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***image1***Kitrina Moore is not an average 9-year-old girl. She’s a martial arts expert.
Kitrina recently became the youngest Tae Kwon Do black belt in the KMC.
“It was so exciting getting my black belt. It was great to realize I had accomplished a dream,” said Kitrina, a fourth-grader at Vogelweh Elementary School.
It took hard work, determination and continuous study for Kitrina to reach her goal. She has been studying Tae Kwon Do for more than three years and has become proficient in ground-fighting, self-defense and sword-fighting techniques, among other skills.
“Doing Tae Kwon Do has really helped with my confidence and my concentration. I’ve made a lot of friends and learned a lot about self control,” she said.
Just because a 9-year-old can do it, doesn’t mean getting a black belt is easy.
Tae Kwon Do is a Korean martial art that is characterized by its fast, high and spinning kicks. Candidates not only learn fighting techniques, but also have to learn the history and tradition of the martial art.
Students study the six tenets of Tae Kwon Do: courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, indomitable spirit and victory. They participate in tournaments and, of course, have to break boards and concrete slabs before they can work their way to black belt.
Kitrina, who also fulfilled the honor student requirement, has competed in three tournaments, taking first-, second- and third-place finishes.
She has worked her way through a rainbow of belt colors, graduating from white to yellow, green, blue, red, deputy black before earning her “Poom,” or junior black belt. While the requirements for the “Poom” and the adult black belt are the same, Kitrina will have to wait until she is 16 years old to hold an adult black belt.
Kitrina’s passion in the sport has also inspired her mother to get involved. Beverly Moore, a 21st Theater Support Command secretary for the 1st Transportation Movement Control Agency, had just given birth to her second child and was suffering from a bad back when she began studying Tae Kwon Do.
“Watching the way Kitrina’s involvement in it was helping her grow up really inspired me to get involved,” said Beverly, who is a black belt volunteer instructor with the KMC Martial Arts Program. “And now, even at nine years old, she still inspires me.”
Kitrina plans to keep learning the ancient Korean martial art and hopes one day to teach it to other children.
For now, she begins studying for her second Dan, which is the next stage in her Tae Kwon Do education.
