Friday, March 25, 2016

Why you should consider the Colorado Taekwondo Institute

By Devon Bilyeu, Red Belt

The best martial arts school for martial arts training

The Colorado Taekwondo Institute, or CTI, is an amazing martial arts school. Our mission is to encourage world-class leadership through educational excellence and Moo Sul Kwan martial arts traditions. Moo Sul Kwan is the style of taekwondo training we practice here at this school. The CTI has been teaching Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo for over thirty years. Our schools are certified by the AMASEA, or American Martial Arts Sports and Education Association, making sure that we provide our students with only the finest martial arts training.

Taekwondo is a martial art, very similar to another martial art form, karate. In taekwondo, we learn many things that are similar to other martial art forms. In CTI Taekwondo schools, we teach basic punches, kicks, self-defense routines and many other things.

Here at these CTI schools, we offer many class options for all different ages, starting at two years old. Two through five-year-olds are considered “tiger” belts, five through ten year olds are considered “juniors”, and ten and up are considered “solid” belts. There is a different belt format for each age group. The belt levels start at white belt and then move up from there, from yellow, to orange, green, blue, purple, brown, red, and finally, black. We teach classes six days a week at most campuses. There are five campuses in the Denver area; Green Mountain, Littleton, Golden, Westminster, Conifer and Craig. Days of certain classes may differ depending on your campus. Some classes include the daily classes, and other advanced classes like Black Belt Club, which teaches you many things different from regular class, including advanced self-defense and whole other sets of poomse (patterned movements/forms). There is also LeAD team, which stands for Leadership through Academic Development. This special class teaches students many things, from tournament judging to how to answer the phone. This class is held on Saturday mornings, and to attend you must be a Black Belt Club member. There are also many other class options for black belts, including Master’s Club and Power Taekwondo.

We have many events, here at the CTI. These events include tournaments, camps, expos, demonstrations, and many others. In a normal class, we start with jumping jacks, then move on to stretches. Then we do basics, which includes the basic strikes, blocks and kicks. Then comes poomse, which are a series of patterned movements. There are many other things taught in class, but classes generally follow this basic format. In tournaments, there are normally three main events, which will vary depending on belt level. These three events are poomse, where students compete with their highest or most practiced poomse. There is also sparring, where students strike and kick legal areas (with pads on of course!). Students don’t start sparring until they are “junior” belts or higher. The final event is board breaking. This event will depend on your age and belt level. Usually you have to be a “solid” belt (at least ten years old) and at the orange belt level and up. Many of the other events are a lot of fun and they teach you a lot.

This martial art is very similar to karate, as I said earlier. In karate you may learn many of the same things. Punches, kicks, blocks, and many other techniques are very similar to other martial arts, including kids karate. Taekwondo, or the CTI more specifically, is an educational martial arts program, making sure that students get leadership, self control and goal setting skills along with their training. Enforcing self-control, at the end of class we bow out while saying “Ho-Shin” which is a Korean saying meaning self-control before self-defense.

If you are considering starting martial arts, I highly recommend the CTI schools. This martial arts program provides many life skills along with martial arts training. We start classes at age two, so almost no age is too early to start. This program is a ton of fun and gets you in shape very quickly. The CTI is an amazing martial art school that teaches taekwondo, and we always have room for new members, so come give it a try!

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