"Quest for Mastery" Tae Kwon Do Retreat
Sophia Soler, Staff Writer
Over the weekend, people gathered to watch people ages 15-17 not only complete amazing and taxing physical feats, but also watch them do something uncommon among teens, which was actively fill in leadership roles.
The first technique was to remember that you choose your thoughts, not the other way around. You are in control of your own mind. The rest of the weekend focused on setting S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals and following through. This acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound, Evaluated, and Reviewed. After learning about setting S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals, everybody then set their own goals, Tae Kwon Do related or otherwise.
Anyone who went for the titles of Instructor, Senior Instructor, or Master had to speak and answer a
question in front of the audience. The Instructors answered what they want to achieve as Instructors, the Senior Instructors answered what makes them qualified to wear that uniform and be a Senior Instructor, and the Master Instructors answered the question of what exactly they don't know. The Master Instructor's question was based off the statement by Grand Master Kim, which was "You don't know how much you know until you know what you don't know."
At Camp Mariah over the weekend of February 9th-11th, United Martial Arts Centers (or UMAC for
short) hosted their annual "Quest for Mastery" weekend retreat. Friday night kicked off the weekend with many teens leading the entire group of approximately 200 people in a warm-up to begin the night.
This year's theme was a book written by two of the Masters called "You Have Infinite Power". This book focused on many qualities and techniques to improve our mind.
The first technique was to remember that you choose your thoughts, not the other way around. You are in control of your own mind. The rest of the weekend focused on setting S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals and following through. This acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound, Evaluated, and Reviewed. After learning about setting S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals, everybody then set their own goals, Tae Kwon Do related or otherwise.
The adults and the children were separated into several groups of approximately five people, with teens who are instructors leading these groups. Within each group, the members became each other's accountability partners. At least twice each day, everyone was required to tell everyone in their group their goal. This was done to set them up for success. The more you say and write down your goals, the more likely you are to work on achieving that goal.
After training all night, everyone headed up to their cabins at 11pm to sleep before a morning meditation at 6:30 the next morning. The next morning, the focus became about having a more productive morning. The group separated into two circles and rotated around, telling everyone in the camp their goals. After breakfast, everyone separated into three groups, children's groups lead by Training Instructors, adult groups, and instructors. The children's groups created skits based on the topic discussed Friday night, the adults did a personal development seminar lead by one of the Master Instructors, and all the Instructors went on a 5-mile hike through the snow.
When all these sections finished, everyone returned to the main hall to watch the white belts graduate to yellow belt after their challenge of learning all their curriculum over the weekend and the children performed their skits. Everyone ate dinner and separated once more into two groups, Instructors and graduates. Instructors discussed the hike and took a test on the science of Tae Kwon Do. The graduates practiced the layout for graduation. After this, bonfire started at 9pm. The bonfire is an event were the floor is open for people who have emotional experiences that they would like to share, people they want to thank, or something learned over this weekend retreat. It is an emotional experience as people from all the Tae Kwon Do schools stand up and talk in front of everybody about how they have struggled and what they have overcome. It is a voluntary activity that nobody is forced to do, but it is recommended.
After bonfire, everyone went to sleep and prepared for the next morning. Everyone had breakfast and then drove to Surprise Lake Camp in Cold Spring for the Black Belt Graduation.
After training all night, everyone headed up to their cabins at 11pm to sleep before a morning meditation at 6:30 the next morning. The next morning, the focus became about having a more productive morning. The group separated into two circles and rotated around, telling everyone in the camp their goals. After breakfast, everyone separated into three groups, children's groups lead by Training Instructors, adult groups, and instructors. The children's groups created skits based on the topic discussed Friday night, the adults did a personal development seminar lead by one of the Master Instructors, and all the Instructors went on a 5-mile hike through the snow.
When all these sections finished, everyone returned to the main hall to watch the white belts graduate to yellow belt after their challenge of learning all their curriculum over the weekend and the children performed their skits. Everyone ate dinner and separated once more into two groups, Instructors and graduates. Instructors discussed the hike and took a test on the science of Tae Kwon Do. The graduates practiced the layout for graduation. After this, bonfire started at 9pm. The bonfire is an event were the floor is open for people who have emotional experiences that they would like to share, people they want to thank, or something learned over this weekend retreat. It is an emotional experience as people from all the Tae Kwon Do schools stand up and talk in front of everybody about how they have struggled and what they have overcome. It is a voluntary activity that nobody is forced to do, but it is recommended.
After bonfire, everyone went to sleep and prepared for the next morning. Everyone had breakfast and then drove to Surprise Lake Camp in Cold Spring for the Black Belt Graduation.
Anyone who went for the titles of Instructor, Senior Instructor, or Master had to speak and answer a
question in front of the audience. The Instructors answered what they want to achieve as Instructors, the Senior Instructors answered what makes them qualified to wear that uniform and be a Senior Instructor, and the Master Instructors answered the question of what exactly they don't know. The Master Instructor's question was based off the statement by Grand Master Kim, which was "You don't know how much you know until you know what you don't know."
