ChampYon TaeKwonDo USA Academy

ChampYon TaeKwonDo USA Academy is a family-owned martial arts academy on East 112th Street in the East Side neighborhood of Chicago, serving families from East Side, South Deering, Hegewisch, the Indiana border communities, and the wider South Chicago area since 1982. More than four decades in the same neighborhood means generations of South Side families have come through the program - parents who trained as kids now bring their own children to the same dojo, often under the same head instructor's lineage. The kids program starts at age 4 and runs through teens, with classes structured around the World Taekwondo Olympic-style curriculum: stances and basic blocks, the Taegeuk poomsae forms, kicking combinations (front, roundhouse, side, axe, spinning), structured one-step sparring, and as students advance, light controlled kyorugi sparring with appropriate protective gear. The academy emphasizes the five tenets of taekwondo - courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, indomitable spirit - and instructors weave those into how kids handle setbacks at the dojo and at school. Younger groups focus on listening skills, motor control, and confidence; older kids work on conditioning, kicking precision, and the discipline of memorizing increasingly long poomsae. Belt testing follows the standard color belt progression from white to black with stripes between, and tournament participation is optional but encouraged for kids who want to test their skills outside the dojo. Trial classes are available.