I have been doing training at Jae Nam for about 3 years at the time of making this essay.
In those 3 years I have learned and grown so much from my experiences and learned so much
about myself and how I can continue to improve on myself for what's ahead. I’ve mentally
grown drastically and I often give the credit to my training for helping me be the best person I
can be as well as giving myself credit for sticking to it and truly wanting to make an effort to
grow off of what I learn from Tang Soo Do. Patience was a huge issue I've always had since I
was little and most definitely when I first started. I remember looking back and not being too
sure about this whole idea of a new sport, and even when I was first training I was having trouble
catching on. To me it was this whole new idea of practice I had to learn, new people who I wasn't
familiar with, and a whole new mindset towards the betterment of a person through sport that I
have never seen before. I soon realized that something in this new way of practice seemed to
work with me pretty well. I have never really gotten into other sports like I have with Tang Soo
Do, something just clicked that really made me determined to want to learn more from training. I
have done wrestling when I was little at around 8 years old and I think that's what gave me a
little feel for what a “fighting style” sport was like. I also did soccer for a little while but I would
always end up quitting or not showing up because I couldn't stick with it as well as I did with
Tang Soo Do. At one point, soccer practice was colliding with training and I was told I would
have to start going less to training and start going more to soccer. I couldn't wrap my head
around the idea and did not want to do less training as I saw it as a way of betterment to me and
keeping up with myself and making sure i didn't fall behind. I also noticed improvement in my
discipline when problems were on the verge of happening. There were a few times in my school
where an argument was very close to a physical situation, but rather than engage in it I would try
and de-escalate the situation rather than pushing it on further than it has to go. Other than
mentally bettering myself, I saw myself excelling physically at a faster rate than I had ever
before. I noticed I could do more exercises and for a longer time, I could run more, I wasn't out
of breath as quickly, and I learned real life defense drills. It was a boost of confidence knowing I
could de-escalate situations before they started, and I felt more confident knowing if one did ever
escalate that far, that I would be able to protect myself if the time did ever come. Before training
I didn't really have many goals I wanted to accomplish or things I wanted to achieve or see done,
but Tang Soo Do gave me many more things to strive for in my life to improve upon myself and
the way I treated myself around others as well as the way I treated people in general. There was a
big improvement in my life and most definitely my happiness over the years of my training
compared to before training. At around brown belt level, I started to realize just how much there
really is in the sport. I would hear stuff from belts higher than me but would never really
understand what they meant until I myself got to those belts. I realized there was more to
remember, more to learn, I had to train harder and harder, I would need to go to more classes,
and the list goes on. I would need to remember far more forms which was my issue for a while,
but I would start practicing them in my head and at home over and over again until I finally got
them down without needing to think about them. One step moves was and definitely still is an
issue of mine that I have trouble remembering sometimes, yet I still practice them everyday
because I want to get better at them and remember them even if it means I be there all day
practicing. This want to always improve made me want to go to see more classes such as black
belt camp and sparring tournaments so I could see how I can improve from the view of the same
or even higher ranks and see how they handle themselves so I could study them and put it into
my own style that worked for me. I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from friends, people in the
dojang and videos on the internet so I could keep improving and learn what I could change or
work on in order to work towards my black belt. I have worked hard since the start of my
training and I will continue to work hard for as long as possible past any belt I come across. I
wish not only to improve for myself and my own goals, but for people around me to notice the
changes I make as well and I hope it can inspire other people to keep striving for their goals, keep
practicing, and overall work to be the best person they can be so that they themselves can notice
the changes they make and continue to improve on what they believe is the best for themselves.
I'm glad for all of the challenges I've overcome, any issues I pushed through, and all of the
people I met along the way during my time in Tang Soo Do which helped me learn so much from
my journey.
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