Parents looking for a way to get their children involved in a healthy activity have found taekwondo as an outlet that each can enjoy together.

For some families in Albert Lea taekwondo is a sport the entire family can enjoy and many participate together through Albert Lea Community Education at the Family Y on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

The sport, which preaches discipline, lends itself well to parents with young children as an activity they can do together.

Instructor Bruce Thimmesch was first introduced to the sport when his daughters, Alexandra and Jessica, wanted to give it a try. His daughters asked if he would join them in the class and eventually all three became black belts.

“I had the rules with my daughters, if you test for your orange belt, you have to test for your black belt,” he said. “So therefore when I spoke those rules to them, I followed it myself.”

Thimmesch always had a desire to learn about the sport, which originated in Korea and has become the most popular form of martial arts, and when he daughters expressed an interest it gave him an opportunity to experience the sport.

“It boils down to a means for self-defense,” Thimmesch said. “But it’s a lot deeper than just being able to go out there and beat someone up. You have to have a lot of respect for each other.”

Thimmesch has been involved with taekwondo for six years now and runs the Albert Lea taekwondo club now. He said the time the sport allows him to spend with his daughters is invaluable and has made the family tighter.

“Sitting around you can be tight, but you get the actual interaction and seeing them progress and how you progress,” Thimmersch said.

“It’s definitely a world of difference.”

The family interaction aspect of the sport led Joshua Lair to get involved with taekwondo with his sons Tyler and Brady. It’s one of the few sports where father and son can be at the same level and work together on improving. Joshua and Tyler are both yellow belts after five months time while Brady is a white belt.

“The reason I started this was to be with them,” Joshua said. “They were kind of shy and I started doing it with them and now they came out of their shell.”

The repetition of movement stresses discipline while respect, honor and integrity are tenets of the sport. At a young age those can be good lessons to learn.

“It amounts to a life change really,” Thimmesch said. “You become basically at peace with yourself. I’ve seen some people that were quick to temper calm down faster.”

Thimmesch admits he was quick to temper at times, but through taekwondo he has learned to calm down. He patiently works with students as they try to master the number of moves involved with the sport. His daughters are on hand as well to assist him. Thimmesch is a third degree black belt while his daughters are second degree black belts.

It’s a sport Thimmesch says everyone can do and that certainly helps get families involved.