What Tang Soo Do and Becoming a Black Belt Means to Me By: Alec Barbier August 2015 1
I believe that being in Tang Soo Do means to be proud and have fun. I love training with my friends in the dojang. When I was younger, I wanted to do karate. So I tried another style when I was four for only two weeks. I didn t like it there and I didn t go back. I still wanted to do karate, so when I tried Tang Soo Do, it was a blast. I started PKSA when I was 5 and have stayed with this style for four years. Out of those years I ve met new friends on the way. Many of my friends that I started with don t come anymore. I actually started PKSA with one of my best friends from school, but he doesn t come anymore. Being a Black Belt at this age is amazing to me. It is amazing to me because not many 9 year olds accomplish this goal. I have also gone too far to quit. My parents wanted me to continue and then I realized I wanted to continue too. Being a Black Belt will help me learn better respect and better discipline. For a 9 year old to earn a Black Belt is like entering a whole new world. In Tang Soo Do, we have a Personal Development Creed that we learn starting at White Belt. This consists of ten items that help me through life. In Tang Soo Do, these principles help teach me karate and now I see how it is teaching me about life. To me, being a black belt will mean that I continue to develop myself and help others to do the same. The 10 principles of the Personal Development creed are: 1. Be a leader, not a follower 2. Think positive and positive things will happen 3. Socialize with goal oriented peers like yourself 4. Develop the courage to stand up for yourself and do what it right 5. Keep yourself physically and mentally fit 6. Be truthful and just in all you do 2
7. Focus on your school work and drive yourself to overachieve 8. Help your parents without being asked 9. Give priority to the thing in life that help you to be a success in life 10. Practice, practice, practice leads to mastery The first principle of the Personal Development Creed is, Be a leader, not a follower. This means that I should lead people by my example and not to follow others that play around or don t do what they are supposed to. Like, if some people are always getting in to trouble, you don t want to hand out with them or you will get in to trouble too. It has also taught me to help my classmates if he or she is having trouble with the karate moves. This is what leadership means to me. The second principle is, Think positive and positive things will happen. This means that I should look on the bright side and not on the negative. If I do look on the bright side when something seems difficult or bad, then I will get positive results. This teaches me not to say I can t do that. I have to tell myself that I can do it even if I don t know if I can do it and I get frustrated trying. Socialize with positive goal oriented peers like yourself is the third principle. I believe me and my friends have the same goals. At school, it is to achieve all good grades. At karate it is to become a black belt. Sometimes, you have a friend that has a different goal but that is ok because they will work for what they want to achieve. Some people at school say they want to get good grades, but they don t behave correctly at school. They get in trouble because they don t follow the rules. These are peers that I need to stay away from so I don t get into trouble too. The fourth principle of the Personal Development Creed says Develop the courage to stand up for yourself and do what is right. This means that if you build up 3
enough courage then you can stand up to bullies and do what is right if you are being bullied. It also means that you can develop courage to do what is right if one of your peers is having trouble and needs help. The dictionary says that courage means to be brave. You can be brave in a lot of ways like talking to new peers that enter the dojang, meeting new friends in a new place, and learning new stuff in Tang Soo Do. If there is someone at school who is being mean to someone else, I know to go tell a teacher so they won t get bullied. If someone is bullying me, I know not to use my karate moves at school and go tell a teacher. The fifth principle states, keep yourself physically and mentally fit. This principle encourages everyone to stay healthy and fit so you can accomplish your goals. If you keep your body fit, you will be able to do more stuff because you are healthy. It will allow you to do karate better because you will be able jump, run, kick and punch. If you keep your mind fit, then you will have a stronger ability to learn more and keep it stuck in your brain. This principle is very important to your health system and the two parts will help people work towards my goal of becoming a Black Belt or towards their goal. The sixth principle says, Be truthful and just in all that you do. This means that as a Black Belt you are taught to always be truthful. Tell the truth to your peers and to yourself. If you have to correct your stance because it is not right, then you are being truthful to yourself. When you play a game at karate and someone says you got hit by the ball, you are truthful when you say I know and go out of the game. It is important to be honest all of the time. If your parents ask you a question you want to be honest with 4
them. You also have to be truthful at school with your teacher and classmates. To be just in all that you do means that you do the right thing for the right reason. The seventh principle in the Personal Development Creed is, Focus on our school work and drive yourself to overachieve. If you pay attention in class, then you choose to pay attention and you will make better grades. If you pay attention in karate, then you can learn and make your moves better and you will get closer to black belt. To overachieve, means to push yourself to do better and better in karate and at school. The eighth principle states, Help your parents without being asked. This one means that if you choose to help your parents without being asked, then you will get more privileges and you will make them proud. You can help your parents by studying, practicing your karate, cleaning the house, and cleaning your room. These will make your parents really proud of you. The ninth principle says, Give priority to things that help you become a success in life. Number nine summarizes all of the principles in the Personal Development Creed. When I was thinking about what this one meant to me, it hit me that all these principles are a priority that can help anyone become a success in life. Even a 9 year old like me! The tenth principle states, Practice, Practice, Practice leads to mastery. This one is the most important of all. If you practice, practice, practice then it will lead you to mastery because it now stuck in your brain. All of this practice helps you to know it and not have to think about what you have to do. Writing this paper is practice for me too. I 5
will have to write many papers for school and this helps me to write better. This principle is for anything you are learning in life. In my many years of training at PKSA, there are many instructors that have helped me along the way and mean so much me. My first instructor was Miss Lacy. She helped me get all the way to Green with 1 Red strip; then she quit. She use to do a lot of games and fun stuff to teach us our karate moves. I remember when she taught us pahkeso sang dan soo do kong kyuck by having us act like we were delivering a pizza to a monster - Here s Your Pizza! Ms. Lacy was a fun instructor. She had gotten to Red gold, when I didn t see her anymore. Mr. Luckett is another one of my instructors that I enjoy. He has helped me make big improvements to my moves because he taught me to be crisp and really powerful. Now, he wants me to be more precise, more powerful and more crisp, in all of my moves. He also tells me to be louder because sometimes, I am not very loud when I kiap. I have worked with him since I was a Green 2. Mr. Luckett really pushes the Red 4 s to be better, which really helps me. Another instructor I like training with is Mr. Boz. He sometimes helps out in my class and he always helps me. He has helped me learn new forms, defense and basics. Mr. Boz helps me tweak a lot of my moves so I can do them better. When I was Red gold, I was learning Chil Sung Il Ro and he helped me learn that form really good. Mr. Boz is always wanting the best out of me. Kyo Sa Nim Betz is a really good instructor. He pushes all the students to the max. He has helped me, Kim and Shelby with our staff forms and he usually looks the 6
best out of all of us. He has taught me a lot of other cool stuff and some secrets too. Kyo Sa Nim Betz also likes to make us laugh. He pushes us, but he makes it fun too. I enjoy working with him. Now, I have saved the best for last, Master Tullier. I have trained with Master Tullier the most. He is my most important teacher because he knows what I need at each level and for testing. He also knows how to push us so we can improve. He wants everybody to do their best and strive to be better. He also likes for us to have fun. I like it when he lets us play games at the end of class. My favorite games are: flying of the cantaloupes, bowling for ninjas, burpy dodgeball and pay attention. Some of the games also help us with our moves. It is also fun when he spars with us and we get thrown around. Master Tullier and Mrs. Jacky have had a lot fun things at the dojang for the students. I have enjoyed the movie nights and the water fun days. The summer camps have helped me get ready for testing and to learn new karate moves. In the weapons camp, I learned to use nun chucks, the fan and did new staff forms. Rank it Up Camp was hard but fun and it helped me achieve the confidence for my black belt test. Sa Ba Nim has taught me everything I know in Tang Soo Do. Because of Master Tullier, PKSA feels like my second family and Sa Ba Nim is my Karate Father. I have to say that my four years of training at PKSA karate have taught me more than just Tang Soo Do. My journey to become a Black Belt has lead me to this stage and now, my journey will continue as I enter my next stage in Tang Soo Do. I want to thank all my instructors that have taught and helped me achieve this great honor. I also must thank my parents for pushing me to practice at home when I 7
didn t want to, bringing me to class when I didn t feel like going and helping me study for every test. I m a young Cho Dan Bo. My goal is to continue training in Tang Soo Do so I can really become the one and only, Grand Master BBQ! Tang Soo!! 8