The MVHS Taekwondo Club began last year as a way for sophomores and co-presidents Kolina Law and Kai Tsuchida to spread their love of a relatively uncommon sport to MVHS students. Since then, it has grown into a club with roughly 20 members of varying backgrounds in Taekwondo, a Korean form of martial arts emphasizing kicking techniques.

Law, a third degree black belt that has been doing Taekwondo since 2019, enjoys teaching members different techniques. Freshman and Taekwondo Club member Jamie Park says that at their meetings in the MVHS wrestling room on Tuesdays and Thursdays, officers typically split up into two different groups: sparring, which is contact practice with a partner, and poomsae, which focuses more on learning techniques without contact. Park occasionally teaches technique and is an active club member. She is training to become an officer for the 2026-27 school year.

“We like to break it up into parts because Taekwondo is a sport with many different aspects to it,” Park said. “It’s nice because if someone wants to practice sparring, they can go with Kai, and if they want to practice poomsae, they can go with Kolina.”

To Park, one of the main goals of the Taekwondo Club is to increase the sport’s exposure among the MVHS community. She hopes that meetings can help teach members new skills from different forms that they might not have learned otherwise.

“I hope that more students at MVHS will find out about Taekwondo through this club and find it as a new passion or interest for them,” Park said. “Maybe officers can also teach them how to do certain skills and techniques that they might find useful in the future.”

Law recalls a time when a new member came in wanting to learn Taekwondo after having experience with other forms of martial arts. To expand on his previous martial arts skills, co-president Kai Tsuchida was there to assist him.

“A new member recently joined us who boxes and does Muay Thai,” Law said. “He joined our club because he wanted to learn more about kicking. We have a lot of members in our club that don’t know Taekwondo at all, and they’re just starting to learn from us.”

The world of Taekwondo comprises multiple different styles, the main two being World Taekwondo — the style used to compete in the Olympics — and the International Taekwon-Do Federation, which emphasizes self-defense and power. As the club grows, Law hopes that the teaching can too.

“We hope that we can eventually expand and teach so that new officers will know ITF,” Law said. “I hope we can teach ITF in the future as well.”

Outside of their meeting, club members advertise the club through demonstrations to further promote Taekwondo. Law reaches out to local establishments and coordinates dates and times for the club to perform. For sophomore and vice president Antonella Rojas, the club’s trip to the Asian American Community Involvement’s senior wellness center was very memorable.

“We taught the seniors some simple skills and also performed a demonstration,” Rojas said. “We also got to perform board breaking for the audience, which was really fun.”

Law also recently organized an upcoming trip to the One Stop Learning Center. She hopes that by reaching out to these establishments and choreographing these martial arts demonstrations, she can promote Taekwondo to younger children. 

“First, we ask club members to see who would be interested in going to the event,” Law said. “Then we have to coordinate with everyone who is available, and we start to work on choreographing our demonstration and figuring out what music to use. We meet twice a week every week until the demonstration.”

Law, Park and Rojas all hope to grow the size of the club as well as the number of community events they attend during their time at MVHS. Rojas points out that the club has become an outlet for her.

“It relieves stress for me because I am able to put a lot of strength into my punches and kicks,” Rojas said. “It is kind of like an art form.”

Similarly, Park finds Taekwondo club to be a great opportunity to share her common interests with people. She is grateful to be able to improve her skills while also learning new ones.

“I feel like Taekwondo is a very niche sport, and not a lot of people know about it at MVHS,” Park said. “I already practice a lot at my studio, but finding opportunities to share this sport with our community through Taekwondo club has made me feel really good.”