The Journey to The Ultimate Belt in Taekwondo

A clean slate: the beginning of a Taekwondo student’s quest is marked by a white belt. With no prior knowledge of the art, the journey ahead seems foreign, unknown, and challenging; this marks the start of the absorption of technique as well as marking the beginning of the struggle towards the ultimate end: black.

As the techniques become more advanced, the patterns more complex, and the opponents more vicious, one is awarded: yellow, signifying the great energy that is being invoked within the student. The leap to orange, successful thus far in the conquest—full of enthusiastic fanatical fascination of what lies ahead, or what the student thinks that lies ahead, for the journey thus far has seemed bearable.

But what is to come is only the beginning.

In finally have obtaining the most basic of techniques and skills, the student begins to grow: green, the growth begins to accelerate and practice begins to yield greater development. The point of accelerated returns begins.

The first heavy push towards the end whence the colors begin to darken to signify the growing potential of the student’s power: purple, the beginning of the dark colors of the spectrum where the end is looming closer and closer. Ambition is on the horizon.

But the sky isn’t the limit: blue, growth and development are significant, noticeable. The smoothness of the student in his form and the fluidity of his technique begin to flow like water, filling in every area with its content and volume.

To dig for the courage and confidence that the student had planted in the beginning of his journey is represented in the next stage: brown, finding the truth and character within oneself is in this crucial stage.

Sweat, tears, and blood: red catches the eye and evokes intense feelings while notifying others of the advancement of technique and the capability to perform techniques and skills which are appealing to all those around, and oneself, have finally arrived.

Finally, the conglomeration of colors: black, the darkness of the path has been overcome, maturity has been realized. This ultimately symbolizes: one did not give up on the journey, one worked past the pain and overcame the disappointments, one did not cave into self-doubt, one faced the darkness of his fears, and learned enough to understand that the journey has just begun.

At the end of the journey, when one is able to retrospect, one learns how critical it is to develop proper form and technique in order to produce this ‘art.’ Through routine, habitual practice, and the constant pushing of oneself: one surpasses one’s own expectations.

In conclusion, I shall take a memorable lesson from my own experiences in Taekwondo. The braking of bricks is a hallmark for those skilled enough to be members of the demonstration team. The training involved in order to get to that level may at first appear to be mostly on a physical level; however, after the braking of the first brick, one realizes the mental effects of the conditioning.

“That wasn’t nearly as difficult as you made it seem, Master. In fact, you actually made us over-train with all of your frightening suggestions as to what could potentially happen if one were to not have enough strength to follow through with the punch. Why?”

“If I had told you that it was easy, would you have trained as hard as you did? If I had told you that it was simple, where would you have set the bar in your mind? By exaggerating the difficulty of this, I have taught you the importance of expectations: always set them high, higher than necessary if you are unsure of the difficulty for yourself. Then, you’ll never be incapable of achieving anything you set your mind to.”