# Taekwondo age



## Tkd4life (Mar 9, 2016)

I am 20 and I started tkd when I was 19 my teacher said I have potential to be big in tkd so I'm thinking like I want to shoot high for the olympics or us opens and whatever. When I get my black belt I'll be 22. Will my age play an effect on reaching my goal?


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## tshadowchaser (Mar 9, 2016)

I would say BO.  Determination, skill, luck and maybe who you know will have a effect. Your age (22) should not be a determining factor.


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## Buka (Mar 9, 2016)

Age aside, how do you know you'll make Black Belt?


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## Dirty Dog (Mar 9, 2016)

Tkd4life said:


> I am 20 and I started tkd when I was 19 my teacher said I have potential to be big in tkd so I'm thinking like I want to shoot high for the olympics or us opens and whatever. When I get my black belt I'll be 22. Will my age play an effect on reaching my goal?



Your age wouldn't concern me nearly as much as the idea that you've already apparently been told how long it will take you to reach 1st Dan.
Your teacher has trained which Olympians? And how much will it cost you to get your 1st Dan so quickly? 
I'm not trying to discourage you. I think you should train hard and shoot for the moon. But all too often, these sorts of comments, especially when combined with a promise of how long it will take to earn XXX rank, are more marketing than anything else.


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## Andrew Green (Mar 9, 2016)

Buka said:


> Age aside, how do you know you'll make Black Belt?



Everyone should go in with the attitude and belief that they will.  And in general, everyone that sticks around long enough eventually will.  Do you use that same logic in other pursuits as well?  "How do you know you'll graduate High School?"  "How do you know you'll finish Drivers Ed?"

Beyond that it's a simple matter of how the school is set up as to him knowing when.  If you start a university program you can know when you will graduate... maybe it changes, but if all goes according to plan you know when you will graduate.  If a university can take a far more complex and full time curriculum and break it down into segments in order to teach to a timetable there is no reason a martial arts curriculum can't be taught to a timetable as well.  You might get A students and C students all graduating at the same time, but there is nothing wrong with structuring a curriculum in that way.


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## Tkd4life (Mar 9, 2016)

I know I will get it at the certain time cause all I put my time into is that sport and school more tkd and I am a discipline student


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## Kenpoguy123 (Mar 16, 2016)

Tkd4life said:


> I am 20 and I started tkd when I was 19 my teacher said I have potential to be big in tkd so I'm thinking like I want to shoot high for the olympics or us opens and whatever. When I get my black belt I'll be 22. Will my age play an effect on reaching my goal?


You'll have a black belt in 3 years of training? Well okay but you may not you may fail the test you may get into something else or get bored or come back later. Plans are good but saying you'll definentely have a black belt by then is unrealistic


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## Tony Dismukes (Mar 16, 2016)

I think the folks focusing on whether the OP is certain to get his black belt in 3 years are doing a bit of straining at gnats and swallowing camels.

Many, many TKD schools operate in such a way that a student of average ability who shows up and trains consistently at the hobbyist level can pretty much count on earning black belt rank in a predictable length of time. 3 years is not an unusual length of time for that process.

In contrast, competitors who get to the _Olympics _(in any sport) generally

have exceptional genetic gifts
start training as children
have world-class coaching
train like full time professional athletes
If the OP actually has even 1/10th of the talent and work ethic required for a shot at the Olympics, then earning a TKD black belt in 3 years would be trivial.

To the OP - if you actually have the talent, determination, and coaching to become a world-class competitor, then starting at your current age is a handicap, but probably not an unsurmountable one.

Now for the reality check ...


Natural talent - none of us knows how much natural ability you might have and you aren't in a position to objectively evaluate yourself in this regard. Forget about this for now.
Coaching. Has your instructor trained any Olympic competitors or world champions? Do you have any top, world-class competitors in your school right now that you get to train with? (By world-class, I mean that they've medaled in high-level international competition.)
Work ethic. How many hours per week are you training? 10? 20? 30? Total hours spent isn't everything - there's also the intensity and quality of your training to consider - but if you want to reach the top you have to devote some serious time to the climb. If you're plunking away with the casual hobbyists putting in 4-6 hours per week you aren't going to get there. You probably also need to be making it to every competition available in your state and the surrounding states. The more experience the better, especially since you're starting late.
Good luck to you. Even if you aren't destined for the Olympics, you can still become a top-notch martial artist as long as you keep at it.


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## Flying Crane (Mar 16, 2016)

Andrew Green said:


> Everyone should go in with the attitude and belief that they will.  And in general, everyone that sticks around long enough eventually will.  Do you use that same logic in other pursuits as well?  "How do you know you'll graduate High School?"  "How do you know you'll finish Drivers Ed?"
> 
> Beyond that it's a simple matter of how the school is set up as to him knowing when.  If you start a university program you can know when you will graduate... maybe it changes, but if all goes according to plan you know when you will graduate.  If a university can take a far more complex and full time curriculum and break it down into segments in order to teach to a timetable there is no reason a martial arts curriculum can't be taught to a timetable as well.  You might get A students and C students all graduating at the same time, but there is nothing wrong with structuring a curriculum in that way.


And how many people who enroll in an undergraduate university program drop out before they complete the program and graduate?

And the high school dropout rate can be shocking, at least here in the US.


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## Tames D (Mar 16, 2016)

Flying Crane said:


> And how many people who enroll in an undergraduate university program drop out before they complete the program and graduate?
> 
> And the high school dropout rate can be shocking, at least here in the US.


I'd rather see someone go into a program (any program) with the expectation of succeeding as opposed to failing.


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## Dirty Dog (Mar 16, 2016)

Tames D said:


> I'd rather see someone go into a program (any program) with the expectation of succeeding as opposed to failing.



An expectation, yes. A guarantee, no.
If you go into something expecting to fail, you probably will.


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## Tames D (Mar 16, 2016)

Dirty Dog said:


> An expectation, yes. A guarantee, no.
> If you go into something expecting to fail, you probably will.


PMA vs NMA
I prefer PMA. Not only for myself but for people who work for me, and people I associate with.


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## Buka (Mar 16, 2016)

Age? Means nothing when you're young. Nothing.

My friend and old team mate, Arlene Limas, was the first American to win a Gold Medal in Olympic Tae-Kwon-Do. Arlene was the balls. She trained her butt off for a lot of years, with an Olympic Gold medal as her goal. And she went out and got it.

Who says you can't? Have to work, though, work like a dog, fight like banshee, day in and day out, for at least ten years. Go getum', kid, I wish you the best. You can do it.


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## Azulx (Apr 1, 2016)

On a side note, my school gives a time table for what the average time to get a black belt should be. For us it's 27 months. Out of the 25 students we have had since the club has started, only two are on that time table path. Everyone else either wasn't ready to test, took a break, or quit. So someone could join our school and then say I'll be a black belt in 2 years, but that could easily be turned into 3 or 4 depending on how committed the student is.


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## Lameman (Apr 1, 2016)

I find it amusing that someone compared martial arts training to academics. Hopfully not the american educational system. What is the world coming to? And what's next, handing out belts because it wasn't fair?


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## Tkd4life (Aug 13, 2016)

Tony Dismukes said:


> I think the folks focusing on whether the OP is certain to get his black belt in 3 years are doing a bit of straining at gnats and swallowing camels.
> 
> Many, many TKD schools operate in such a way that a student of average ability who shows up and trains consistently at the hobbyist level can pretty much count on earning black belt rank in a predictable length of time. 3 years is not an unusual length of time for that process.
> 
> ...





How do evaluate talent in a tarkwondo athlete I already have quickness and flexibility from when I played football in high school. And why does it mean that this person has to start out when he/she is a child to compete in the highest level? That doesn't make sense at all


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## Kickboxer101 (Aug 14, 2016)

Tkd4life said:


> How do evaluate talent in a tarkwondo athlete I already have quickness and flexibility from when I played football in high school. And why does it mean that this person has to start out when he/she is a child to compete in the highest level? That doesn't make sense at all


For the same reason adults can read better than children because they've got more experience plus they get it forged into their head at an early age so it's always with them


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## Tkd4life (Aug 14, 2016)

Kickboxer101 said:


> For the same reason adults can read better than children because they've got more experience plus they get it forged into their head at an early age so it's always with them


That's not true there are a lot of people in this world that are late bloomers in life. Jim manuwa started mma at 27 and now is a big time heavy weight. I have fight footage from my Taekwondo match 2 months ago when I was a yellow belt now a green. I had people think I fought like a higher belt but no and I am still improving looking back to this video for motivation to Improve the areas in lacking in. 

I am blue


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## Tony Dismukes (Aug 14, 2016)

Tkd4life said:


> And why does it mean that this person has to start out when he/she is a child to compete in the highest level? That doesn't make sense at all


You don't _have_ to start out as a child (except in certain sports), but it's a big advantage. Skill is developed through time and practice. A competitor who is the same age as you who started training seriously when he was 10 will already have thousands of hours of experience while you are just starting out.

That doesn't mean that you _can't_ be successful starting out at your age, just that it's a disadvantage.

Right now I wouldn't worry about the age you started at, because you can't do anything about that. I wouldn't worry about your natural talent, because you can't do anything about that either. I'd pay attention to the other factors in the reality check list I wrote above.


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