How Taekwondo Affects School

Taekwondo and school are both big parts of my life. Both make me who I am and affect how I act and what I do. If I am having a bad day at school I will go to taekwondo to calm down and focus. If taekwondo is particularly hard one day then school will be a bit of a relief. There are many ways that school and taekwondo affect each other. Homework is the most obvious example. When I have a lot of homework at night, I will have to skip taekwondo. If I have to go to taekwondo to prepare for a competition, I will have to either email my teachers to ask for an extension or stay up late trying to finish. Staying up late makes me more tired at school so I get less done causing more homework for me at night and the endless cycle begins. To break this cycle I would have to skip taekwondo, therefore decreasing my chance of doing well in a competition.

Taekwondo competitions are a whole other story when it comes to school. They are on the weekends which makes them big homework conflicts. Thankfully, they normally only take one day out of the weekend but it’s still a lot of wasted time. The taekwondo is not the boring part. The boring part is all of the waiting. My most recent competition was on February 3rd and it was the Oregon state championship and national qualifier. My group was scheduled to compete at 1:00pm along with three other events. There were only three rings in the whole place so everything took longer because there was limited space. I arrived at 12:00pm, as instructed, and proceeded to warm up. At 1:00pm I went into the staging area but my division hadn’t been called yet. I watched my friends compete, and cheered them on, but I still wasn’t called. At 3:30pm we were finally called to start competing. I went 2nd. In total, I spent 5 1⁄2 hours at the competition. I was competing for only 3 minutes of that time. Of course I had fun watching my teammates, but I also wasted over 5 hours that I could have been doing homework.

Taekwondo affects school as much as vice versa and not only because of the homework. Taekwondo changes how I’m viewed at school. When someone asks me what sports I do, I usually
answer, “Taekwondo and soccer.” Most of the time, the kid who wanted to know proceeds by trying to talk to me about soccer. I think this happens because most kids either play soccer or

watch it and therefore find it a comfortable talking point. If I had just said taekwondo then the kid probably would have said “Cool,” and moved on to another topic. This is because a lot of people don’t know what taekwondo is and find it weird and foreign. If I just said that I played soccer then I would be viewed as “normal.” Since I have decided to respond with both of my hobbies, some kids will inevitably think of me as “the girl who does taekwondo” if they don’t know me very well.

I love taekwondo so I don’t care what it does to my life in school. It will always be a part of who I am even if I don’t do it as much in the future. It will be a fond memory for me and I will look back on how much I enjoyed it.

Example of one of my taekwondo competitions: https://youtu.be/RZGjS-7ppLw 
Photo credit for 1st pic
Photo credit for 2nd pic

From Horses To Cars

From Horses To Cars

I'm sure you have ridden in a Car before or definitely seen a car? Why did we change from horses to cars, planes, boats etc? When did we change? Transportation helped a civilization thrive and succeed.

Horses were used in up to the 18 century  to get to a destination from another destination

School should be more like sports!

School should be more like sports. If I am not mistaken, then there are other kids like me, kids would rather be playing basketball, kids who would rather be dancing or even kids who would rather be acting. In the classroom every day, we sit in our seats, take notes, do work sheets, and listen to the teachers lecture us. The thing about learning in classrooms is that we’re not active. If we were to learn the way Logan LaPlante learns at his program, we would get some of the same curriculum and have fun doing it. For one example, he went to the Squaw Valley ski patrol to learn about mountain safety, and then the next day they learned about the science of snow and weather, and avalanches. Not only is this a good way to learn but it gets you up and moving. I feel like we could keep some of the class work, but also it would not be very hard to do fun things in classes. We could do things as simple as acting out a Shakespeare play in History.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Catlin has lots of fun, exciting extra things that most other schools in the world do not have, things such as ropes courses, outdoor trips, and plenty of cool co-curricular activities. Other schools in the nation don’t get these opportunities.

If kids had the opportunities to learn like playing basketball, then they could be able to approach things differently, acquire good teamwork, and successfully succeed in whatever they wanted to do with the help of their teacher or in this case their coach.

I think that if I were ever a teacher, I would listen to what the kids wanted to learn and how they wanted to learn it. Not only that, but I would also try to make whatever we were doing very fun and also very educational at the same time -- like when you practice learning a new move in basketball, you are learning and also having fun.

The thing about Logan LaPlante's technique is that it is like skiing: sometimes when you’re trying a new trick, you will fail. Failing is not always a bad thing because if you don’t ever fail then you’re not trying new things. Once you do fail you will be pushed harder and you will want to keep trying and keep trying until you get it perfectly.

Skiing Since Two

Skiing has been a challenge and success for me. I started at the early age of two years old! My family always said, “better early than late” for my skiing career. All my family has loved skiing, even my great great-grandfather who skied until he was in his late 80’s. I have gone on many ski trips with my family from Park City, to Alaska. I started to be able to ski without help at five, but that is when I started to dislike it. My family thought I was an amazing skier that could ski anything, so they would always take me to places that were very difficult and they would expect me to glide down the run. I would get caught behind and have to find my way to where my mom stopped to wait for me, which is ironic, because she went too far down for me to see her.
When I was four years old, I skied straight into a tree and hurt my entire face. I have learned from that, and since then I have never got distracted from skiing, because hitting your face on a tree really hurts.
I have gone on ski trips with friends to places like Alaska, and Canada. They are always a lot of fun, but we usually end making ski jumps and sledding off of them the entire time. On the Canada trip, we would stay outside sledding for five hours sometimes!
When I was six I became a ski racer. I was on the MAC team with all of my friends, but I never won any races. It was still a lot of fun. I quite ski racing when I was seven.
I have always wanted to be able to do crazy back flips and spins, but I could never push myself to do any of it. I know a couple of kids that can do crazy tricks. I have always been super jealous of them.
I started to snowboard when I was eight. I never understood the concept of turning, so I would crash very frequently. Being able to snowboard well has been a goal of mine for a while, but I haven’t snowboarded for a long time, so I don’t think I will meet my goal of becoming a world class snowboarder. I have stuck to skiing for a long time, and I very rarely snowboard.
I regained my liking for skiing last year. Because then I could get ahead of my family and not the other way around.
physically, skiing is not very challenging for me. But after many hours, my legs and arms will start hurt from constantly moving and springing around. It is physically hard for most people to ski, even though you get ten minute lift breaks every fifteen minutes. The lifts are what I hate most about skiing, I have always thought about a ski resort having teleporters from the bottom of the mountain to the top, but sadly there hasn’t been teleporters yet. The early morning wake-ups are also very difficult, especially for ski bus when everyone has to wake up at 6:00 AM for the 7:00 o’clock bus ride to the mountain. But I instantly wake up after I see my friends on the bus.
Skiing has been in my jeans since I was born. Even though it is hard in it’s own ways, it is still the sport that I am best at and like the most and I want it to stay that way.

Image URL:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Freestyle_skiing_jump2.jpg

Gymnastics and School

Gymnastics and School

It is difficult to balance my schedule with so many things to do. I have homework and gymnastics practice, in addition to school, and other daily things. It is very hard to find time to do all these activities with school starting at 8:00 and ending at 3:15, and gymnastics starting at 5:00 and ending at 9:00. I wish that each day was an hour longer, so we could have that extra time to do something that we needed more time for. Having less free time to do important things like homework is sometimes a problem, but is also makes make me a better student.

Having less time for homework does not sound like it would give me better habits, and it is true that sometimes less time does not work in my favor, but over time it has provided me with good habits. When I was younger, and had much more time for homework, I would procrastinate. Procrastinate a lot. However much I used to procrastinate, that habit is gone now because of my time constraint. With gymnastics, I often have the right amount of time to do my homework before practice. Because of this, I hardly ever procrastinate, and have been able to put more long continuous time and effort into my work.

me at a meet

    There are many more wonderful things that come from participating in a sport that helps  people become better students, and develop better character. Let me share some examples from my experience. From gymnastics, I have learned to win and lose gracefully. Winning and losing with good character, has helped me in school because if I do badly on a test, I know how to handle the disappointment. Likewise, if I do well on a test, I know how to feel proud of myself, without making others feel badly. I also believe that because of my success in gymnastics, I am more confident. Being a part of a team has taught me how to give support to others, and to receive support. I have made lifelong friends, that I spend a huge amount to time with. Gymnastics is also incredibly fun, and if I have something stressful going on, gymnastics clears my mind. I look forward to every practice. I believe these traits, developed through gymnastics, will help me have more success later in life.
    Although gymnastics has so many positive influences on my school life, there are also a few negative effects. One thing that sometimes happens with gymnastics is that I feel rushed doing homework. This hardly ever happens anymore, now that I have figured out a rhythm, but it used to be a common problem in fifth and sixth grade. Another negative impact that comes from the amount of practice I have is the late end time. When I get home at 9:30-ish after practice, I am hungry, and I still have to eat a late night dinner. I also have to finish any undone homework. With school starting at 8:00, I sometimes don’t get enough sleep. These difficulties are not frequent, and gymnastics is most definitely worth a rushed, late night every once in awhile.
    I believe that gymnastics has made me a better student, and set me up to have the skills that I need to be successful later in life. Gymnastics has made me procrastinate less, which helps me focus more on my homework. Gymnastics has also given me life skills, and confidence. Gymnastics is something that I can look forward to on a good or bad day.  I believe that everyone should have something that they love to do, and that that will make them a happier, better person. Even though there are a few downsides to such a demanding sport, gymnastics has given me so many positive habits, and experiences.

Book image source: http://tullyschools.org/teacherpage.cfm?teacher=218