21 Aug Mark’s Monday Taekwondo blog

Taekwondo Monday to start an awesome week!

Taekwondo for all in Cumbernauld

Good afternoon Folks – it’s Monday and I’m excited for another week of Taekwondo at Raw – hope you are too!.

Last week was eventful, the Monday and Wednesday adults classes were packed with hard, but enjoyable!, circuits that got the heart(s) pounding. The weeks/months of dedication by each and every student is now becoming evident as they (you) are now adequately coping with all the exercises. The fitness levels are definitely on the rise and everyone seems to now push themselves to their limits. Master Robertson’s went out and purchased a new white board and he’s writing out exercises like a mad man. Wonder what today’s special will be!?

With the Raw Taekwondo championships around the corner (2 weeks on Sunday folks!) the class structure has been adapted so to incorporate a lot of sparring drills and of course sparring. The 1 hour classes really have been fun and action packed. Most sparring is obviously done on Friday nights at the weekly sparring class and we had 27 students this week. Most of those were kids and we want to see more adults!If you are anxious about sparring then don’t be. Ok, yes it’s hard work and yes you may get kicked but the equipment makes it as safe as possible. Even the most experienced of us get kicked and occasionally injured.

One of the newest adult members, Craig, was sparring me on Friday night and demonstrated an awesome ability to propel my entire body into the air using only his thigh muscle. I was still trying to work out the name of his move when I splat landed on the mats.

Raw weightlifting is perhaps part of the club that some of you aren’t too familiar with. We meet at the centre on Thursday evenings at 7.30pm for a half hour warm up of various exercises before getting into the 1 hour class. There are a lot of common misconceptions when it comes to weightlifting so it’s time to put that right!. Weightlifting is for women!, it doesn’t turn you into the hulk/or she hulk and you don’t have to be super fit to start. What you will achieve, in addition to training with a great group or guys/girls, is increased muscle strength and tone. If you already take part in Taekwondo classes it’s a great way to supplement your training. Someone also told me that you can burn more calories lifting weight than a lot of gym based cardio exercise. It’s got to be worth a try!.

Well that’s past 5pm and I need to start finishing up at work. I hope to see you all at class this evening and understand there will be one or two new faces.

Oh! – don’t forget the Raw Race Night on Saturday evening – 7pm at the KSC in Moodiesburn. It’s a quaint little place with a musty smell but it’s all about the company and it should be a great night of entertainment. Please all come along, bring your family and friends. I’ve never seen Robert on a horse so it’ll be worth it for that alone. As you may be aware the Taekwondo centre got burgled a couple of weeks back so it’s all the more important to raise funds. Hopefully the cretins will get caught – if you saw the CCTV footage on facebook it shouldn’t be too hard to find little and large dressed up like their going to a 90’s rave in white boilers suits and respirator masks.