Masters Blackbelt
Overview
Congratulations, you have just received your Blackbelt! Now what are you
going to do? For many Taekwondo schools, that means you are now 90%
dedicated to teaching with little to no opportunity to advance your skills
through formal training. This lack of opportunity for advancement has lead
to as many as 80% of Blackbelts nation wide stopping their training after
their 1st Dan promotion.
At Vasquez Taekwondo Academy we have always believed that getting a
Blackbelt was like graduating from high school. You have the knowledge and skills to be useful, but there
is so much more to learn.
Becoming a Master Instructor
At VTA we have created a dedicated Masters Blackbelt program to help you
advance to 4th Dan Blackbelt,
and become a Master Instructor yourself. It is the equivalent of getting a
university level bachelors and
masters degree in Martial Arts. It is not a stretch analogy as the time
similar, and the difficulty comparable.
Our gym has a separate Blackbelt training room which allows us to have
individual classes and programs
just for Deputy Dan/Returning Blackbelts, 1st Dan, and 2nd/3rd Dan students.
At present we have over 14
classes per week just for our Blackbelts. As of 2010, we have over 50
registered students in our Masters Blackbelt program.
The picture to the right shows a number of our instructors in the Masters
Blackbelt program as of March 2010.
Transfer Blackbelts
We have recently created a new concept in the D/FW area - namely a program
for transfer and returning Taekwondo Blackbelts. If you come from another
school in the area, we have a dedicated program to help you learn our
material quickly, and start progressing towards advanced dans. For returning
blackbelts, we also have a fastrack program to help get you training again and back on track working towards
advancement. You may have
been out for a few years, or 20 years, but you will be surprised how quickly
things come back. As an
advantage, at VTA, if your technique is still good, we do not require you to
start training again from white belt
as some schools do. You will start as either a red/black stripe, or
Blackbelt, and are given specific classes to
learn our full curriculum. Once you have learned it, you will be back on
your way to advancing in the art.
Our Transfer and Returning blackbelts have three different interim levels
before they start advanced training.
- Black belt with no stripe - new transfer blackbelt.
- Black belt with blue stripe - the student has learned the core
material from our three different programs (Taekwondo, Hapkido, Tang Soo
Do) up to a blue belt level.
- Black belt with red stripe - the student has learned the core
material from our three different programs (Taekwondo, Hapkido, Tang Soo
Do) up to a red belt level.
- Black belt with black stripe - the student has learned the core
material from our three different programs (Taekwondo, Hapkido, Tang Soo
Do) up to a 1st dan black belt level.
Once the student learns our core black belt material for 1st Dan, they
begin training towards 2nd Dan. Some people wonder why a black belt from
another school has to learn the white through black belt material again, and
it is simply because our curriculum is so much more in-depth than other
schools. As mentioned above, it is a white to black belt level curriculum in
three separate Korean styles, so students need to learn the forms and
techniques from the styles they are new to.
Our Program
Have a look at the rest of the website to learn more about our program. Our
classes incorporate techniques
from WTF traditional Taekwondo, Olympic Sparring, HapKiDo, and the weapons
of Tang Soo Do. And, if you
are extra motivated, we offer a joint Blackbelt program for Taekwondo and
our separate Haidong Gumdo
sword training program.
Jido Kwan
At Vasquez Taekwondo Academy, we leverage the Taekwondo teachings of a
specific Kwan, or group of
schools called the Jido Kwan. This Kwan was once focused on just teaching
the Aristocracy in Korea. We
believe that the unique methods and teachings that this Kwan brings to
Taekwondo, HapKiDo, Tang So Do,
and Haidong Gumdo is what helps our students become so successful in Martial
Arts, and later in life.
Please, read the history of Ji Do Kwan and learn more about the VTA
Advantage
What Are You Waiting For?
Come out and have a look at our classes and see how we have produced more
national champion
Blackbelts than almost any other school in the southern US. If you have any
questions, please
click here, or
please email Master Julian Vasquez Sr. at
mastervasquez@vasquez-taekwondo.com