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Taekwondo Cross Training
Martial Arts in general, and Taekwondo specifically, are great for physical conditioning.
It seems like when many of us were kids, sport was less organized, less formal, and more play than it has become.
Kids now are often forced to choose the sport to which they want to commit to the exclusion of all else.
This is not just a factor of cost, but also of time as it becomes almost impossible to schedule more than one
or two activities. The problem with this is a bit of over-specialization.
The great thing of being able to play many sports is that it provides a wide range of conditioning.
Muscles are used differently when playing basketball versus when playing hockey. Swimming, running,
taekwondo, and all other sports focus on different movements and therefore push the body in different ways.
When we were young this allowed us to develop various skills, increase flexibility, develop strength in different
muscles, increase coordination, etc. We believe that children that play only one sport can be at higher risk of
injury as the body becomes over trained in a more narrow range or activities and movements. Adding other sports
and activities to play not only reduces the chance of injury but often helps the child excel in their main sport.
Taekwondo is a great sport to help children develop a wide range of physical skills that can help them in other
sports as well as in life. Flexibility, leg strength, endurance, upper body strength, balance, coordination,
all improve as the young athlete grows in taekwondo, and these athletes carry these skills with them in whatever
else they do. We are often impressed by the transferability of talent coming into Taekwondo classes and have
seen the same with kids carrying their skills out.
Our programs are designed with this in mind. We have recently introduced a day program as we understand that
some kids are busy with their main sport most evenings. We hope that this sport development approach to our
programs helps the kids of Okotoks enjoy taekwondo as well as excel elsewhere.