As a mother of two teenage girls, who regularly train at Discovery Martial Arts Academy, I really love Sport England’s “This Girl Can” campaign. I’m a runner myself and even though running makes me feel great, the way I THINK I look when I run isn’t actually HOW I look when I run.
I don’t have the perfect body, in or out of Lycra, and probably couldn’t shift a single pair of Nike’s best-selling running tights if I featured in one of their ad campaigns– I’ve seen the pictures from my marathon to prove it. The difference between me and a lot of women out there is that I really don’t care what I look like when I train and what people think of me. The point of the campaign is that neither should they but 2 million fewer women regularly participate in sport or exercise than men and 75% of women say they would like to be more active but don’t because they fear being judged.
At Discovery Martial Arts Academy, It doesn’t matter if you sweat like a pig, if your hair is all over the place and you’re red as a tomato (as long as you ‘re still smiling!) It’s a sign of a good workout. If you were perfectly coiffed at the end of one of our sessions, the instructors just wouldn’t be doing their job properly. You’re not too fat and you’re not too unfit to start training, you’re not going to look stupid and no-one will be judging you. Taekwondo (and any sport for that matter) is for women of all ages, nationalities, shapes and sizes – real women. Women pack a mean punch and if you can’t, we’ll teach you how. Don’t be afraid to get up off the sofa, get moving and start living. We all know that fitness has to be earned. Taekwondo offers the added benefit of training the body as well as the mind and paves the way forward for us to become the best version of ourselves. Even if we can’t match the appearance of a professional athlete and the insight of the Dalai Lama, we can have a good time trying!
If it makes it easier to give Taekwondo a go, bring a friend or partner along with you to one of our free trial sessions in Plymouth, Plympton and Plymstock and see for yourself what Discovery girls can do.
http://www.sportengland.org/our-work/national-work/this-girl-can/