Hapkido Teesside
many of these students have progressed with their
grading’s which is always a positive sign.”
2018
“2018 needs to continue where last year
finished. The class needs to grow still and we need
to maintain the progress we are making with our
students. A personal goal is to get some students
to do a little bit more outside of class times. At the
moment the two classes per week will help people
achieve their goals but when they do a little more
exercise outside of class and do extra stretching
sessions then this makes a huge difference.”
Youth Development
“We have always ran the club as a ‘family’ class
where adults and children train at the same time,
but we understand that there are different needs
with the children, and whether they are younger
children or teenagers.
It is certainly a cliché but the younger students
are the future of the club so we want them to
learn and have fun at the same time, along with
developing other life skills that the martial arts
can offer which will hopefully stand them in good
stead for the rest of their lives.”
Get Involved
“The only advice would be to take that initial
step. Sometimes it can be daunting to come along
and join a group of people and learn something
new but this is one reason why I am proud to say
we have such a good group of people that always
make people feel welcome and relaxed. If someone
makes the decision that they want to try a martial
art then they can contact us at any time and we
always offer the first class for free.”
Challenges
“There will always be more ‘commercial’
martial arts that will get more awareness than
Hapkido but over the coming years I would like
to think that our club will become even more
established, certainly in Teesside. However, the
main challenge (certainly with the youth) is that
we live in a digital world.
As a parent myself I know it can be difficult
keeping the kids off their phones, tablets, games
consoles but we all know how important having
other activities are and exercise is. For adults there
are different pressures of work and family, so the
goal is to create an environment where people
want to keep coming back.”
Ambitions
“We have students going up the ranks and
I am sure we will have some ready to take their
black belt within the next five years. After this
we may consider additional classes and multiple
locations, but we would all have to sit down and
discuss this.”
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