NEWS AND ARTICLES

 Martial Arts is something that I have always wanted to do since I was a kid. Growing up I 

always watched Bruce Lee films, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, etc. It has always been a passion of mine. About nine years ago we were looking to get my youngest son int martial arts to help with his focus. So, we started looking around and came across this one program that did not work out because he wasn’t able to stay focused during his evaluation. That pushed us away from looking into martial arts for about six years. Then around 2021 we revisited the idea. We googled local martial arts schools, and we came across Missouri Taekwondo Institute. We looked at the program descriptions online and at that time there was a family class. My wife said to me haven’t you always wanted to do martial arts. Of course, I wanted to try it out. It’s been a dream of mine since I was a kid. My wife called the school and got some information to set up a date and time. The next week we started Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo at Missouri Taekwondo Institute. Me and my youngest son have been in it since July of 2021. Moving forward we have now been in it for about three and a half years now. Along this journey it has been fun, challenging, educational, exciting, and productive. Both me and my son started as white belts. I will say it was different for both of us. From doing the warmup and basics. I remember we came home from class and saying man that was tough, but it was fun. We both agreed that we would give our best and see where it takes us. During the white belt journey, we caught covid before our first tournament. MTI fall championships. We eventually earned our yellow belts. During the journey we did tournaments, Christmas Party, fundraisers, and birthday parties. As orange belts, I joined Black belt club and started assisting Master Slinkard with junior classes. Also, during our orange belt journey my second youngest son joined us at Missouri Taekwondo Institute. The three of us did our first Moo Sul Kwan Summer Expo at Keystone Resort in Colorado. We will always cherish to first expo experience. We also did flyer runs and experienced our first MTI summer excursion. The journey to our next belts at MTI were all unique in their own way, but the one thing that remained the same is the fact we all enjoy the time and bonding moments that it brings to our family. We have created so many memories during each one of our individual journeys. We have had some laughs and frustrating moments. We love the challenge and the self-accomplishment it gives us when we over come that obstacle that was challenging. Our goal is to continue to grow with MTI as a family and as individuals. We want to continue to push and grow the school and bring back the family class, so we share the joys, wonders, ups and downs that we experienced as a family in Moo Sul Kwon Taekwondo.

- Dennis Mack, Red Belt

 In Taekwondo we practice great skills that you can apply to your everyday life. One of these that MSK students have is self-control. The definition of self-control is the ability to control one's emotions and desires, especially in difficult situations. To me this means to be able to decide without lust or make wise decisions under stressful conditions. 

In MSK taekwondo, we practice self-control in many ways. The first one I’m going to talk about is the monthly homeworks. Each month every student completes their monthly homework sheet in order to get their homework stripe on their belt. To most new students and younger students, the homeworks just seems like another thing to keep us busy. But to the 30% or so, they see the purpose behind these homeworks. The purpose behind the homeworks is to educate us and help us be better people in society. 

Another thing that we do is simply practice self-control. When you’re standing in the same spot not moving, that's self-control. When we say Ho-Shin at the end of every class, that’s self-control. 

Back when I started taekwondo, I was about nine and lacked self-control. Me and my mom constantly butted heads on everything. After several other attempts my mom decided to give taekwondo a shot. I personally never had any interest in any sort of martial art at the time. My mom never told me I was going to do taekwondo until we showed up in the MTI parking lot. I was in the car scared to go in. I had no clue what to expect, I thought I was going to get beat up. I knew nothing about martial arts or that taekwondo even existed. Finally my mom got me to go inside the school.

Ever since my first class, taekwondo has taught me so much about being a good person and good values to have. Especially in written things we do like the handouts in black belt club. I think self-control is one of the most important things I’ve gained from taekwondo. Good self-control can help improve so many parts of your life. 

One thing self-control can do for you is help you make good decisions. When you aren’t controlling yourself you’re not thinking properly or making wise decisions. If you have good self-control you can make rational decisions even when things are stressful. 

Self-control can also help reduce stress. When you have low self-control and make irrational decisions, those decisions fall back on you. Having to deal with these bad decisions can cause stress. Then if you don’t have the self-control to handle that stress then it gets worse. Then it’s a downward spiral from there. 

Self-control is also great to represent yourself. If you’re trying to get a job or get into a school, you need self-control. If you have self-control you can make the right decisions to represent yourself well, therefore increasing the chances of getting that job you want. Aside from visual representation and how you present yourself physically, a calm person with good self-control is not only something employers look for but also makes you seem more educated. This happens because you are calm and thinking rationally all of the time. 

Recapping all of the reasons I gave, self-control is important to generally keep your life moving forward. If you get upset and caught up on the little things in life you will lose sight of the bigger picture and all of the goals you have. Self-control is crucial for a balanced life and good mental health. 

- Jackson Sisk, Teen Red Belt

Being a successful leader in Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo is difficult, but not impossible. Far from it, really. Being a leader in Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo is not just being in charge, it is also being an example. This is why our mottos are “who learns, leads, ” and “lead by example.” You do not have to be in charge of a group to be a leader in class. Leaders do not come from leading up front solely, they come from working hard and sweating in the lines. Being a leader in Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo takes dedication, responsibility, discipline, and most importantly, an open mind.

    Being dedicated is the only way to be successful in life. You cannot do anything great if all of the build up is subpar. You cannot expect your poomse at a tournament to be amazing, but not practice the weeks leading up to it. Being a leader involves showing up for your own classes, attending extra classes, and going to events. This is going to be extremely difficult if you are not dedicated and do not love what you do. You cannot set a proper example or expect to lead others without being dedicated yourself. If you are not dedicated, you are just drilling yourself and others into the ground.. Enjoying what you do is so important and others can tell if you’re just there because you have to be.

    Responsibility also plays a big role in being a Missouri Taekwondo Institute leader. You are expected to clean up around the school, practice on your own time, be respectful at all times, and be mindful of others and their behaviors. You have a lot of expectations as a Moo Sul Kwan upper belt. You need to be responsible to meet those expectations and even go beyond them. Responsibility will not only carry you far in Taekwondo, but also in life.

    Discipline is important in becoming a leader. No one will get to the point of success by skipping class when they do not feel like going, not trying because they are tired, or not making events because they do not want to go. It is impossible. This also applies to how you are behaving. This ties back to responsibility in how you need to be aware you are acting. You need to be disciplined enough to have that self-control when you need to (which- spoiler alert- is all of the time). There is a big difference between being motivated and being disciplined. You cannot rely on motivation as it is not always there. However, with enough discipline, anything can get done. 

    You also need an open mind to be a leader. While being a leader often means you are in charge, things still come up that can make your plan flip upside-down. Things come up and you need to be aware of that, and be able to adapt. There are about a million “number-one rules” at events. One of them, though, is to go with the flow. That is difficult for me but there really is not an option. Sometimes people become sick or something family-related happens. Things come up and that is okay. You need to learn how to adapt. Having that power will make you a great leader and a smarter, more resourceful person.

    In conclusion, being a leader at Missouri Taekwondo Institute has a lot more to it than calling commands and looking pretty. In order to become a leader in front of the class or in the lines, you need to work hard and be confident in what you are doing. You need to be dedicated, responsible, disciplined, and have an open mind to be a leader in Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo. It is not an easy job, but it is a fun one.

- Abigail Shelby, Teem Red Belt

 FRASER, Colorado – During the blistering heatwave of late last week, a dozen taekwondo students from Southeast Missouri found an interesting way to beat the heat. They traveled with their instructor to Snow Mountain Ranch (YMCA of the Rockies) to the Colorado Taekwondo Institute’s Moo Sul Kwan CamXpo 2021. The CamXpo is a unique hybrid experience of the Colorado Institute’s camp and expo events that have been being hosted in the mountains for long over two decades.

“It is a very unique experience this year for our students because they’ve never done anything like this, but due to the lack of live events these past couple of years, they had to merge the two together for this year,” said Sikeston’s Missouri Taekwondo Institute head instructor Nick Slinkard. “Normally they have a camp that is a week-long with all the normal camp activities and classes dispersed in. The Expo is usually a weekend thing. The plan for next year is for it to go back to normal, so this may be the only time our students get to experience both on one trip.”

The students participated in traditional taekwondo classes working on poomses, defensive drills, board breaking, and walking steps, but also in several “summer camp style” activities including a rock-climbing wall, archery, a downhill mountain slide, and a zip line. Students also had free time to roller skate, play basketball, or an assortment of other activities.

“It’s several days of training and camp activities where our students get to learn from other instructors and meet people from outside of Missouri,” said Slinkard, who is a 4th degree black belt and owns the Missouri Taekwondo Institute in Sikeston.

Approximately 150 students, from ages 6 and up participated in the four-day event in the Rocky Mountains that included a lunchtime hike up to the waterfalls at Snow Mountain Ranch. Students from several Southeast Missouri schools including Sikeston, Oran, Bell City, and Richland all had students participate in the weekend.

While discussing their usual class load of 13-14 classes that are open to the public each week in Sikeston, Slinkard finished by talking about how attending an event like this would infuse energy into their school. “This is going to make us all better,” said Slinkard. “They (the 12 students from Southeast Missouri that attended) are going to bring this excitement back to all our school in Sikeston and our school is just going to keep growing.”

-Article from the Standard Democrat by Kyle Carter

During our journey through our Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo training, there will be many obstacles that we have to overcome both in class and in life.  But our number one tool to work past these "speed bumps" is perseverance.  

Perseverance, in plain terms, is never giving up.  Sticking to a recipe that is proven to work. Let's say you LOVE your grandma's chocolate chip cookie, so you want to make some at home.  She is kind enough to give you her recipe, and you head to the store to gather all the ingredients you'll need.  Once you return home, you begin working on your first batch of you Grandma's cookies; you're so excited because you haven't had them in a while and the chewy taste of the gooey chocolate chips is so very enticing.  You realize that one step of grandma's recipe is to let the dough rest in the fridge for an hour.  You don't think this step is necessary and you want to be able to enjoy those cookies as soon as possible, so you skip this step.  Once the oven timer goes off and the cookies have cooled, you take your first bite. But something isn't right, the cookie is hard on the bottom and not really soft in the middle? It turns out that step that you decided to skip because it would take a little extra time changed the outcome of what you thought would be grandma's chewy chocolate chip cookies.  You'll probably eat them since you don't want to waste them; but the experience you have eating them is quite different from what you imagined.  

We tell ourselves "it's been a long and busy day" or "Ill just make it up later"  but these excuses are what hold us back.  Online resources are a wonderful addition to our tool kit, making up an IN PERSON class is essential to staying on track; but these are no substitute to showing up and putting in the work even when it isn't convenient.

This can affect our daily lives as well.  "That test is next week, I can always study later", "I know this job task should be finished by today, but I'm tired", "Yeah date night is important, but we see each other often so we are good."  These are not the kinds of mindsets that lead to success.

There are plenty of excuses to not "follow the recipe" or skip steps.  But the end result will not be the desired one.  If you show up to class consistently, pay attention to what the instructor tells you, and give 100% effort each class, you WILL make progress!   You will learn that new move, or be ready to test for that new belt, or be prepared for that tournament.  You WILL reach whatever goals you set for yourself, because nothing will keep you from persevering through that tough times.  

-Nick Slinkard, 4th Dan

 At the individual level, integrity is more than ethics; it is all about the character of the  individual. It is these characteristics of an individual that are consistently considerate,  compassionate, honest, and ethical. Trust and honesty are closely associated  with integrity. We view individuals with integrity as people that we can count on to do consistently what is “right” not just what is expected of them. They are reliable and predictable in dealing with others and with issues, and they are supporters of what is fair and right.  

As Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo students, we have to be held accountable. We need to have more than just a sense of right and wrong, but also have principles enough to understand whether our actions show integrity or not.  How we speak to each other is an indication of our integrity.  If we are rude, that is not integrity.  We have to be consistently conscious of our thoughts and actions at all times and say and do the right thing.  

It isn't enough to just know what is right from wrong. We as individuals and especially martial artists have the moral responsibility of standing up for what is right based on our morals.  If we see something that is wrong, unfair, or unjust then we should be willing to take a stand and make things right.  

Nobody is perfect and it is a long, never ending journey toward self-improvement, whether it is working on our integrity or anything else. Just as a martial arts instructor points out the areas in a poomse that need improvement, others in your life can point out areas that need improvement, and then, hopefully, they will encourage you and help you to make those improvements.  

Self Intergrity is self discipline, absence of fear, accountability.  It is the whisper you hear in your mind letting you know you are honoring your true self.  Self Integrity is not guilt, telling yourself that you should do something because someone else expects you to.  It is not something you use to measure yourself against others.  It is not pleasing others to make yourself feel good.  It should be deeply ingrained in everything you do. 

 “Confidence in others' honesty is no light testimony of one's own integrity.” ― michel de montaigne

- Barb Slinkard, Orange Belt 

One-step sparring is another part of our martial arts training that puts our basics into motion.  The foundations that are established first in basics and then in poomse can be built upon while practicing one-step sparring. In addition to developing speed on your techniques, there are a few additional benefits since you are training with a partner.  Timing (can you hit your stance and block just as the attacker throws theirs?), judgment of distance (can you throw your blocks, kicks and strikes with a precise distance to your partner?) and precision (can you throw your moves to the correct target position?) are three of the benefits that one-steps help a student develop. 

Be sure to practice your one-steps in walking drills too.  They will help you memorize the moves, perfect the technique and stances, and help you develop speed for each one-step.  Don’t forget there are one step walking drill defenses (start with your left leg back on the first side) and one-step walking drill attacks (start with your right leg back on the first side).

The MTI Student Manual lists 12 One-Step Sparring rules. Four of these rules mirror other rules of Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo training:

1. Kihap - there are actually two one-step sparring rules that correlate with kihaps. One is for both the attacker and defender to go into their respective ready stance with a loud and clear kihap. The second is for the defender to kihap on their last counter attack.  
2. Eye contact - it’s sort of a no-brainer that there is a one-step rule about eye contact. In order to practice awareness in a self-defense situation, and to have the best possible balance, eye contact is a must!
3. Start slowly - this rule is similar to the poomse rule. When a student is first learning a one-step, they should perform it slowly and make each block, kick, punch and stance accurate and awesome. After a few hundred repetitions they can speed it up.
4. Correct stance and posture - since our power comes from being grounded to the earth, it is most important that each stance is correct and that our balance and posture is the best it can be. 

 At the Missouri Taekwondo Institute, we train in Moo Sul Kwan Taekwondo, which also includes some Moo Sul Kwan Hapkido training. Both Taekwondo and Hapkido are martial arts that are thousands of years old, initially developed for people to learn to defend themselves, from both other people and wild animals. 

Moo Sul Kwan classes include lots of exercise to get our bodies and mind into shape, but they also include learning self-defense techniques. Hopefully they will never be needed, but learning this self-defense can have the real world consequences.  In the event of finding yourself in danger in your day to day life, self-defense is a very necessary skill to have in order to keep yourself safe.  Although the possibility of having to use your self defense in your everyday life is very slim, it is still important to practice your self defense techniques in case the situation arises that you would need to use them.  

Just as it is important to practice some of the more complicated or difficult areas of our Moo Sul Kwan training like basic techniques or poomse (patterned movements), one should not forget to practice their one-step sparring and self-defense skills and techniques.  Being able to properly defend yourself is a highly prized skill in ones daily life. A martial artists should also take time to practice all of their self defense and understand how the techniques work on the body and how to properly execute them.  In the event of a dangerous situation, it would be very harmful of one had to stop and think about what they had to do. To truly improve one's self defense skills, you should be able to not only perform the appropriate technique, but execute it without having to actively think about it. This will be very beneficial in the event of an actual dangerous situation. It would be very valuable to incorporate self-defense training into ones ongoing training.  Even though some of the techniques are less complicated that other areas of our Moo Sul Kwan training, one's self defense can always be improved upon just like any other branch of our Taekwondo. 

Remember, in class as well as outside of class, make sure to practice effectively but safely.  Self-defense training is meant to be very effective and can be harmful if used improperly. Training in self defense is just a small, but very important part of our Moo Sul Kwan discipline, but must also be maintained to ensure that it is ready should the need ever arise.    

Perseverance is one of the tenets of Taekwondo that we study and learn about during our training. Many of us understand the importance of perseverance but at times we may forget when it is needed the most. The definition of perseverance is persistence in performing a task or attaining a goal despite difficulty or resistance. Perseverance is probably the most applicable tenet of Taekwondo as many of us have needed to use perseverance at school or work but, none can compare to our training here at the Colorado Taekwondo Institute (CTI). The road to black belt, and beyond, is long and tedious and requires much dedication, work, and commitment. At times we may want to give up and stop trying, but at that moment is the time when a student in the CTI needs to understand the importance of perseverance and apply it.

            Perseverance is used every day in small doses and you may not even know that you are showing perseverance. Most of us had a paper in school or a project at work that we thought could wait and we wanted to procrastinate. However, Taekwondo training at the CTI helps us understand that instead of procrastinating, we should take advantage of the time we have now and at least start those projects. Starting or completing a task instead of waiting and putting off that project is an example of us using perseverance. An example of this in MSK Taekwondo would be studying for a written test or doing your monthly excellence sheet. These things maybe aren’t the biggest priorities in our everyday lives but in order to further enhance our Moo Sul Kwan training, these activities are essential. And if we as students let ourselves procrastinate and put off these items then we are not bettering ourselves, but taking steps backwards. Every class we do basics and are reminded that if we aren’t pushing 100% every class and strive to take steps forward, then we are actually taking steps backwards. That concept still applies to homework, written tests, and articles. These tasks require perseverance and we may not think of needing it with these tasks but in order to attain a black belt, students must learn to have perseverance, in any task, either physical or mental.

Not only do we need to work hard and have perseverance in our classes and training, but we also need to set a black belt example outside of the school. One of the hardest parts of training at CTI is understanding that the behavior that we are required to follow in the school is the same type of behavior that we need to exhibit in life. Perseverance is essential to do this. There are many times in life that will test this training and we may be tempted to break that training. A true Moo Sul Kwan black belt has to understand that the behavior exhibited in classes and around other students, instructors and assistant instructors is the same behavior that needs to be shown to co-workers, classmates, and any stranger. Although this may be tough, it will help your training and the road to become a black belt will be a little easier. Applying this skill to life will also help you become a better person. Although many students know the definition of perseverance, we may not know how to apply it to our martial arts training and our lives but the quicker you learn how to do that, the better off you will be in your MSK Taekwondo training and school or work.