Taekwondo for Adults

 

It’s not a big secret: Taekwondo dojangs around the world have for years have been losing adult students and the bulk of taekwondo schools here in the United States and Korea now mainly cater to children, in some as young as three.

Getting more children to learn taekwondo is a good thing, especially given the great global need for youth to stay active. It’s well documented that practicing taekwondo is one of the best ways youth can keep in top physical shape. It can shield them against the obesity pandemic and its accompanying plethora of ailments. Taekwondo also helps children develop discipline, build resilience, learn self-defense and hone skills of competing in a combat Olympic sport.

Adults need taekwondo too. The Korean martial art and Olympic sport’s benefits for children apply to them as well, particularly professionals or college students. Adults in those groups often spend hours working or studying at desks, performing stressful jobs, eating the wrong things and juggling through family life. In fact it can be argued that adults require taekwondo much more than children because they are also face aging.

Despite the great need, many adults avoid taekwondo or other types of martial arts and physical exercise. Large numbers of people instead chose the bar stool, the couch, the TV, computer games or bad food to while away their free times, often at great expense to their physical and mental health.

There are various reasons adults avoid taekwondo or other martial arts. Fear of embarrassment is one reason. It might sound trivial, but many adults are terrified of entering a space where they know nobody and being asked to wear a strange uniform. Many adults initially also find martial arts rituals and the form of exercises in combat sport to be strange or too difficult to perform, especially when teachers are not patient with them.

Adults may also avoid taekwondo because many dojangs fail to welcome them. Some schools, for example, mix adults with children and try to teach adults the same way that they teach those younger students. Some dojang owners employ teenagers – who might be very good with children – but have little knowledge of teaching or even dealing with adults.

If taekwondo schools were to seriously address some of those issues, they would attract many adults, who often provide better long-term economic advantages than children. Adults, for instance, tend to become loyal and stick with taekwondo for the long haul, unlike s most children who like moving from one thing to another.  Often that movement is encouraged by impatient parents, who believer their kids should try “everything.”

Here at Arch Taekwondo we are unique in that we have many more adult students than children. That was in part because we tailored separate curriculum to cater for adults, youth and children.  We also designed our space to be attractive to adults.

We, for example, have showers in the dojang, which allow our member to train early in the morning and freshen up before going to work. We have floors specifically designed for martial arts and sporting activity to ensure safe training and reduce chances of injury.

The goal of attracting adult students, should not be driven purely by dojang economics. There is a larger societal need to get more adults in better physical and mental shape to cut back on the massive costs of healthcare wrought by obesity in developed and developing countries.  An active population means a healthier workforce for communities and country.

It’s in that regard that the Korean government recently announced it’s making major plans make taekwondo more popular for adults. According to Korea Herald, the Korea Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, and three leading taekwondo organizations are developing plans to popularize and professionalize taekwondo in Korea.

The Herald recently reported (www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20180615000217) that taekwondo has mainly been the domain of children in Korea, but the nation’s government want to make the martial art and sport “more accessible and allow adults and seniors to enjoy it as well.”

Korea is the birthplace of taekwondo and home of the Kukkiwon (World Taekwondo Headquarters). The founders of modern taekwondo began to create the martial art and sport in the 1940s after the end of the World War II.