A Taekwondo Journey

A few years ago two of my kids started following a Taekwondo course. I brought them there and back, and at some point, I got curious: couldn't I try this? It seemed kinda fun. My wife also joined for a while. Since then, the rest of the family stopped, but hey, that's how I've found Taekwondo and I'm now starting my 5th year of practice. I've been surprised by how many different things it gives me, well beyond the workout itself.

The physical side: flexibility, speed, cardio

Let's start with the obvious part. Taekwondo is physically demanding. It builds flexibility, speed, and cardio. As a very static software engineer by day, it's the kind of intense physical fatigue that I needed to stay somewhat fit and sleep better.

A club with the right philosophy

Just as important as the sport itself is where I practice it. I train at Harmony Taekwondo in Brussels, a club led by Master Joëlle Tieterickx Tam. Her classes are taught with a real spirit of openness and welcome, with an emphasis on the perfectness of the moves and less on "fighting efficiency" that you can find in some other martial arts schools. It's demanding, but never at the expense of people feeling safe and included.

The fact that the master is a woman also really makes it more comfortable for women joining the club, which explains the roughly 50/50 gender balance. As always in my life, I feel more comfortable in a mixed gender environment although my job definitely didn't accomodate that for me for a long time.

A genuine third place

The thing I care most about, though, is something less obvious: taekwondo has become a real third place for me, a location that isn't home and isn't work.

At the course, I meet people who are fundamentally different from me: younger, from different backgrounds, living very different lives. The shared exercises bring us together.

It also does a lot for my mental health. It's a real pause in the my busy weeks, moving from my mostly mental activities to physical ones.

Being a beginner again

In my day-to-day life I'm a student's parent, a manager, a team lead, a father: someone who's expected to have answers. There, I'm just a student again, learning, like everyone else in the room. It's refreshing and good for my ego.

It's also quite badass

None of this would matter as much if the sport itself weren't so enjoyable. We learn high kicks, jumping kicks, and work on the beauty of movement in poomsae (the codified forms). It's demanding and, frankly, often pretty badass.

At the same time, it's practiced carefully, with real attention to not getting hurt. This is the philosophy of the club, but I would say it's a feature of modern Taekwondo too. For example, sparring and competition have changed a lot in 20 years: since the Beijing Olympics, competitive taekwondo has been judged using electronic scoring gear that registers contact, which means raw striking power matters much less than it used to. It's become, in a way, a speed sport, closer to fencing with your feet than to a brawl.

I have a lot of admiration for Master Joëlle on that front too: as I'm writing this, she's about to go to Seoul to compete in poomsae at the World Poomsae Championships. Coming from tiny Belgium and being competitive on the world stage, in the sport's own country of origin, is genuinely inspiring.

Still ok in my fourties

I'm 48. I feel it when in front of 17 years old in terms of speed and stamina. But I do outrank them still on some points, mainly raw strength and impact. So, I want to keep going. I already reached the goal I'd set for myself when I started: getting the blue belt. Whether I'll eventually make it to black belt, I don't know, it's somewhere in the back of my mind, mostly because I like finishing what I start, even though everyone will tell you the black belt is only a beginning.

What keeps me optimistic is that this doesn't have to stop any time soon. There's a wonderful documentary about a taekwondo school for seniors in Singapore that really convinced me it's possible to keep practicing well into your seventies. And for now, I feel genuinely accepted at the club, even though my profile is a bit different from most: taller, heavier, and quite a bit older than most of the people I train with.

In short

I've met genuinely kind, helpful people, in a fun and welcoming atmosphere, and I'd recommend this school and this sport to people like me. If you're looking for an activity that combines an intense workout, a real community, and a legitimate excuse to learn how to kick people, give taekwondo a try.

You can find Harmony Taekwondo's classes in Saint-Gilles and Forest (Brussels) at harmonytaekwondo.be. And if you want to see what competitive poomsae actually looks like today, this video is a great place to start.