Character Sheet FAQ's

Character sheets are a piece of paper we have designed as a guide to help students develop their character. Each Taekwondo belt has a character word associated with that rank, and students are required to develop that character word within their own lives as they progress from one rank to the next. The character sheets help facititate this process of character development. 

While Taekwondo is often thought of as just kicking and punching, that is far from the truth. As we teach individuals how to become powerful practitioners of Taekwondo, it is vital that we also develop their character. If we are going to teach you how to inflict bodily harm onto other people through powerful kicks and punches, we must also teach how to develop yourself into a mature person who will not misuse the knowledge we pass down to you. 

The Character sheet does three main things related to character development:

1. Opens the door for conversation between child and parent regarding character and character words.

2. Encourages students to explore the character word for themselves.

3. Holds the student accountable for consciously choosing to develop their character.

As soon as a student gets their character sheet, they should ask their parents for a suggestion on how to develop that character word. The student should also ask any of their Taekwondo instructors for a suggestion. It is the students responsibility to ask parents/instructors.

The student gets to make a tally mark next to the development method after they have accomplished that method, up to once per day. Do not mark down more than one tally mark per day. It is generally up to the student to remember to mark the tally, as well as to decide if they did enough to earn the tally mark. This is part of the development process, they have to take it upon themself to really decide if they earned the tally mark without relying on an adult to just tell them.

There is no magic number of tally marks that equals a stripe. The Character Sheet is a guide to developing character, not a school worksheet being checked for a completion grade. Some development methods are something the student can do every day, others are stuff that might not happen more than once a week - thus the number of tallies will differ. Furthermore, if a student has marked a lot of tallies, but the adults in their life do not see any improvement in the character word, then they are not ready for their stripe.

The goals are designed to encourage students to set small, actionable, and achievable goals, and then take steps towards achieving them. As they reach their goals, they will learn that they can achieve the things they set their mind to and work towards, which helps instill confidence and excitement in their ability to improve themselves. 

The goal can be about anything (even not Taekwondo stuff) that fits the following guidelines:

1. The student can achieve it within a couple/few months.

2. The student can set steps to actively work towards it.

3. The student will clearly know when they have achieved their goal.

Examples of goals that DO NOT fit this criteria:

• Improve my stances - how will you know when you have succeeded?

• Earn Black Belt - this is not something you will achieve before your next testing

• Learn all of my next Taekwondo pattern - this is already a requirement for getting your next belt and requires no extra work to achieve

Examples of goals that DO fit this criteria:

• Make it through a patterns class without an instructor having to correct my stances

• Earn a 95% or greater on my math exam

• Kick a specific student in the head in a sparring class

We recommend bringing it in at least once a month to have us look at it and check in on the process to make sure we are going the right way. Also, always bring it in a couple weeks before a testing to see where you are in terms of earning your stripe?

Come talk to one of us and politely ask us to print another one for you. You will have to start over on the sheet, and likely will have to endure a sarcastic remark or judgmental facial expression from Mr. Grove. The sooner you speak to us about it, the sooner you can get re-started on the character sheet and work towards the stripe.