A couple times a week, kids and adults gather in the gym at Third Street Alliance, to practice Tae Kwon Do.
Tae Kwon Do is a Korean martial art that was developed during the 1940s and 1950s, and incorporates elements of karate and Chinese martial arts with other forms of Korean martial arts traditions.
For 13-year old Caiden Flowers, he has been a student since he was 5-years old.
His father, Stephen Flowers, said he wanted to get his son into something physical, to get him active. While he looked at other programs, he said heard about the Tae Kwon Do program at Third Street Alliance through a client.
Stephen went to sit in a class before bringing Caiden, and was impressed with Master Shelly Mcgregor’s approach.
“Master Shelly has an amazing approach,” Stephen said. “I’ve never heard this woman raise her voice.”
Master Shelly leads the hour-long classes, starting with warm ups, stretching and a lot of core work, which is needed in learning self-defense. Then the group goes through different moves, kicks and punches. They practice on punching bags before cooling down and going through belt moves.
At one lesson recently, two women and three girls weer taking the class, looking fierce as they practiced on the punching bag.
And no one is above correction—even Master Shelly, according to her and the others.
The lessons of discipline have helped Caiden in other aspects of his life, such as his school work, Stephen said.
Caiden, now a green stripe belt, is looking forward to advancing to a green belt. Eventually, he will obtain his black belt.
“It’s a good time, and it’s just fun to do,” he says.
The Tae Kwon Do program is available for anyone to do. Master Shelly said she has a lot of families that learn together, sometimes getting involved because their kids wanted to get involved.
Get your child or family involved in Tae Kwon Do, the next 8-week session starts soon! Parents should provide the name of the child, contact information for parents, home address, ages and any medical conditions. Call 610-258-6271 for more information on signing up.
