San Jose State’s taekwondo program teaches students who have practiced martial arts for years and complete newcomers to discipline and defend themselves by teaching basic techniques in a relaxed environment.
Jennifer Schachner, fourth degree black belt and taekwondo instructor, has taught taekwondo at the university since 2000.
Schachner’s beginning taekwondo class uses no belt ranking. Instead, she teaches all her students the traditional basics of the martial art.
Social work senior Cassandra Tesik said she doesn’t mind all the students wearing white belts in the class, regardless of their experience, because they all practice basic techniques in the class.
“So everybody being a white belt in the class is correct,” Tesik said.
Chemistry junior Kim Sorn is helping to teach the beginning taekwondo class for her first semester.
She has learned self-defense through taekwondo since she was 4 years old.
Sorn said she enjoys teaching students because it gives her the motivation to practice and to improve her skills.
Teaching a two-unit course at a university gives Schachner the flexibility to teach new students effectively.
“They are not necessarily looking for an instructor who is going to yell at them and make them do pushups every five minutes if they are not on point,” Schachner said.
After earning a second-degree black belt from a private studio before attending SJSU, Tesik now practices basic techniques with other students in the class and enjoys making friends while helping other students learn.
Tesik said she chose to take the class because she hates physical education classes and thought it would be easy.
Industrial design sophomore, Nicholas Choi also learned taekwondo before coming to SJSU, practicing in elementary school and getting “stuck on white belt for 4 years.”
Choi called Schachner’s teaching style “Americanized” because she is much less strict than the instructors that taught him as a child and only spoke Korean in class.
“She does not yell at you constantly and if you mess up, she doesn’t hit you with a stick,” Choi said.
Choi said taekwondo is now helping him build confidence and relationships.
Political science freshman Irene Helfert said Schachner’s teaching makes it easy to memorize the techniques she practices and that she enjoys taekwondo more and more as she practices.
Although students can request to earn belts as they learn more taekwondo, Schachner said the belt system is not practical in a short class at a university.
Helfert said she enjoys learning taekwondo at SJSU much more than how she practiced for several years before when she was surrounded by black belts much more experienced than her.
“So it is more of a group experience and it feels much more accepting and less pressured,” Helfert said.
Schachner teaches her beginning taekwondo class at 7:30 a.m., pushing her students to get up early and
be disciplined.
Helfert said the early start time has pushed her to set a routine so she can exercise early in the morning.
“My dad really likes it, that I actually have a routine now,” she said.
Along with respecting older people, Kim Sorn said practicing taekwondo has taught her to create meaningful relationships by respecting everyone, including herself.
“You learn that you have to care for yourself first before you can care about others,” Sorn said.
