Hi my name is Jake Churchill I am 15 years old and I am a 1st degree black belt in Tae Kwon-Do. I first joined Penrith Tae kwon-do in June 2004 after I had seen my brother at his trial session, I joined for the simple reason of having fun and I also wanted to kick some pads.

Nowadays my favourite parts of TKD are self defence, sparring and special technique (that’s jumping really high and kicking a target that’s high in the air). I like self defence because it teaches you how to defend yourself if you ever had to and because it is a good opportunity to practice control. I like the sparring aspect of Tae Kwon-Do because it is a good way to practice a wide variety of moves against a real opponent, and it is a really good activity for keeping fit as you are moving fast and working hard. And as for special technique well I like that because it is a great challenge and a fun way to compete.

When I started TKD I was in a mixed group of seniors and juniors then as time went on these were split and I was in the juniors lesson for a while but was given the option to move up to the seniors class. I found this class hard to start with because I was the youngest person in it but I soon got used to it (and grew at the same time). Nowadays I thoroughly enjoy myself, as the class has a great atmosphere and friendly people. As well as this classes are very well taught by good instructors and after a couple of weeks you will most likely notice a difference in yourself; I remember that I did.

- Jake Churchill