Peak Performance Taekwondo Academy does an Olympic Course at Clapham Primary

SchoolIt’s important to acknowledge the opportunities many Taekwondo clubs and organisations are providing for children and young adults, they are invaluable. It’s these pathways that endorse the growth of our potential athletes and prolong the success of our sport and art form.

A club that fully recognises this and so devotes its aims to nurturing potential amongst children, teenagers and adults, is Peak Performance Taekwondo Academy (PPA). The Academy is based in London, and endeavours to expose and develop talent in Taekwondo by implementing ‘modern physical and mental training methods currently used amongst High Performance Taekwondo Teams’.

The club was established earlier this year by head coach and founder Jibreel Malik. It evolves around Olympic-style Taekwondo, and encourages the improvement of general fitness, as well as Olympic aspirations.

PPA works in various schools in London, and just recently held a six-week introductory course in Olympic Taekwondo at Clapham Manor Primary School, South West London. Taekwondo is a fantastic initiative to integrate into schools, as aside from improving whole-body fitness, it is underpinned by a disciplined code of respect and self-belief. Taekwondo certainly takes steps towards shaping social and inter-personal skills that children will rely on in later life. With this basis in mind, PPA set about teaching the children Traditional Taekwondo as well as introducing Sport Taekwondo drills.

The children were most insightful as they feedback about the benefits of the course. When asked what they learned in Taekwondo, some of the answers were:

‘Self discipline’, ‘self control’, ‘to be more determined’, ‘how to protect myself’, ‘that Taekwondo is for self-defence and not for fighting’, and ‘you should give 100% and sometimes 110%’

School staff members were also quick to highlight what a success the course was, and that they believed their most vulnerable children had improved self-confidence. There’s even plans to introduce the children to a British Taekwondo Club, to be based at the school. They are also already proposing further sessions with different year groups in the forth-coming school terms, as well as discussing collaborative possibilities with other schools.

Feedback from teachers affirmed that the sessions have provided an over-all very positive and beneficial experience for the children, as well as themselves. They pointed out that they would be reinforcing some of the mantras in the classroom that the children had learned with Jibreel.

PPA should feel exceptionally proud of the positive impact they’ve had on the school. It’s appropriate to say that Taekwondo appears to have injected a positive focus and enthusiasm amongst both the students and staff.

They should be pleased and prouder still that when the children were asked to give feedback about whether they enjoyed Taekwondo, the answers they gave indicated a long-term upbeat effect on their attitudes and self:

‘Everyone is together and I learnt a lot of great things’, ‘It is a good sport that will help me to achieve’, ‘Jibreel does fun activities’,’

A huge well done to Peak Performance Taekwondo Academy, we love to see the fantastic results of your efforts. Keep it up!

“It was a chance to experience something now and I am sad it has ended because it made me happy”

Forfurther details contactAdrian Tranter PresidentBritish Taekwondo

Mike Mckenzie Development OfficerBritish TaekwondoOr:Bethany Bishop Media Officermedia@britishtaekwondo.org

British Taekwondo, Office 6, Park Road, Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, England, NG19 8ERT: 01623 656025W: www.britishtaekwondo.org.ukF: www.facebook.com/BritTaekwondo

Tw: www.twitter.com/BritTaekwondo

Check out this link to see some pictures of training with the children:

http://animoto.com/play/KaTwd59mN7KuSrnQ6sfMMg