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Black Belt testing is this weekend! Red/black belts and black belts will get the opportunity to show off their skills and test for the next step in their taekwondo journey. It is an exciting time but also one of the most physically and mentally challenging things that these people will ever go through. That made us want to share what exactly needs to be done to test for a Black Belt.

Step 1:

Students need to be able to perform Shimsan 1-6 (forms) to perfection. They need to be able to show every hand move, stance, in the correct order and time. They earn “stripes” on their belts for each form they perfect and then an “all or nothing stripe” to show that they know all of the forms. At any point they will lose a stripe if they are not able to perform it and have to re-earn that stripe. They must also know all of the belt meanings.

Step 2:

Students have to perform for their community. They must show others what they have learned in Taekwondo and the skills they possess. They also must tell why they like to participate in Martial Arts, and why earning a Black Belt is important to them.

Step 3:

Testers must participate in 12 hours of community service. They must show care and commitment to their community by volunteering for community service. It is their choice, but many people pick up trash, work at a food bank, read to the elderly, etc.

Step 4:

Martial Artists testing for their Black Belts must write a speech to be performed in front of color belts. They must talk about their journey to becoming a Black Belt, why they should follow in their footsteps, and why becoming a Black Belt is important to them.

Step 5:

Students must learn and remember the 31 Korean words that relate to Taekwondo. They must learn about the history of Taekwondo and memorize the Hwa Rang Code of Chivalry. They must also choose a philosophy question and write an essay on it. Adults must write an essay about how Taekwondo has changed their lives.

Step 6:

Six weeks before testing, students must do a fit test three times per week and practice their forms every other day. The fit test includes one minute of burpees, jumping jacks, situps and pushups. They must also run one mile per week and finish in under 8 minutes. At the end of the six weeks, your scores and times on your fit test and running should surpass the previous weeks.

Step 7:

Students must write an essay to be spoken at Black Belt testing. It should recognize and thank everyone that was a part of their Taekwondo journey and helped them get to a Black Belt.

Step 8:

Testers must show their skills and pass along their knowledge to others by helping to teach in five classes to lower ranks.

Step 9:

The last step before testing for a Black Belt is completing all eight steps and getting final permission from their instructor. Then they go and actually test!

Testing includes performing all of their forms, being asked all the words and belt meanings, breaking boards, and giving their speeches. If they are able to do all of that, then they earn their Black Belt!
Three students from Mueller’s Martial Arts will be testing for their Black Belts on March 11th at Venture Martial Arts in Flatirons. Wish them luck!

The journey to a Blackbelt is not an easy road. When you first step into a taekwondo dojo you are filled with eager anticipation to learn how to kick and punch. You make the choice to dedicate to becoming a Blackbelt. It’s a journey that takes years to achieve and as it turns out, the hardest part is when you are almost there.

Along the way you learn so many new skills. You learn and embrace the eight life skills to give you what you need in and outside the dojo to succeed- perseverance, focus, attitude, confidence, integrity, discipline, respect, and goals. Every single day you become better and better until eventually you have them so ingrained in you that they are just a part of your personality.

The years it takes to get there are difficult. There are moments where your knuckles are bloody from punching so many bags. Or your feet are covered in blisters from running barefoot on the mats for so long. Your entire body is tired and sore. All you want to do is quit. But you don’t. Some people may wonder why. The answer is simple: Blackbelts don’t quit.

Then you think you are almost there. You achieve your red black belt. One more step and you can tie on that belt. This is actually the hardest step. The work you put in before is at least doubled. You have to truly show what you are made of every single day. You have to show up and prove that you are worthy of the title of Blackbelt.

Then it happens. You’ve learned it all (at least as much as you can for right now). You know all of the forms to perfection. You can break the toughest boards. You know how to defend yourself and your loved ones in any situation. You’ve competed in tournaments and won. It’s time- you’re ready to earn your Blackbelt.

You step into the dojo and test for your Blackbelt. You show off your skills and all that you have worked to get you here. You’ve shed blood and tears and it’s been one of the hardest things you’ve ever had to do mentally and physically. But that moment where you tie on your belt for the first time and are met with admiration and pride from yourself and your peers is unlike any other feeling. You climbed the mountain and never gave up no matter how hard it was. You know that you can carry that perseverance with you for the rest of your life.

The journey to a Blackbelt will change your life in every single way. It shows you who you are, what you are capable of. A new journey lies ahead, but you can take the lessons you learned along the way and carry it with you for they will be useful in the years to come.
Three students from Mueller’s Martial Arts will be testing for their Blackbelt on March 11th. To learn more about our program, click here.

Meditation has been around for centuries but over recent years has once again gained popularity. The reason being is that meditation has amazing benefits not only for mental and physical health, but also for manifesting desires and self awareness. Meditation reduces stress, helps with anxiety, improves attention span, can prevent dementia, improves sleep, reduces pain, and overall makes people healthier and happier.

Meditation is great and all, but did you know that Martial Arts training can be a form of mediation in itself? By definition, meditation is to think deeply or focus one’s mind for a period of time in silence or with the aid of chanting. It is to think deeply or carefully about something, or to clear one’s mind and look deep within oneself.

During sparring and forms practice, students are essentially meditating. When drilling techniques or practicing forms, students have to clear their minds and focus solely on their forms. They can’t think of anything else or they become distracted, losing focus and messing up their forms. Their mind has to be completely invested in each move every step of the way. When they become good enough at doing a form, their mind can actually go blank and they can do the moves without thinking about them. By clearing their thoughts and letting their bodies do the work, they are practicing a form of meditation.

Sparring is very similar. When sparring an opponent, Martial Artists can’t be thinking about the homework they have to do or something their boss said to them at work that day. If they lose focus, they will get kicked in the head! They have to stay completely invested in fighting their opponent. When they get good enough at it, they are able to clear their minds and once again let their bodies take control. They are able to spar not because they are thinking about every move, but out of complete instinct. Both ways of sparring are forms of meditation.

If taekwondo training is also a form of mediation, then it begs the question, does it have the same benefits of meditation? The answer of course is yes! Martial Arts training, just like meditation, has many benefits including lowering anxiety, greater physical health, improves memory and focus, and overall makes people that do it happier and healthier. Rather than sitting alone in the darkness and trying to clear your mind, you can get the same benefits from coming to class and kicking people in the head. Pretty cool huh?

To learn more about our program at Mueller’s Martial Arts, click here.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Valentine’s Day is a special time to celebrate those that you love, but it can also be a moment to think about WHAT you love. We don’t know about you, but at Mueller’s Martial Arts, we love taekwondo!

Friendship:

Our friends are at taekwondo! Each day that we attend class, we get to see our friends. Some people make their best friends while training, and sometimes those friendships last their entire lives. It also gives students the chance to make new friends from different schools and backgrounds. Sometimes the most unlikely and best friends come from taekwondo.

Family:

Did you know that unlike many other sports, in Martial Arts you can train with your entire family? At Mueller’s Martial Arts we have a family class, which gives families the chance to train together. It’s all ranks and all ages so anyone can join. Training together gives families the opportunity to work towards a common goal and share a common interest. Families that train together stay together!

Community:

Our goal at Mueller’s Martial Arts is to be a welcoming place in the Lakewood community where everyone belongs. Our doors are open to everyone regardless of where you are in life. We just want to bring people together to learn some awesome stuff, and become better people along the way. In the studio we are all family and anyone that chooses to come in should feel the same.

In a world full of hate we want to take this Valentine’s Day to tell all of our students, we love YOU. Without our community of Martial Artists we couldn’t do what we do. We love to kick and punch, but we love training with you even more. Happy Valentine’s Day!

When the new year started at Mueller’s Martial Arts, we started our incredible 2023 competition team! Our comp team is made up of a select group of students of all ages who are chosen by invite only to join the group. The students are selected because they show outstanding commitment, leadership, and skill in every class that they attend. It is an honor to get selected onto the team, and they have to prove themselves worthy to be a part of it.

The competition team is required to attend comp team class every single Friday. If they miss a class, they are required to teach another class to make up for the lost time. They only get to miss one class a month or they are disqualified from the team. They are also required to attend sparring class every Friday, to get better at and practice their sparring.

The workouts are a step up from regular classes, they last longer and are much more challenging. It is a class that pushes students to their limits every single week that incorporates intense Martial Arts, but also strength training and running. They get extra time to work on their forms for, you guessed it, competition.

Students on the comp team are required to attend every tournament. They have to compete to stay on the team. That means not only working hard to do their best at tournaments, but also competing in every event that they can. That means forms, sparring, weapons, elevated, inventive- anything that they can prove themselves in. The goal is for color belts to win a State Championship title, and for Blackbelts to win a World Championship title.

Competition team is a place where students work extremely hard and push themselves, but it is also a place of friendship. The comp team often grows closer than any of the other classes because of the extra time they spend together. The team also does outings as a group, where they get together and do something fun like bowling, going to events, etc. The team pushes and supports each other to become the best Martial Artists they can be.

Mueller’s Martial Arts competition team will be competing at the tournament on February 11th. To learn more about our program, click here.

Martial Arts training has many benefits- improvement of physical abilities, learning and practicing life skills, and having a community. The goal is to someday earn a Blackbelt, however, we would argue that training along the way there, and also when you are a Blackbelt, could be for competitions. Mueller’s Martial Arts encourages every student to attend a competition at least once, but we know that they will keep going once they realize what a special experience it can be!

Taekwondo tournaments give the students something to train for. You wouldn’t show up to baseball and soccer practice everyday and never compete in a game, right? So why would taekwondo be any different? Those hours of hard work should be for something alongside getting a Blackbelt, and tournaments are the perfect place. Students get to show off their skills and get the chance to earn a medal. The sense of accomplishment that they get from winning something will encourage them to keep going and train even harder.

It’s also the opportunity to see where they are at in their age range and division. When training with the same people everyday, it’s easy to believe that they are the best or the worst at something. But when they compete against other people they get to see if they really are that great (which is empowering) or if they need more work (which is humbling). Either way they are encouraged to work even harder to become better. If you win a game you want to keep going. If you lose a game you want to work harder to win next time.

Tournaments challenge you in new and exciting ways. When students step onto the mat, they are putting themselves out there to be judged on their hard work. They are competing against people that they don’t know that are from different schools all over the state. It can be intimidating! It’s also the chance to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Growth only happens when we push ourselves to do something new and different. Competition is a great way to do that!

Mueller’s Martial Arts will be competing in the tournament on February 11th and is encouraging every single student to attend. To learn more about our program, click here.

Taekwondo is more than a sport to Santi Lujan. It impacts who he is as a person, it has shaped him into who he is today. Before taekwondo he had no discipline, never listening to what his parents told him to do. He didn’t understand the meaning of integrity- doing the right thing even when no one is watching. He thought he could do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, and taekwondo taught him to respect others and always do the right thing.

For a long time he was not sure who he was as a person. Through the years of training, he now has the strength to be at peace with who he is and it “means everything to him”. He believes in himself more every day because of the skills learned through taekwondo classes. His confidence has soared, starring in school plays and now earning his blue collar. Mr. Lujan teaches classes all on his own and inspires the students he works with.

Training since he was four years old, classes are a second home to him. It’s the community that he loves. The relationships and support from his fellow students and his instructors ignite the excitement he feels when he walks into the dojang every day. He loves the feeling of teaching something new to a kid, the look on their face, and the way they light up when they understand and it clicks for them.

Before taekwondo, Mr. Lujan had trouble paying attention and focusing on anything. He struggled in school and had no respect for his teachers. Since starting martial arts he now excels in school and has a profound respect for his peers and authority figures, especially his parents whom he cherishes. He has graduated with honors from his high school and now attends the Colorado School of Mines.

Getting his black belt was the greatest accomplishment of his life. The journey and struggle to get there changed who he is as a person. It was the most “enriching” feeling he had ever had. To tie on the black belt with a brand-new uniform, felt like he achieved greatness. Taekwondo made his life better in every way, and he plans on taking in as much as he can, learning something new at every opportunity. Mr. Lujan teaches Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at Mueller’s Martial Arts. He is a captain of the Competition Team, blue collar, second degree black belt, leads classes, and inspires everyone that he meets. To learn more about our program, click here.

If you saw our picture from last week, Tye was doing the full middle splits on two chairs! Most people know that taekwondo training increases flexibility. Many Martial Artists can do the full splits, kick above their head, and perform moves that most people can’t come close to being able to perform. Beyond that however, taekwondo training also makes you flexible in all areas of life.

Body Flexibility:

In each class, we spend a good amount of time stretching. Great Martial Artists are flexible. They can kick above their head in forms and they can kick opponents in the head while sparring. To get to that level, not only do students need to practice their kicks, they also need to work on stretching. Stretching in class requires patience and practice, and putting mind over matter when things get uncomfortable. That mentality carries over into everyday life. More on that later.

Flexibility for the Future:

By working on flexibility at a young age, your body will thank you for it later. As we age our bodies get more rigid and fraile, but when you are flexible you are less likely to get hurt. Your body is able to adapt to any movement whether that be climbing a mountain, running a marathon, or lifting heavy weights. Your body can move with ease as you age, daily movements remain easy and you aren’t burdened with chronic pain.

Flexibility in Life:

Not only does Martial Arts training help with body flexibility, it also helps with flexibility in life. Life is difficult and is going to throw you some curveballs. If you have a rigid idea of the way that life will go, you are bound to see yourself as a failure. However, if you are flexible in life, you adapt to what life is challenging you with and persevere to the other side. Just like your body moves to accommodate what you are doing, your mind will do the same. You will be able to kick any challenges in the head and become the champion of your life- all because of the flexible mindset you gained in karate training.

To gain more flexibility on and off the mat, come join a class at Mueller’s Martial Arts. To learn more about our program, click here.

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Black Belt Testing

The Journey to a Blackbelt

Meditating Through Martial Arts

We LOVE Taekwondo

Competition Team

Training for Competition

Meet Mr. Lujan

Flexibility in Martial Arts