Black belts earned

Through hard work, and perseverance, Pat Rodgers, his son Ben, 15, and Zach Cleave, 15,  received their black belts in Taekwondo.

Taekwondo Chief Instructor or Sahbahnim, Robert LaVala of Boundary Martial Arts celebrated the three black belt recipients Tuesday.

Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and is the national sport of Korea.

“These three have been with me a minimum of 33 months working toward this goal,” said LaVala.

There are nine belts one can receive in Taekwondo. The belts start with white, white/yellow, yellow, yellow/green, green, green/blue, blue, blue/red, red, red/black, then finally black.

Once a student has received their black belt they are eligible to become an assistant instructor.

Currently LaVala has eight black belts including his wife and his son, who are first degree black belts and also serve as assistant instructors.

LaVala who has been instructing for nine years, four of them in Boundary County, said there are about 30 people in his DoJang ranging from ages four to 100.

He said it takes about three years to get to the black belt stage and that is if one passes every test. It can sometimes take longer as when a test is not passed the student has to wait three months before they can test again.

“I also let students play other sports, so for instance if one wants to play football, I have no problem with that,” LaVala said.  “They can just pick right back up where they left off and continue to their next goal.”

According to LaVala Taekwondo is an international sport and one of two martial arts that are allowed into the Olympic Games.

The main things that are taught are  discipline, self control, perseverance, good health and the ability to defend ones self.