Chang’s Taekwondo Night is fast approaching

Hello everyone! We are into February now, our 13th annual Chang’s Taekwondo Night is fast approaching. We have only weeks before our students go on stage, black belt testers get their blackbelts and our professional demonstration teams show off all their hard work over the last year. It will be an amazing and memorable night, we hope everyone who wants to come is able to purchase their tickets! We still have some tickets available for purchase.This past week in our Chang’s Taekwondo Martial Arts Dojang, in South Surrey, Cloverdale, Tsawwassen and Aldergrove we all went through our rolling techniques. Not only rolling, but how to fall without hurting ourselves and learning some self defence. Self defence is very important in our life. We will never stop needing it, and it is required from a young age and forward.Bullying is the number one reason our students need self defence. Whether it’s elementary school bullying with names or physical aggression. Maybe we are in high school, and someone less fortunate than us is trying to make us feel as bad as them psychologically. Perhaps we are in the professional work environment as adults, and a co-worker is having a hard time, and doesn’t know how to deal with it. We all need self defence in our lives.Self defence does not have to be physical. The best advice ever given on the matter is:“Always look for the door.”We need to constantly be looking for a peaceful way out of the situation we are in. We definitely do not want to engage in a physical confrontation. In fact, our Instructors take pride in almost never having had to use their physical self defence because of the ability to avoid or diffuse intense situations.Confidence is important for all ages, especially while dealing with a self defence situation. We all know that someone who is not confident, quiet and meek might be bullied by someone else. Bullies thrive when their victim will not stand up for themselves, and not draw attention to the bullying incident. Therefore we teach all our students to be confident in all ways.

• Standing Straight
• Look in the eyes
• Don’t smile, but don’t look angry either. Be emotionless
• Put your hands up, not in fists, and not in surrender, but between you and the bully
• Speak clearly and loudly telling the bully to stop

Remember, Bullies are people who are down on their luck, who may not have a supporting family, who may be having a bad day. We don’t need to beat them up, they are not inherently bad people. We need to try to avoid becoming a bully ourselves in the process of dealing with a bully.