and self-esteem. Moving along to youth classes, the CTI applies its values to outside the classroom through the assignment of homework and teaching of the applicability of discipline in every aspect of life like school and home. This starts children at a young age on a path towards leadership and success in education and the future. The teen level has similar benefits to those of a tiger or youth, but are enhanced to fit with the constant change accompanied by maturity, growth and education. Teen classes are a perfect way to exercise anger management and focus, but also build up self-confidence and respect towards everyone. Finally, at the adult level, taekwondo at the CTI is the perfect way to keep up flexibility, relieve stress and focus on reaching goals while managing life outside one’s martial arts training. It’s never too early or too late to start Taekwondo at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute because there will always be benefits to the martial art. If you’re in the Littleton or Morrison area, this martial arts school could be the right choice for you with its dedication to physical, mental and spiritual development. 

The values of this martial arts school in Littleton serve people of all ages and thus makes it stand out amongst its competitors within the area. By providing educational excellence since 1983, the Colorado Taekwondo Institute’s professionalism in martial arts training makes it a prime candidate when looking for martial arts schools in the Littleton area. Through its many years of experience, the Colorado Taekwondo Institute has proven to take care of its students within the classroom. The CTI promotes a safe and encouraging environment where everyone is welcome. The instructors, especially at the Littleton CTI, care about every person who walks in and out of the school from students to parents to grandparents and guarantee a good atmosphere during martial arts training. At the Littleton CTI, each workout area maximizes the space with their matted or carpeted floors, plenty of space for classes with several students, equipment to practice and improve specific skills, and viewing areas for families to stay in during class. Especially during this time, this martial arts school in Littleton has proved to stay clean and professional by keeping the school sanitary at all times. All interactions within the school demonstrate a great environment that fits with all personalities, welcoming people of all ages for a good time learning martial arts. 

The Littleton martial arts school is dedicated to teaching Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo to anyone willing to try out the program. This Littleton martial arts school has created the best environment to create the most valuable experiences in life, whether it focuses on martial arts training, social skills or discipline. We hope you check out our school sometime!