Self-discipline through martial arts: Taekwondo
Recently, an advert was shared calling for young boys and girls of above 9 years to train in taekwondo every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for training, with an offer for free classes.
Ali Mohamed AmirAli, is a registered national instructor under the International Taekwondo Federation.
He has been a member and trains the martial art since 2005 after he was introduced to it by Mr Maxmillian Kailangana.
He put up his facility that trains at the Russian cultural centre to help kids and adults to learn discipline through taekwondo as an exercise and a form of self-defence.
Ally says that he had never believed in martial arts as a tool for self-defence because he had seen a lot of friends who did practice martial arts generally still get beaten up by bullies or tossed around on the playground.
“If it wasn’t for my father’s business partner, the late Mr Juma Mlapakolo, who trained taekwondo in Uganda, I wouldn’t have had the inspiration to become one of the members of such a prestigious art which eventually helped me defend and protect myself and my loved ones as early as 6 months in basic training” he says.
Ali continues to say, disciplining kids is an important aspect in taekwondo. As a registered mentor by the Oxford Brookes University, I and my fellow instructor Amir Mohamed AmirAli work closely with kids and grow their mind-set through communication and various forms of physical training coupled with instilling the values and tenets of taekwondo, which are courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, indomitable spirit.
It’s important that we have resources and the know-how to train kids. Currently, our centre has kids beginning from the age of 8 years to adults of 50 years old. We are driven to attain a special license that will allow us to increase our student base to children from the age of 3-7, kids with special needs and senior citizens too.
Hannah Jasmine Esmail is a 9-year-old student who joined taekwondo last year. “My mum signed us up to join martial arts and I really enjoy it. I like to kick, punch and learn self-defence” she says.
Hannah joined taekwondo with her sister and thinks she can kick better than her sister.
Hannah tells Young Citizen that she would like to get a black belt like her Busabum.
So far Hannah has achieved a white belt and the test for it was fun.
I however found the written test a little bit difficult, but I passed because I studied for it.
Hannah calls for more children to join because it is an important skill to learn and it builds self-confidence especially when a person knows that they can fight to guard themselves when attacked.
