By now, many students at the Saturday class have been training for four months. So, they are still white belts by rank and very early in their martial arts journey,

Having assisted classes at other clubs for many years before Dojang X was launched, I’ve always enjoyed sharing the warm up session with a younger practitioner. In my view, it helps them to build confidence and leadership skills. I certainly wouldn’t have found it easy as a kid to be at the front and have others follow my lead. So, when I ask other students, I’m always beside them for support.

Today, it crossed my mind to start introducing this shared warm up format to classes. I asked a young practitioner, Chansroop, if he’d like to lead it.

“Sure”, he replied quite happily and came to the front.

Then he began the warm up by doing the jumping jacks we typically do to get the blood flowing…

And he began to count in KOREAN!

I totally didn’t see that coming. I felt very proud and amazed at the same time…enough so that I literally stopped and watched 😅

And he continued with the other warm up drills…clearly knowing what to do without support.

So, I went to the back and took a photo to capture this awesome moment. Then, I joined the others for our stretches.

At the end of the warm up, everyone gave him a big round of applause.

It’s a beautiful experience to see a young person not only have the courage to display leadership skills like today, but also have great focus and attention in class to learn how we count in this Korean martial art. Now…to see how much the rest of them know 😁