Kickin’ it with Mia Dalgleish
Dalgleish, junior, is a taekwondo instructor for blind students.
A s the summer drew to a close and the first day of school inched closer, junior Mia Dalgleish was faced with a daunting task. It was time for Dalgleish to finally send her student, Antonio Smart, a 30-year old legally blind man, onto the platform. The 2015 California State Open Taekwondo Championship had at last arrived after a year’s worth of struggles and accomplishments between mentor and student. And as the lights finally beamed upon Smart on the center platform, Dalgleish looked on with anticipation.
Only seven years ago, however, Dalgleish was far from being the beloved taekwondo instructor she is today. With barely any knowledge of martial arts, Dalgleish immersed herself into a new activity that would greatly encourage her physical and mental growth the next several years.
Many of Dalgleish’s friends have always questioned why she chose taekwondo over other martial arts such as karate and jiu-jitsu. According to Dalgleish, the first time she viewed taekwondo at a church event she was invited to she was mesmerized by the finesse of the various movements, especially those requiring the use of the entire lower body. Taekwondo seemed to “fit” her personality better than other martial arts, which sometimes made her nervous as they were either too aggressive (krav maga) or too amusing (tai chi).
Wanting to being able to defend herself against anyone who might try to harm her, Dalgleish encouraged her younger brother, Evan Dalgleish, 10, to enroll with her in taekwondo. However, Evan, who “tends to remain home and avoid sports”, could not grow accustomed to such an unfamiliar environment and couldn’t handle the crunches and push-ups that were expected of him, causing him to eventually quit in the first few weeks.
Despite wanting to quit with her brother, Dalgleish’s temptation was vastly outweighed by her desire to protect herself and her younger brother as they were usually home by themselves after school until their parents arrived from work. So she forced herself to stay, ignoring the aching muscles and the throbbing headaches from days of crunches and push-ups. With every lesson, she improved her taekwondo form and eventually attained her black belt two years later. A year later, she won first place at the 2013 California State Open Taekwondo Championship, which consisted of three events: Individual Poomsae (form), Team Poomsae, and Individual Gyorugi (sparring). Highly impressed by her talent in taekwondo, the head of the Academy, Sung Wook Yang, offered Dalgleish an opportunity to work for him.
Only five months after training under Yang, Dalgleish became captain of elite groups of black belt students called demo teams, and began coordinating their shows for various occasions like belt ceremonies, birthday parties, and the Brea Korean Sister City Culture Night Show. Seeing potential in her, Yang knew that Dalgleish would eventually become capable of instructing people other than children.
“Never have I seen as rare a case as Mia in my entire career of instructing taekwondo. She actively displays the best mixture of passion, strength, determination, and discipline, all traits that are necessary for martial artists. She has learned to almost completely challenge her limits and extend the range of her abilities one by one,” Yang said.
Since then, Dalgleish has worked at the Shambhala Martial Arts Academy as an Academy instructor, teaching everyday from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
However, after five years of coaching younger students, Dalgleish was faced with the daunting, new task of training Smart.
According to Yang, at Shambhala Martial Arts Academy, legally blind students from the Braille Institute in Anaheim often come to learn taekwondo in order to defy the stereotype of disabled people not being capable of doing what normal people can do.
Dalgleish believes that teaching blind students is a “unique experience” because the students at the Anaheim Braille Institute vary in age and in their ability to see. While some can faintly perceive shapes, others can barely see at all.
Dalgleish states that the key to teaching these students is to teach them patience and trust, which she does by providing slower and concise instructions unlike her faster and lengthier instructions for her regular students. In order to teach them different kicks and punches, she emphasizes other senses besides sight, such as touch. She places them correctly into each position and orders them to hold their posture for one minute before releasing it and repeating the process. In order to help them maintain their focus during their training, she drills her philosophy of “nothing good will happen if you don’t try” into them. “My five years of training for my black belt was full of struggles. Sometimes I would feel like giving up, but Mia and all the other Shambhala masters and instructors pushed me to do my very best and would not let me back down. They support me and will always be there for me,” Antonio Smart said.
With Dalgleish’s help, Smart recently earned his first degree black belt after five intense years of training. Dalgleish states that this is not only a considerable lifetime achievement for these students, but for the blind community as well. Students like Smart are some of the first black belt achievers in their community.
Dalgleish initially received much pressure from having to appear “perfect” in the eyes of her grandmaster and consequently did everything she could to train all of her students effectively. However, Yang did not expect too much of her abilities as he was aware of the responsibility of her task, but he was pleasantly surprised after Dalgleish exceeded his expectations.
“I do, at times, feel sorry for how much pressure I had put her under, but how she has grown and developed over the past several years under that pressure makes me feel even more [proud] that she is my student,” Yang said.
Despite having to appear “perfect” in front of Yang, this was not Dalgleish’s chief reason for involving herself in the Braille Institute.
“I [decided to start] instructing [students at the Braille Institute] because I believed that it would be a good opportunity to increase my taekwondo knowledge and abilities. When I first started instructing, I had no idea that I would enjoy teaching students of all ages so much. Seeing them grow, not only in skill, but in self-confidence and in personality as well, moved me. This is why I continue instructing and why I love what I do. Taekwondo and instructing are not just my hobbies, they are my passions,” Dalgleish said.
The 2015 California State Open Taekwondo Championship turned out to be a win-win situation after all. Smart ended up placing first runner-up in his category. This signaled another of Dalgleish’s accomplishments as an instructor. As he continues to train under Dalgleish, Smart now plans to compete in the 2017 California State Open Taekwondo Championship under Gyorugi.
Dalgleish’s passion for taekwondo may seem like a huge dedication to others, but these last five years were only the beginning of her taekwondo journey. As she continues to develop her martial arts career, Dalgleish hopes to encourage her students to challenge their limits with unfamiliar activities.
