Martial Arts Teaches Excellence in Leadership

By Eric Evans, 2nd dan

“Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.” - Booker T. Washington

One thing that many parents will notice when watching their children participate in a kid's karate class taught at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute, are the leadership skills being instilled in their children. Goal setting, focus, discipline, and integrity are just some of the many wonderful benefits students learn from the martial arts classes being taught.

As we teacher leadership within the CTI classes, we are consistently striving for excellence. This is not something that we are born with. It takes dedicated effort. We cannot stand by and wait for someone to tell us what to do, we must take responsibility and put forth our own effort. Waiting for someone to tell you to practice or do your homework will lead to complacency and failure. Success is gained by self examination, self direction and self improvement.

Throughout history, remarkable men and women achieved greatness by knowing what they wanted and then doing something about it to achieve their goal. We would not have many of the things we take for granted in our lives if the leaders of the past sat idly by and waited for someone to tell them to try.

It takes 10,000 hours of dedicated effort to master something. In your training that requires you to put forth effort outside of class, on your own. If you only practice Taekwondo twice a week for an hour a class, it would take you 96 years to reach 10,000 hours. If you make one extra class a week and the yearly tournaments, the duration is almost cut in half. However, if you consider what would happen if you practiced 5 hours a week outside of class. The duration is drastically reduced to 20 years. Interestingly enough, 20 years is the minimum time in rank to reach 5th dan.

Excellence in Taekwondo can be achieved by anyone. It requires dedicated effort, self motivation, flexibility and perseverance. If you're looking for an activity for yourself or looking for kid's karate or martial arts classes, then you've found a great place at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute.