Jim Connolly’s
Tae Kwon Do & Kickboxing Schools
Black Belt 1st Dan Essay
By Danielle Charlton
I started training when I was fourteen. For a girl, it’s a strange age to take up something like that, especially alone. When I started, I had very little confidence in myself, so the concept of entering a room, filled with people I didn’t know, all of whom seemed so confident, so skilled. Still, there was something about it that was worth it. If someone had said to me that I would reach the level I have reached now when I had just started, I would have laughed, and told them they were lying. When I first started, the concept of training for a black belt was completely alien to me. In a way, it still is! It’s hard to comprehend that I’m really at this point. That it’s really been so many years, that it’s really come to this.
As a girl, or as a woman, there is a huge practical aspect to wanting to learn a martial art. More and more women are taking up martial arts. When I started to train, I can only remember there being a few other girls there. In the time I have been training, I have seen considerably more women join the club, even if its only for a few months, a few, gradings, a few lessons, but the evidence is undeniable, women are taking more interest in martial arts. Not just girls, many girls do it as children, but teenagers and women. Tae Kwon Do is an excellent martial art for women. Before I started, I had already decided on take up a martial art. I looked at a variety of martial arts, and they were all either intimidating to me, or they seemed like they wouldn’t really have any practical application. Then I watched a typical Tae Kwon Do training session. It had traditional aspects, self defence aspects, fitness, and most of all, it looked like it was enjoyable. In a very traditional martial art such as kendo, where the bamboo swords are so heavy, it’s a martial art that isn’t as accessible to women as Tae Kwon Do. As time has passed, and I have seen more and more women take up the martial art, I have also met many women who have done it or are doing it.
