Look, I’m a dinosaur.
Back in the day (a.k.a the 70’s & 80’s), we were all blown away by this cutting-edge technology that we saw in the movie “Best of the Best.” It was a pad that you could attach to a heavy bag. When you hit it, it would tell you how many pounds of force per square inch that you were hitting with. It was the most technologically advanced thing we had ever seen in Tae Kwon-Do.
These days, the technology that assists people in Tae Kwon-Do is more for the sports-based Tae Kwon-Do. Body monitoring, weight training machines, the things that you would normally think of for training an athlete are being used more and more in martial arts for the sport part of it. Think: athletes who are being trained for the Olympics (and Olympic Tae Kwon-Do is not particularly interesting).
That’s not to say that we haven’t embraced some technology. For instance, we use software to run the dojang that gives us a ton of data on students’ progress. It also lets us track things like attendance, and gives us insights into what students are more engaged than others, and who needs some help.
Social media has helped us grow the school and engage with people in a new way.
And, during COVID, we leaned heavily into video conferencing software like Zoom. At the time, it gave us ways to run classes virtually. But we still use it all the time. Zoom has given us the ability to stay in contact with other schools all over the world. We get to watch them train and learn from them, and share some of the things we are doing at our school. I have definitely gotten some good ideas that way, that I normally wouldn’t have.
But in the grand scheme of things, I am very old school. I haven’t found technology to be much help with the style of Tae Kwon-Do that I practice, and that we teach at the school. Our style is more traditional Tae Kwon-Do. It is a fighting-based, military style. It’s the style that General Choi and Grand Master Park toured the world and showed to people.
As far as I’m concerned, the pinnacle of Tae Kwon-Do training technology is the heavy bag.
And not with any fancy pads that tell me how hard I’m kicking it, either.
Master Gorino’s Tae Kwon-Do offers a trial program for individuals and families in Buffalo, NY and the surrounding areas that allows you to get a feel for the different classes, meet our instructors, and experience our dojang. It’s a great way to see if Tae Kwon-Do is right for you. To learn more or to sign up, visit the Contact Us page or call (716) 836-KICK (5425) and a member of our team will follow up with you on next steps. We look forward to helping you achieve your goals. Pil-Sung!
