Home Help

Alice Meyung Side Kick in Lakewood, CO

By Alice Meyung, 4th dan

Helping your child at home is essential to their marital arts success, but most parents find it difficult as they do not practice Taekwondo themselves.

Basics – Basic techniques are the backbone of “Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo”.
 They are easy to practice at home.  It is important that the student be able to recognize when they are correctly performing a technique; however; this can be extremely difficult for a young student, or a beginning student, since they cant watch themselves from a third person point of view.  Ask your child’s instructor on what techniques would be best to concentrate on at home and have some fun helping them train.

Target Holding – An easy way to help a child advance in their kicks is to have them use a “real” target.  You can practice with your child at home with a swimming noodle, a pillow, a square target, or even a simple piece of paper.  The noodle, or square target can be held out to the side and tilted slightly down for a front kick, held straight out to the side for side kicks and back kicks, or held straight out the front for a roundhouse kick.  (Ask the instructor for proper positions.)  You can also draw out a target on a piece of paper and hold it out like a square target.  After your child kicks it, you mark where they kicked and they can see how precise their kicking attempt was.

Most importantly, coming to watch your student in class will reveal to you how to help your child at home. You can see how well they are doing, what they struggle with and the many exciting things they learn in class. Private lessons are always beneficial.  Ask your child’s instructor if you can sit in on the lesson in order to learn, understand, and recognize what your student needs improvement on and how to help them. The CTI Belt Requirement DVDs are also a fantastic way for your child to practice at home. They can do their poomse along with the black belt in the video, and you can help them recognize when they make a mistake. Along with encouragement, these simple ways to get involved can help your child grow into an accomplished Moo Sul Kwan martial artist.