Burns Lake has come a long way since the days when it only had a one-room school house, but a one-room school of instruction still exists where students learn the principles of courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, and ‘indomitable spirit’.
This last principle of TaeKwan-Do doesn’t lend itself to a quick summary, but it’s basically the idea you don’t allow your principles to be broken even in the face of winning, losing, begin scared or challenged.
Jeannette Froese has been teaching TaeKwan-Do (TKD) for several years in Burns Lake under the Lakes TaeKwan-Do banner. She slowly took on the teaching duties that Cherill Greening carried before her.
Froese is a student of Master Kurt Ottesen, a seventh-degree black belt who teaches at Freedom TaeKwan-Do in Prince George.
Her 20 students, ranging in age from seven to 42, practise drills, sparring, martial art movement patterns, and focus techniques in a specially dedicated Dojang (Korean for ‘a place where one practices the way’) just a few kilometres south of the bridge over Burns Lake.
The brightly-lit room with padded flooring and high ceilings gave plenty of space for the seven young students who gathered last Thursday for lessons. After a few minutes of stretching limbering up, they went through some drills before Froese brought out the air shields.
These well-padded blockers let the students - some of whom already have advanced belts acknowledging their skill - open up kicks and punches with full force.
The focus of their training, beyond instilling in students the five principles of TKD, is to learn the patterns and skills associated with each level of martial arts mastery, and to grow in self-confidence as they grow in self-mastery.
The local club has been very successful when it takes its training on the road for competitions. Last year, 17 members of Lakes TaeKwon-Do travelled to Smithers for the provincial championships and returned with 23 medals, as well as two commemorative medals.
Recently, many of her students went through testing under master Ottesen and Froese. Those students will find out this week how their performances were evaluated. Froese travels to Smithers in June for two days of rigorous testing as she undergoes some testing of her own to advance to her second-degree black belt.
Froese said that the four evening sessions per week are well-attended. It is a disciplined environment with a lot of smiles. Clearly, the TKD formula works for the young students who came out on a beautiful sunny late-afternoon to practice drills indoors.
“I try to pull out the best in everybody,” Froese said. “And let them have fun at the same time.”