Alton Ganslen's "Why I Want To Be A Black Belt"

I started Tae Kwon Do on January 28, 2015, when my grammy and papa signed me up. After talking to Mr. Strickland they thought Tae Kwon Do would help me with my anger, patience, focus in school and self-control. I didn’t know I would have to write a paper on why I wanted to be a black belt when I started, but WHO WOULDN’T WANT TO BE A BLACK BELT! Black belts have earned respect for their hard work and staying with it and that’s when I decided to work hard and try to become a black belt. During the process I have made a lot of friends, both higher and lower belt ranks. Three of my best friends at Tae Kwon Do are Karlea, Aniket and Bryce who have all pushed me to try harder.

When I got further into Tae Kwon Do I set another goal of becoming an instructor after watching the instructors work with students. I thought it would be fun to do the same thing because I like helping other people. I have been doing Tae Kwon Do for almost three years and for two of them I was on the Demo Team. The Demo Team practiced every Sunday for 2 1/2 hours and after many months of hard work we would compete against other Demo Teams. The Teams I were on competed in Orange Beach, Alabama and Dallas. I will probably join the Demo Team again since I had a lot of fun but I am taking a year off to play football on my 7th grade team.

One of the other things I had fun doing during my black belt journey was traveling with my family and grandparents to different tournaments. I really like to compete against other people and work to get better each time I do. When I was with my grandparents they would plan many stops along the way for us to visit. Some of the things we visited when we went to Nationals in Orange Beach, Alabama, were the USS Alabama Battleship and the Vicksburg National Military Park. I also really enjoyed playing in the Gulf of Mexico even though the water was cold. It is a lot of fun traveling and seeing different parts of Texas when going to Regional tournaments and other states when going to Nationals.

I am also learning self-defense techniques and how to protect myself from others if I ever have to. Some of the techniques I have learned are cross

hand grab and the wedge which have different ways to do it. I also got my patch in Raposa De Prata which is submission grappling or also called ground fighting. I have also enjoyed weapons classes. Some of these weapons I trained with are nun chucks, bo staff, escrima and the bamboo sword seminars. Out of the four weapons I have worked with the nun chucks are my favorite because you can do a lot of cool tricks and disarms with them. I also really like doing bo staff.

All of these are the reasons why I want to be a black belt and also to continue learning Tae Kwon Do. 

Why I want to be a Black Belt: by Karlea Mitchell

           

           

            There are multiple reasons why I want to become a black belt.One reason is because as I become a black belt, things will become more challenging.I also want to be able to test for chevrons. Another reason why I want to become a black belt is because when you are a black belt, you get to learn a whole new variety of things.The last reason that I want to become a black belt is because when I get my 1st degree black belt, I can hopefully start training to become an instructor.

When I become a black belt things will become increasingly more difficult and I will face lots of new challenges. I am looking forward to these new challenges because the harder the challenge, the more accomplished I feel when I overcome it. Also, new challenges can be very exciting. New challenges present new learning opportunities. Overcoming these challenges is a way of measuring my success..

When I become a black belt, I can also start testing for chevrons. I will get to learn tons of wrist releases. Hopefully I get to learn some more ground fighting as well. They will also make me better at the regular things we do in class because sometimes we do wrist releases in class.

When I become a black belt, I will get to learn a whole new variety of things that I have not ever seen or had the opportunity to do before.These things will also be a lot more advanced which makes learning them even more fun. The new things I learn as a black belt will also be more useful to me in things like tournaments. I will also get to eventually pass my newly found vast amount of knowledge down to others who are lower than me.

When I become a black belt I can hopefully start training to be an instructor. This means I can enroll in the tiger team class and learn the forms necessary for my first collar.Then once I have my first collar, I can start teaching the younger belts to be the best they can be at their belt rank.This will make them better in the future because if the younger belts can comprehend and do everything they need to be able to do at their belt rank then they can move on early and become more knowledgeable and become advanced at their belt rank. When they become advanced this will make it easier for them as they move up the belt ranks because they might already know how to do some advanced things that aren’t complicated for them because they learned those things early on. When I get my next collar I will get to teach a whole new set of skills to a whole new group of people..

In conclusion,I want to become a black belt because things will become more challenging, I will be able to test for chevrons, I will get to learn a whole new variety of things, and I will hopefully get to become an instructor. 3 years ago I came to Stricklands Taekwondo to do one thing and that was to become a black belt. Now I am finally a recommended black belt and it is time for me to get my First Degree Decided and do all the other things that came after that.