Learning martial arts is beneficial to everyone. It enables people to defend themselves against potentially harmful attacks. My goal was to enrol in a taekwondo class for two months and attend three classes per week. My primary motivation for choosing this experience was to learn self-defense, and my secondary motivation was to exercise and participate in physical activity. My training lasted two months, from October 20th to January 25th, and I learned a lot of new techniques during that time.

LO2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken developing new skills: I am not a sportsperson; I don’t usually like coming out of the house and playing or doing physical activities for one reason: I don’t like to interact or engage in this, and if I do, it will be difficult to come out of it. Walking down the street and recent news updates convinced me that I needed to learn self-defense in order to protect myself from future attacks; therefore, I decided to use this as an opportunity for my CAS as a challenge. Getting fit is important because we need to be mentally and physically healthy, which led me to choose taekwondo as a challenge to learn because I was unfamiliar with any martial art. I want to learn how to mentally control ourselves and our actions during a fight, where we must be calm and patient without harming others.

LO3 initiate and plan a CAS experience:I planned my CAS experience with one of my neighbours who was a regular at taekwondo classes and had chosen a career in the field. I asked him for assistance in learning martial arts and self-defense tricks that I could use while walking down the street on my attacks or others. He assisted me in registering with the institute, and I planned my days accordingly, taking time out of my weekly schedule of three days a week, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

LO4 commitment to and perseverance: I demonstrated my dedication to the taekwondo classes that I attended for two months. I tried to be regular and punctual, but due to a busy schedule, I was sometimes late in class, which I used to cover up at the end of each session. Jignesh sir was pleased with my progress; despite having no physical stamina, strength, or flexibility, I was able to perform much better. Because I had submissions in between, I had to miss 3-4 classes, but I tried to complete as much as possible.

LO6 Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance: We recently heard about a gang moving to flats at night and robbing important cash and jewells, indicating that crime rates are exceeding their limits, as reported in newspapers every day. In such cases, almost everyone should learn a martial art or self-defense technique, such as hammer strike, elbow strike, escape with hands trapped, and so on.

LO7 Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions:The ethics of learning taekwondo basics and self defence were not to harm others; it is primarily a self-defense technique. We should not use this technique to vent our rage or frustration on others. I agreed to the use of such techniques before and after taekwondo classes.

-Arjun Agarwal