Disadvantages for Learning Taekwondo

張貼日期：Jan 30, 2016 12:52:57 PM

Mimo Yeh

Taekwondo is a masculine activity; however, I have learned it since I was 8 years old. In order to learn to protect myself, I was asked by my father to learn Taekwondo. Learning Taekwondo affects me on my personality, growth of height, and circle of friends.

First, learning Taekwondo makes my personality like that of a man. Most people, who may be friends of my parents’ or mine, having met me once, always say I look like a clever and gentle girl. In fact, I am a rough person. I have kicked the genital of boys many times. For example, one of my cram school classmates laughed at me for staying to study hard. I felt so angry that I struck him back instinctively. He felt painful because I kicked his genital. I also displayed boorish manners such as speaking vulgar words and ill-mannered sitting postures.

Second, one of main warming up exercises in Taekwondo is stretching, which slows my physical development. Stretching indeed affects the physical growth of a person. Stretching develops muscles, but at the same time it makes a person unable to grow tall. Powerful muscle often limits the growth of long bones, restricting a person’s height. My younger sister is taller than I, and all of my family taunts my height, which makes me depressed.

Last, a little manliness in me makes me out of the ordinary and have an unusual circle of friends. I have more male friends than female ones. I always play with male friends after class. We sometimes have handstand races, in which the one who holds on longer than the other would be the winner. I have always wanted to protect someone who is important to me, and even become stronger than others like a male. Being different from other girls, I don’t have any commonality to befriend them.

Sometimes I hate myself to be such a person. I am dying to be a gentle and graceful girl, grow taller, and make more female friends. Although there is no point to be a Lolita girl, I feel sorrow when someone laughs at me for my manly qualities. Thus, there are more drawbacks than benefits to me for learning Taekwondo.