A 9 year old with wisdom to share
A 9 year old student at Johnson's chose to incorporate "setting and achieving a personal vicory" as part of his belt test. He talks about how three of the tenets of TaeKwonDo helped him to achieve his goals in swimming. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Essay: Set and achieve one personal victory by Siddhartha Das
I am a member of the Walden Creek Wahoos swim team. Last year was the first time I swam for the team. At that time, I couldn't even swim one whole lap. I always got seventh or lower ranks in every stroke-Freestyle, Backstroke, Breastroke, and Butterfly. Freestyle was my best stroke. In backstroke, I always bumped in to the lane line. In breastroke, I had not mastered the proper techniques. In butterfly, I tried my best to keep my legs together. My timings were between 28.5 seconds and 33.5 seconds. I still thought that if I tried hard enough, I could improve in the next swim season.
I set three main goals for this year's swim season. The first goal was to reach within the top three rankings in freestyle. The second goal was to improve my overall timing. My third goal was to reach a timing of 19.5 seconds. I trained hard so that I could achieve those goals.
This year, I was very excited at the beginning of the swim season. I wanted to achieve my goals that I had set for myself. At the first swim meet,I got 4th place with a timing of 23.9 seconds in freestyle. I reached within the top five, but not yet within the top three. Since I was out of school, I had a lot of time to practice myself, and I regularly went to swim practices and clinics. At the next swim meet, I got third place with a timing of 19.83 seconds in freestyle. My overall timing had improved by 12 seconds. I was happy that I had achieved all of my goals.
Three tenets of TaeKwonDo helped me to achieve my goals. Perseverance taught me to be patient and never give up. Courage taught me to be brave and confident. Strength taught me to use willpower to achieve success. I am grateful that my TaeKwonDo training taught me the tenets of TaeKwonDo and helped me to achieve my goals.
