I am very excited to announce that the beach workout is set for Sunday September 9th. It will be in Ocean City New Jersey on the beach at 5th street. All students are invited. This is an awesome opportunity to train with some of the best martial artists around. Master Coleman sets this event up every year and it is always a blast. Master Z will also be there with his students. This is a great time of year to do it because it is not to hot. The boardwalk is just a couple hundred feet away. Each year after the training we relax on the beach and then go to the boardwalk.

All students should wear the moo sa summer training t-shirt, black shorts, and the karate belt. The shorts should pretty much be black. If there are designs or something thats fine. We just want everyone to look as uniform as possible. You can purchase the Tae Kwon Do Shorts that master quillen is so fond of if you would like. They are only $17.

Leaders are very important. They guide others around them not just by authority or words but by their actions. In our classes we are developing leaders and they might not even know they are becoming a leader. We teach our students that they don't decide to be a leader its the people around you that decide to follow you or allow you to influence them. My students might not always know that by answering really loud in class or fighting to keep their stances down in class might be seen by the other students and encourage them to do the same. For example maybe a student is having a hard time learning a new form and they see another student practicing the same form and doing it over and over and over again to try and get it right. This simple action might encourage the student having trouble to get up and start practicing also. Of course this is not a guarantee. But I think we can all agree if everyone came in before class and just sat down then no one would be motivated to get up and practice. Just remember you might be a leader and not even know it.

Confidence is made stronger by experience, The more times you do something the more confidence you have with it. First lets define confidence. Confidence is believing in yourself and having an I can attitude. How do you gain this belief in yourself? You have to do a task again and again and again. Each time you do you gain more confidence. You are more sure of your ability. The same is true with mental tasks as well. The more times you answer a question or see information the more sure you are that you know the answer. The tricky thing with building confidence is taking the first step. Take breaking boards for example. I know when students are able to break a board. I just have to get them to believe it. They will hold back on the kick because they are afraid to hurt themselves. But once they get over that fear they are golden. We start by using plastic re-breakable boards with foam on them to get the students used to it. Then we advance to the real ones. Once they gain confidence with the easy board we give them one that is just a little more challenging. That small step seems very achievable to them. This is just one way to help build out students confidence.