by B.H.
As a guest writer for this post, I thought it might be beneficial to share my experience as a student not only of this school, but of martial arts in general.
My background in martial arts prior to a couple of years ago consisted of watching a LOT of Steven Seagal, Van Damme and Bruce Lee flicks. A LOT of them. As a kid, I wanted to be like those guys. Now, as a 33-year old kid, my body isn’t as flexible as it was before and due to previous injuries, it’s not agreeing with me the way it used to. Does that mean I can’t learn to defend myself and/or stay in shape? Of course not!
So a year and a half ago a friend convinced me to train at Des Plaines Martial Arts. Her main piece of advice was to take my time. People rush things, double promote and barely pass. I’d much rather do it right and get it right! And the truth is, there is no rush. The instructors here haven’t pushed me to do anything I didn’t feel comfortable doing, as long as I pushed myself to do better.
So rule #1 that I’d like to pass on to you: Take your time, do it right. Just like the old SOS band song 
In the year and a half I’ve been taking Taekwondo (and Gumdo AND Hapkido, from time to time), I’ve injured myself a couple of times. Once I was out of class for 2 weeks. Just about every time it was because I wasn’t paying attention to my body. My abductors would say “Hey, you’re stretching me too much” and I’d be all like “la la la la la la I can’t hear you!”. Well, that’s when things happen and you get hurt.
Rule #2: Know your limits. Just like Alfred said to Bruce Wayne
Rule #3 is my last rule (for now, at least) for your time with Des Plaines Martial Arts, and that is to HAVE FUN. Yes, you’re probably taking classes here to learn to defend yourself, and that’s wonderful and you WILL get out of it what you put into it. Chances are you’re not here to be the baddest dude (or dudette) around, but you’d like to be able to take care of yourself if a situation demands it. Morpheus isn’t going to upload Taekwondo into your brain in a few seconds. It takes WORK. And work usually isn’t much fun. But push yourself. Get to know the students and faculty here. They’re good, friendly people and aren’t out to prove they’re better than you. They’re a family, and they have strengths and weaknesses, just like you do. And once you make that connection and get to know others, that work won’t seem much like work at all. Working together is fun, and in the end during testing, when you execute a form in perfect sync with your belt-mates, kihap-ping at the exact same time, it’s a pretty cool feeling.
Thank you for reading my rambling thoughts, and I hope to see you come in to the school to try us out. Remember – it doesn’t happen overnight! Give it a chance!
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Source:
http://desplainesma.com/blog/?p=23