Campus Spotlight: Littleton Campus

If you’re looking for a Littleton martial arts school with a family friendly, disciplined, and exciting environment, look no further than the Littleton location of the Colorado Taekwondo Institute (CTI). Located conveniently on S. Simms Street, this Litttleton martial arts school hosts classes that teach valuable self-defense skills to students of all ages, from toddlers to teens to adults. Like karate and kung fu, taekwondo is a martial art that trains the body and mind to improve ourselves and achieve goals. 

Martial arts, unlike many other sports, is an individual sport. Practicing karate and taekwondo is self-directed and self-motivated training. Traditional taekwondo, which is taught at the CTI, is a martial art similar to karate and kung fu. As a student, we better ourselves with the self-defense and education provided by this Littleton taekwondo school. This allows us to set our own goals to accomplish with this martial arts training. For instance, a teen might be interested in the focus martial arts training provides and applying that to school. An adult may be interested in losing weight and setting a goal for getting in shape using martial arts. Even a toddler will see the benefit of setting a goal like getting their next belt and the satisfaction achieving that goal brings. 

There are choices out there for martial arts, but the CTI Littleton martial arts school is a step above the rest. At the CTI students are encouraged to do more than just exercise in their regular classes, such as monthly homework and written tests for each belt. This keeps the martial arts frame of mind present in all part of our lives, so we can achieve any goals we have. The self-confidence and self-defense taught by our outstanding group of black belt instructors will allow anyone, to become a better version of themselves. 

Both of the Littleton main classrooms have custom-built, carpeted suspension floors, so as to reduce stress on the body when working out. Each workout area is incredibly spacious, to provide each student ample room to workout. There are also spacious and comfortable viewing areas for friends and family to watch class. 

Nestled in between Ken Caryl and Morrison, the Littleton taekwondo campus serves the Littleton, Chatfield, Columbine, and Morrison communities. Nearby amenities include Iwayama Sushi, Salon Sei Bella and Walgreens. 

Come join us today at the Littleton  campus of the Colorado Taekwondo Institute. We’re here to help you be a better you and reach your goals.

Where can I start Karate lessons?

By Lydia Willis, 1st dan

“Where can I start Karate?” Whenever taekwondo, karate, or any martial arts comes to mind, I think of the Colorado Taekwondo Taekwondo, where I take my karate classes. Why? Because it has many benefits including exercise, leadership and a wide variety of skills to learn.

First, Colorado Taekwondo Taekwondo provides difficult, yet enjoyable exercise. We warm-up with lots of jumping jacks and stretches. Unlike other martial art schools, we all have a chance to count out loud ten jumping jacks. But, we don’t count in English, we count in Korean because Taekwondo originates from Korea. A very long time ago the farmers in Korea had a hard time defending themselves during any combat so they develop their own fighting skills that would smash through armor and get them to the height of a man on a horse. Most words we use that relate to a move or command are in Korean. A normal class schedule includes our warm-up, the Taekwondo basics, something we call patterned movements or poomse, and a fun game or self defense segment at the end of class. Instead of saying Taekwondo basics we just call that part of class basics. In basics we work on our punches, strikes, blocks, and kicks. We have three kinds of punches, high, low, and mid, later on when we work on self defense or poomse they come into play. Actually everything we do in basics translates into poomse and self defense. That’s why we call them the basics. Poomse is a group of moves put into one flowing set. It’s kind of like making music notes into a whole song, but the notes are the moves and the song is the poomse itself. We are taught many, many, many poomse as we progress through the belts that we earn. Self defense is pretty self explanatory. We learn different defenses for different situations. Or we play a game. There are lots of different games for use to play, some strengthen our reflexes or abilities, while others seem to just be for fun. 

Next, we learn leadership skills from the beginning of our Taekwondo career. When you begin Taekwondo whether you are 2 or 62 you show respect by saying "yes sir" or "yes ma’am". As you progress in belts the amount of leadership skills you need increases too. As a white belt, it isn’t your responsibility to line everyone up for class, it’s whoever is the highest belt student in class. It takes a lot of courage and leadership to make the group assemble correctly. Another example is when we have game time, specifically relay races. Someone is the captain on every team and sometimes they have to work hard and set a good example for the rest of their team. The captain also has to keep their group in line, literally, and behaviorally. It takes a whole lot of leadership skills to participate in Taekwondo.

Finally, we can look into the many physical skills that you will learn in Taekwondo. First of all, we must learn about endurance. To learn endurance, we do around two hundred jumping jack per class and several push-ups, sit-ups, and difficult stretches. The main part of class is basics where we work on our kicks, punches, strikes, and stances. All of basics plays into different parts of class, mostly our or poomse. In poomse we learn to precisely time our moves and to work hard in memorization. Poomse is probably the biggest part of Taekwondo, but it has a rival. In class we also work on self-defense. The two different types of self defense learned are called, one-steps and just straight up self defense. We have twenty-six one-steps and lots of self defense. Sometimes there is a world tour where we go to some country, including South Korea. We also are given the opportunity to go above and beyond in our learning with something we call Black Belt Club. As the name states it is a class that prepares you for black belt. It’s a class for those looking to challenge their memory with lots of new activities.

Taekwondo is an amazing experience no matter how old or young you are. It has so many perks including exercise, the gaining of leadership skills, and the knowledge of many different physical skills. You should come down to any CTI campus and at least try out a karate class.

Your Family in Taekwondo

By Irene Kim, 1st dan, and mother of two CTI students

The benefits from training in Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo are immeasurable and intensely meaningful when multiple family members train together at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute (CTI). A very unique bonding develops immediately and continually grows stronger, as each member of the family pushes themselves to achieve goals once thought to be unattainable. 

The study of Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo for families requires undivided attention to multiple things simultaneously to accurately complete required moves.  It is a very challenging but rewarding practice. To recall and implement the seemingly infinite number of techniques is a constant push but also so satisfying when you do become closer to mastering even one. 

The training also requires continual practice of techniques. While one learns the moves, not only is the physical performance involved but also the attainment of a deep understanding of the rationales behind the moves.  One achieves this by practicing and interacting with others at the CTI. 

For multiple family members training in family martial arts, it allows valuable opportunities for even further practice and understanding. I am an adult red belt who got my 10-year-old daughter involved when she was around 5. A photo of her in her first uniform with her white belt looks over me now, as I write this. Her smile is beaming with pride even back then and reminds me of the value of having my family involved. 

My 7-year-old son also joined a couple years ago and now he enjoys the competition of tournaments and our family training together. We often talk of “kicks nights,” our family’s way of referring to the nights we all go to classes. The schedule of the household does continually involve these nights and I look forward to seeing them strengthen their minds, bodies and spirits while improving their self-confidence, respect for others, focus and discipline. 

As we individually push to understand and perform the beautiful Martial Art of Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo for families at the CTI, we ask each other questions to further delve into the details of each move. We can point out things on which we are doing well, as well as those areas which might need improvement. We do these things in the living room, at the park, in the kitchen...as well as at the dojang, or workout area at the Institute. 

The benefits of family martial arts extend into all aspects of your life: at school, work and in the community. Sometimes on our way to school or a birthday party, we will talk about where your foot should be on a certain poomse or what the target of your punches is. This improves and strengthens our focus and allows success in other areas as we move through our days. It is also incredibly fun to figure out the details and push each member of the family to success together. 

Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo is not just for you, it is something very positive and rewarding to pass onto generations to come.

Campus Spotlight: Green Mountain Campus

If you’re looking for a Lakewood martial arts school with a family friendly, disciplined, and exciting environment, look no further than the Lakewood location of the Colorado Taekwondo Institute (CTI). Located conveniently on W. Alameda Parkway, this Lakewood martial arts school hosts classes that teach valuable self-defense skills to students of all ages, from toddlers to teens to adults. Like karate and kung fu, taekwondo is a martial art that trains the body and mind to improve ourselves and achieve goals. 

Martial arts, unlike many other sports, is an individual sport. Practicing karate and taekwondo is self-directed and self-motivated training. Traditional taekwondo, which is taught at the CTI, is a martial art similar to karate and kung fu. As a student, we better ourselves with the self-defense and education provided by this Lakewood taekwondo school. This allows us to set our own goals to accomplish with this martial arts training. For instance, a teen might be interested in the focus martial arts training provides and applying that to school. An adult may be interested in losing weight and setting a goal for getting in shape using martial arts. Even a toddler will see the benefit of setting a goal like getting their next belt and the satisfaction achieving that goal brings. 

There are choices out there for martial arts, but the CTI Lakewood martial arts school is a step above the rest. At the CTI students are encouraged to do more than just exercise in their regular classes, such as monthly homework and written tests for each belt. This keeps the martial arts frame of mind present in all part of our lives, so we can achieve any goals we have. The self-confidence and self-defense taught by our outstanding group of black belt instructors will allow anyone, to become a better version of themselves. 

Both of the Lakewood main classrooms have custom-built, carpeted suspension floors, so as to reduce stress on the body when working out. Each workout area is incredibly spacious, to provide each student ample room to workout. There are also spacious and comfortable viewing areas for friends and family to watch class. 

Nestled in the midst of beautiful Green Mountain, the Lakewood taekwondo campus serves the Lakewood and Green Mountain communities. Nearby amenities include Starbucks, Natural Grocers and King Soopers. 

Come join us today at the Lakewood campus of the Colorado Taekwondo Institute. We’re here to help you be a better you and reach your goals.