Fort Bend TKD Weekly Update – January 14, 2018

SKILLS STRIPES FOR THIS WEEK

On Monday through Wednesday, students will have a shot at earning their RED and ORANGE stripes:

Early Skillz – Blocking (red) and Hopping (orange)

Basic Skills – Focus (red) and Balance (orange)

Kids and Teen/Adults – Agility (red) and Board Breaking (orange)

Thursday and Friday will be buddy day in all classes (see article below) – because of Buddy Day, no stripes will be earned these days.

Basic Skillz, Kids, and Teens/Adults will be able to earn their purple/rainbow stripe any time between now and testing. Students earn this stripe when they can perform their form as required.

Kids and Teens/Adults will also be able to earn their black stripe any time between now and testing. Students earn this stripe when they know their one-steps (white, yellow, orange, and senior orange belts), or spar as required for their belt level.

Throughout each testing cycle, we work on 6 skills that work on developing our taekwondo experience – but also work on teaching strength, focus, and confidence.

The skills are color-coded for easy reference. Each skill must be mastered at an appropriate level in order to earn a stripe on your belt. Because we color code the skills, each color stripe represents a different skill that’s been mastered at the appropriate level.

All classes work on the same color at the same time. However, because we are an age-based school, the skills are different for the different aged classes. (We can’t expect a 4-year-old to be able to do what a 7-year-old can do, essentially.)

An integral part in learning taekwondo for our students in our kids and teen/adult classes is the mastery of a form. A form is a pattern of moves put together to develop an understanding of how we move the “taekwondo way.” Forms also help develop balance, power, and focus. We teach forms in a rotational style – meaning that each level (beginners, intermediates, advanced) rotate through their level of forms as a group and we focus on teaching one form to everyone in class.

So that you can practice at home to our forms videos at fortbendtaekwondo.com/forms, here are the forms each group will be working on throughout this testing cycle:

Basic Skillz: Chon-Ji

Kid and Teen/Adult Beginner belts (White and Yellow Belts) – Dan-Gun

Kid and Teen/Adult Intermediate belts (Orange through Sr. Purple Belts) – Do-San

Kid and Teen/Adult Advanced Belts (Blue through Sr. Red Belts) – Jun-Gun

All black belts will continue to work on their rank-specific form, which is what is already taught in class.

If you have any questions about the curriculum, please be sure to email or call Mrs. Chapman.

FOLLOW THE PATH TO MASTERY

In January, 2019, Mrs. Chapman will test for her 6th degree master black belt – and she needs everybody’s help and encouragement as she prepares this year. So, we’ve created a special Path to Mastery program for ALL students to be able to follow!

Every month, we’ll focus on two paths: a character path, and a physical path. Both are vital components of being a master of taekwondo. We’ll focus on a specific character trait to develop each month for 6 months, along with a special physical challenge (6 months for 6th degree).

Here’s what’s on tap for the year:

January & July – Growth Mindset, Cardio Challenge

February & August – Kindness, Squat Challenge

March & September  – Perseverance, HIIT Challenge

April & October  – Integrity, Push Up Challenge

May & November – Discipline, Burpee Challenge

June  & December – Gratitude, Plank Challenge

Each month, we’ll have handouts for students. We’ll have 1 or 2 character trait handouts, and the physical challenge handouts. These can be found at the front desk and in the files section of our closed Facebook group, FBTKD Families.

We’re encouraging students to complete all the handouts! Once completed, students can turn them in between the first 5 days of the following month and receive a small token acknowledging their completed path(s).

Students will have to complete both handouts entirely for the character path, and 20 out of the 30 days in the physical path in order to earn the token. The physical path challenges are, well, challenging – so our younger students can do half of what’s written AND you can break them up in multiple sets per day.

For the month of January, students who complete the paths will receive a Fort Bend TKD lanyard!

Students who complete all of the challenges for all 6 months of the first session (January through June) will be entered into a drawing to win a Nintendo Switch!

Questions? Please let Mrs. Chapman know!

NEW MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE IN PLACE – PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH YOUR BANKING INFO

In order to better serve you, we’re switching to a new management software! Hopefully, Sally, our auto magical e-mail responder, will be much better behaved on this new system, along with many other areas of improvement.

We are currently working on building up the software to our specifications. We’re able to input everyone’s information into this new system – EXCEPT for credit card/EFT information. This is done to protect your banking information.

We sent out an e-mail to all members last week with a special link where you can input your credit card information. You’re also welcome to come to the front desk, and we will input it there as well. Those of you who use EFT (i.e., we withdraw from a checking or savings account) will have to stop by the front desk with your account number and routing number so we can manually add it into the new software.

We will completely transition to the new software on February 1 – so we need your information now, please.

We will be sending out that special e-mail again for those of you who haven’t yet inputted your information – please be on the lookout for it. Thanks!

BUDDY DAYS JANUARY 18 AND 19