vanessa wilkinson
1st poom | june 2025

I enjoy Weiwu Taekwondo because it’s a great way to spend extra time after school and work towards a goal. To reach the goals I made, I had to be really patient. If I rushed anything, I would either forget it or make a mistake. When I made mistakes I would fix them later on, like the time I was practicing my pattern in front of a teacher and I forgot a big part of it.

Weiwu helps me with balance and to be more focused in class at school. I also think in Taekwondo, hand eye coordination is an important skill to learn so that later in life it's easier to do things like multitasking or playing a sport.

Self defence is good for if I was stuck in a tricky situation, but didn't want to get into a fight. I would use it if someone grabbed me and I couldn't get away. 
Taekwondo is also great for the mind and body in both a physical and spiritual way. Also, I sometimes feel calm and settled afterwards.

Everyone says Taekwondo is different from Karate because there are more kicks involved, but I believe that Taekwondo has a mixture of strikes, blocks and kicks that I would use in real life. 

When I compete in a competition or tournament, I have this nice adrenaline feeling build up inside of me, and afterwards I feel like I’ve achieved something great. Once in a sparring competition, there was a really strong kid that kept pushing me, but I stayed strong and fought back my hardest.

When I was a white belt, I barely knew anything about Taekwondo, but I could break a board, because I didn’t think too much about it. Now, I know a lot about Taekwondo and I can’t break one because I think I can’t break it. My dad bought a board and I use it at home. The board’s hard to break, because it’s new, but I think to myself, you can break this! Only one time I broke it, but I became more confident since then.

Weiwu helps me make stronger connections with others learning Taekwondo by working together as a team and supporting each other. I also felt more part of a group.  

Taekwondo is not just a skill of martial arts, because it makes me feel very happy and like I belong.