Hello Everyone
Here’s a few videos highlighting some of the action at our Black Belt Ceremony held Friday night June 29, 2012. Check them out. More to be posted soon.
Congrats to Ismael Ndiaye, Mikaela Lavoy, Liam Andrews, Ginnie Shin, Angus Worley, and Sarena Thompson on graduating to their new degrees of Black Belt.
Master Jonathan Field
4 Time Martial Arts World Champion
Hello Everyone
The second community based project finished for the 2012 Black belt Grading here at Cobourg Tae Kwon Do was completed by Sarena Thompson. Sarena who is going for her first degree black belt in June is a nurse who works for one of the local nursing homes here in Cobourg. She asked our lil’ dragons to make up Easter cards for her residents. Sarena handed the cards out to the residents at her work this past Saturday and Sunday. The residents were so thankful and full of joy! Enjoy the pictures.
I would like to thank the lil’ dragons in supporting Ma’am Sarena with her community based project and for creating lots of joy for her elderly residents. Awesome cards!!!!
Master Jonathan Field
4 Time Martial Arts World Champion
Hello Everyone
Wow I am back for like a fourth blog on the week. Been super motivated to write this week. Also making up for lost time, Today’s blog is about choosing the right people or examples to follow when you are in your Taekwondo or Martial Arts classes. Actually you can use some of or all of criteria below in other classes as well.
The criteria I picked are; Black Belts or Higher Belts, Proper Technique, Humble, Knowledgable, Helpful, High Energy, Fit/Healthy, Respectful, Disciplined. This is just a small list I came up with. You can certainly add or take away from it but it gives you a general idea. Also as a student or teacher/instructor you want to pick up these traits for yourself. You want to be the best example you can be for yourself as well as for others to follow.
Okay let’s go through each trait quickly. Obviously on top of the list is you want to be following Black Belts or Higher Belts than you. But this is subject-able. Not all Belts are equal. Be careful who you follow as an example for yourself. You want to pick examples of good quality technique. Pick the person with the technique you think it awesome. SOme people are better at certain kicks while others are better at blocks. You can certainly choose to follow various examples. But do pick the techniques that you want to look like. Pick people that are humble to follow. No point in choosing a role model that is cocky about their skills. You’ll unknowingly pick up on that negative trait. Follow the higher belts that truly do know their stuff. You can tell the ones that know what they are talking about versus the ones that just get by. Knowledge is a continuos process.It never stops. Pick the person that is willing to keep learning and admit when they do not know.
The higher belts that will automatically help the lower belts without being asked and doesn’t require any recognition for their efforts is someone to follow. Choose the person who has high energy for that they love to do. If it seems like they just show up and go through the motions then they probably aren’t the ones that you should follow. Choose the ones that makes the simplest blocks super fun. Your role model should be fit and healthy to do the things they ask you to do. They lead by example. If they ask you to do 100 push ups, have they done it before? The example you choose to follow in class should be a respectful person. Do they treat others with respect and are courteous? Your role model should be well disciplined in class. Do they stand properly in line, do they answer YES SIR or NO SIR, do they talk in class when they are not suppose to? Choose your role models in class wisely and choose to be an awesome example for others to follow.
Well I hope you enjoyed reading this one.
Master Jonathan Field
4 Time Martial Arts World Champion
Hello Everyone
Told ya I would be back tomorrow. I got some more pictures I found off of facebook and thought I would post them here and let you know what’s on my mind.
Okay so as you can see the first picture is about your chances of succeeding. It’s all about the proper mental attitude going into a challenge or whatever it is that you are doing. You truly need to believe you are going to be successful. Now just believing you are going to be successful is obviously not just enough. You need to know the things you need to know to allow you to be successful. You do not know what you do not know until you learn them. You need to plan and approach what your challenge or whatever it is you are doing with knowledge and wisdom. Whether you are successful will rely on how well you prepared yourself as well as many outside factors in which you cannot control. If you are unsuccessful the first time then you will be better equipped the next time because you have knowledge, wisdom, and experiences you did not have before. The only true time you can guarantee success is after it has happened and you know exactly how it happened so you can repeat the progress over and over and duplicate it.
Okay now the next two pictures kind of lead you into one way or more to be successful. Teachers and instructors are a way to obtain knowledge and wisdom to achieve success. But teachers and instructors can only do so much for you. Instructors can tell you what to do but it is up to you to listen to them carefully and do it. And do it without question. They have wisdom and experiences you do not have. Instructors will explain things to you in a way that they hope you will understand based on their understandings and experiences. It’s up to you to understand the meanings and if you do not, you need to ask or try to understand before asking. Do not dismay something because it may appear different to you. Give it a try first.
Instructors will demonstrate through physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual actions. They truly are what they teach. Watch and listen with all your senses and truly embrace what you are being taught. Be graceful for the chance to be experiencing what you are experiencing. Appreciate that you are being allowed to be taught. Be a respectful student and actually learn the best you can. Instructors are here to inspire you. Use them as motivation and inspiration for yourself to grow as a person and as a student. Never be jealous or compare yourself. All of this is based on an instructor that truly loves what they are doing and strives to be the best they can be. There is very few that can say that. They do not have to say that though. They lead by example. They continuously train, learn, and teach. They make continuos progressions. Never satisfied as to where they are. They keep moving forward.
Great teachers learn various ways. They train with training partners. A good training partner or partners can really enhance the skills of the instructor. Instructors need to train just as much if not more than their students in order to improve their skills. They also learn a lot by training with partners because they pick up on their own habits. Instructors learn through being taught by other instructors through classes, seminars, training camps, demonstrations, and various other medias. They learn through teaching their students. They see what they are doing and what can be improved upon and what is working. They learn through personal experiences and that of others. One should never ever question a great teacher’s teaching method or process of teaching a lesson because you do not know the reasonings behind the lessons or perhaps how their individual experiences have shaped it. All great instructors and teachers know what they are doing and the students must obey them providing there is best of intentions. A student’s only concerns should be to show up for their lessons and be ready to work hard and learn. Students do not need to or should not concern themselves with anything else.
Hope you enjoyed my third blog of the week.
Master Jonathan Field
4 Time Martial Arts World Champion
Hello Everyone
Today’s blog is about the hierarchy of Instructors and Black Belts in Taekwondo. I had an adult Taekwondo student out of general curiosity and for their own personal knowledge ask me what the hierarchy of the instructors’ spot in the class line up, and how it worked. I also realize that most people are wondering the same thing.So here it is.
At our dojang the head instructor of that particular class stands at the front of the class facing the students. The students line up from highest rank to lowest rank in front of the instructor starting at the instructor’s left side moving down the ranks to the instructors’s right. So for example if there was 10 students in class with 3 red belts, 3 blue belts, 3 yellow belts and 1 white belt the order would go like this. Front Line: Red, Red, Red, Blue, Blue Black Line: Blue, Yellow, Yellow, Yellow, White Now if their was a second instructor helping teach class then that instructor would stand to the left of the front line in the assistant/instructor spot. If there was a third instructor in class helping teach then they would line up behind the second instructor and to the left of the back line. So the line of command for that class would be the main structor is first in command, the second instructor is second in command, and the third instructor is third in command. Also at my school only the black belts are only allowed to stand in these spots.
As far as the ranks goes for Black Belts the highest rank in that school most commonly the owner of the dojang is first command. They are in charge of overseeing all Black Belts and Colour Belts. I am gonna use my dojang for example. I hold a 5th Dan Black Belt but so does Master Joyce. I out rank her because I own the school granted she has been in Taekwondo a few years longer and is of older age than I. If I didn’t won Cobourg Tae Kwon Do then she would out rank me. Now we have two 4th Dan Masters here at our dojang too. Master Gayle would out rank Master Richard as she has held 4th Dan longer and is currently training for her 5th Dan grading in May 2012. Next we got some 2nd degree black belts here as well. Sir Jeff would out rank Sir Reilly, Sir Brodie, or Sir Ismael as he is an adult 2nd degree black belt versus a junior second degree black belt. Now for our 1st degreess,Sir Ryan, Sir Luke or Sir Liam would out rank Ma’am Mikaela and Sir Liam because they are older. We also got several black belts and the adults out rank the juniors. We got several more black belts and higher ranks but these are just a few examples. Way too many to list here at this time.
So in a nutshell a 5th degree outranks a 4th degree, a 3rd degree outranks a 2nd degree, a 2nd degree outranks a 1st degree, a 1st degree outranks a black belt, and a black belt outranks a colour belt. Adult black belts will outrank the junior black belts.
Another thing to take in consideration as well as what you call them. Different schools have slightly different ways of doing this. The two I have seen are that you call the Black Belts and Instructors Sir or Ma’am, or Mr. and Ms. I have always be taught to cal the higher ranks Sir or Ma’am. So Jacob for example who is a black belt here would be called Sir or Sir Jacob or Mikaela who is a 1st degree would be called Ma’am or Ma’am Mikaela. Master Joyce or Master Gayle would be called Master or Ma’am with or without their names mentioned after. Master Richard and myself would be referred to Master Richard, Master Jonathan, Master, or Sir.
Some more on what to call the instructors. Master or master of the school is known as Kwan Jan Nim in Korean. An instructor is Sa Buhm Nim in Korean. A more personal name for a instructor in Korean is Soo Buhm Nim. Also as far as competition teams goes the more experience instructors, black belts, and students are higher up the line of command. And Black Belts are called upon in class more to lead exercises and demonstrate new techniques as they are the ones that show be able to do it properly and give an positive example for everyone else to follow.
Okay now this all seems like everyone is just trying to climb the ranks to be the one in charge and have more respect granted to them. This is quite the opposite. Higher ranks just lets everyone else know that that person has more knowledge and can help teach lower ranks. Also regardless of rank at my school everyone is referred to Sir or Ma’am to show mutual respect because at the end of the day we are all still basically human, We all brush our teeth the same. We all have feelings. We all feel love and pain.
I hope this gives everyone a good idea of the whole ranking system and line of command. If you got any questions let me know.
Master Jonthan Field