I want to learn a martial art, can anyone answer these questions?

Question

How long does it take on average to go from a complete beginner to being reasonably adept at Tae Kwon Do? I know everyone different but i have excellent co-ordination, good fitness and learn most things quickly. How much does it cost per hour? What exactly do you have to do to progress through the ranks? I know you take tests but how are they marked and what do you do in them exactly?

Thank you for your time

Answer 1

To learn a martial art you are teaching your body to move and react in ways that it doesn't right now. No matter how fast you mentaly learn an art, it takes time to teach your muscles to act in the right way. I train a green belt right now who has the knowledge to get a black belt but not the moves. I'm not sure if he will ever get to that point, but he knows more about the art than most people.
It usually takes 3-5 years to go from beginner to novis. A black belt is not the end of the training. It simply means that you know enought of the basics to be taught differently.
As for cost, Tae-Kwon-Do is expensive in alot of cases. Go to your local schools and see what they charge. If it's too much then try going and looking at Karate. They usually charge less.
Good luck and don't rush things.

Answer 2

If you're doing ITF Taekwondo, you'll probably reach Black Belt level in 5-6 years (assuming you don't sustain any injuries). I would say that Green Belt would make you reasonably adept at the art, which would take 2-3 years (although a 1st dan black belt is still only considered a beginner in the eyes of more advanced practitioners).You have to take a grading to progress which includes:

1. Forms or Patterns (A sequence consisting of hand strikes, blocks and kicks, performed in various stances.)
2. Sparring (only prearranged sparring up to green belt, after that free sparring)
3. Power (using various kicks and strikes to break boards, Green belt and up)
4. Basics (you are asked various questions by the examiner about techniques)

These activities are all performed as a group (apart from basics). It only lasts for about 10 minutes, and you will be given your result when the grading is over.

Here's a list of the belt levels:
White Belt
White Belt Yellow Tag
Yellow Belt
Yellow Green Tag
Green
Green Blue Tag
Blue
Blue Red Tag
Red
Red Black Tag
Black (Nine dans).

The Tag system may not be used depending on which Do Jang (school) you are in; some use separate colours (purple, orange etc) to mark this.

In my Do Jang it costs €5 per hour. Obviously this varies from school to school.

Normally for the first few belt levels you will be grading once every three months; many advanced students wait 6 months between gradings, and some wait a year before grading for black belt.

Taekwondo is a great art and I hope you will enjoy it. By the way, everyone who is saying that ITF focuses more on competitions has it the wrong way round! ITF teaches traditional Taekwondo.
Hope this helps.

Answer 3

As others have said - don't worry to much about TKD - it can be very good, but can also be very poor in terms of what you get out of the teaching. If you can find a good school with a teacher that you trust then all well and good. But if the teaching is poor you will be learning moves and not a system of living, which is what lies behind (or should lie behind) all martial arts teaching and practice).

It is not about being a 3rd Dan Black Belt or what have you - it is about who you are being in yourself.

My recommendation - (to add to all of the others) - start with Ki Aikido. This will help you to balance yourself but in terms of your physicality and your mental focus.
www.kisociety.org.uk/

Qi Gong practice will help to further this (Ki Kong - or Qi Kung - spelling vary in the roman alphabet) . This will aid your focus on the energy and spirit side of movement. Control of the Qi energy is an excellent way to develop both living and fighting skills.

If you want to push this further into a more aggressive fighting style, go for Hapkido
www.hapki.co.uk
or Karate

Good luck.

.

Answer 4

I take Tae Kwan Do at the local YMCA. I go once a week for an hour and half. My classes are $23/seven week course. So for every $46 (14 weeks) I can test to the next level. It is important to practice at home, even if only stretching.

Contact your local Y or Tae Kwan Do school and ask if you can watch because you are interested. Most places would really like for you to watch, as you are a perspective customer.

I've never heard anyone say they regretted learning martial arts. It does a lot of good mentally, as well as physically.

Answer 5

I do TaeKwonDo and have trained twice a week for nearly 3 and a half years, i will be taking my blackbelt in the next few weeks, and this is with taking minimum time between each grading. Gradings are fairly frequent and you are asked a series of patterns and techniques to show along with a group of the same level and you are marked from that. If you have good fitness and excellent coordination as you say you do, you should'nt have any problems.

Answer 6

Many of these answers depend on your training methods.
I study a traditional Okinawan system. With daily training sessions I felt adept within the first year. But now (13 yrs later) I look back and think that was foolish of me to think at the time.
If you are paying an hourly rate , you are getting ripped off.
Rank is garbage, do not guage yourself by rank. Rank is so different from school to school and style to style that it lacks meaning. Instead push yourself to be the best "you" that you can be. (It is like golf in that you are competing with yourself and your environment, not others)

Again, please try to find a good school, not a good style. Review some older questions on yahoo as finding a school/style is a common question.

Answer 7

I wouldn't reccomend Tae Kwon Do as you waste a lot of time doing fancy high kicks that can't do sh!t in self-defense and yelling "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" all the time. If you want to try a Korean martial art, do Hapkido.

Answer 8

a good school charges by the month with an unlimited number of classes you can participate in (mine charges $65 per mo), and and my grand master suggest no less than 2 classes per week (60 min in length). My daughter was able to effectively use her tkd in just over 8 mo outside the classroom (a kid jumped her on the way home from school). To test for a new rank up to black belt level you test every 8 weeks and need to be able to complete your form without help, spar with an opponet, show knowledge of target drills at blue belt level, 3 step sparring at purple belt and board breaking (using plastic age approiate board--which are used to prevent injuries to especially children) beginning at red belt, the length of time in sparring for testing depends on your rank. Once you reach the decided 1st degree black (usually within 2.5 yrs) your can only test every 4 mo, each degree of blk belt up to 4th degree has 4 levels and then at 4th degree you can only test after the same number of yrs as your degree.
the rank system in the ITA:
white
yellow
green
green sr
blue
blue sr
purple
purple sr
red
red sr
probationary black
decided black (1st)
level s I - IV
2nd degree
levels I - IV and so on to 4th and the on to 9th

Answer 9

SpiderTiger is correct.

Personally I wouldn't even take 95% of TKD school seriously. Too many of them provide blackbelt after you pay certain amounts. Also their sparring is laughable, it's stupid to think you can use all of those flashy and flying kicks against anyone with some skill.

Let lone a Muay Thai guys. I have seen countless case of Muay Thai guy tear TKD guy up with couple well placed kicks. Don't even get me start on MMA.

Answer 10

Hiya,
I'm a 1st Dan Black Belt in ITF Tae Kwon-Do & it took me 3 1/2 years to attain. My instructor has trained both in ITF and WTF styles, and believes that it is much easier to get 1st Dan in the WTF style (apparently you can pretty much buy your way in...).
I really enjoy TKD, and would thoroughly recommend it :)
To get the next grade, you attend a grading session in front of senior members, where you perform patterns, movements, sparring etc (depending on rank) and also answer some theory questions. They then decide whether you pass or fail.

Toria x