Back to White Belt
Johnson's TaeKwonDo & Leadership Academy teaches its students to walk the walk. The ten tenets of TaeKwonDo Honor, Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverance, Self-Control, Courage, Community, Strength, Humility, and Knowledge are taught and stressed in each taekwondo lesson that the academy instructors teach. However, one tenet that is often overlooked in the martial arts industry is Humility.
Parents have gotten the wrong idea about martial arts lately as mixed martial arts (The UFC) has become more prevalent. For some reason, parents think that if I am a mixed martial artist, I am laden with tattoos, I fight in a cage, and am extremely arrogant and full of pride. While this may be what you watch on television, this is not the martial arts experience you seek for your children. As a practicing martial artist now for just under 20 years, I have trained in several different martial arts such as Taekwondo (my specialty), Kick Boxing, Hapkido, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In each style, there are always credible arguments for the effectiveness of any of these individual martial arts. I am not here to debate. A highly proficient martial artist in any form is very dangerous. To say that one art is "better" than another is useless. That is why a student should be well-rounded so that they feel comfortable in any life-threatening situation. Thus, mixed martial arts. I personally do not like the terminology, since mma has such a negative connotation to it these days-though I teach my students TaeKwonDo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. To continue, let me explain our leadership project for our instructors. First of all, as a show of humility to our students, beginning February 15th, 2010, all 18 of them went back to white belt. Every week, the instructors must practice the curriculum for that rank 100 times in order to advance. Over an 8-week period, the instructors will make their way back to black. The humility project is just one more way that Johnson's TaeKwonDo & Leadership is teaching its students skills that transcend the mat. They are showing their students a commitment to learning at any rank or age. That is how Johnson's offers so much more than just your local cary, nc karate class experience for adults and children. Their martial arts students take their skills out of the dojang and put them to use in the world.
