By: Emily Riddle
While Kyle Rieber serves as a public safety officer during the day, he takes time at night to teach lessons about one of his favorite hobbies.
Rieber began learning taekwondo in 1984. He said “The Karate Kid” movie was a big reason for starting his martial arts career. He signed up for a black belt course to stay committed and loved it so much that he stayed with it, and now he is a seventh-degree black belt.
Rieber said he started teaching taekwondo in 1990 when he received his second-degree black belt. It wasn’t until 2020 that he began teaching it at Bellarmine.
Practices begin with a warm-up to get the body loose. Then, the students do some target practice, followed by sparring. They also have short breaks during their hour-long lesson.
Rieber said he loves teaching college-age people. “They know they have a limited amount of time and so they value their time. When they're there that means they want to be there it's not because I said, ‘Hey you got to be here.’ They're there because they want to be there,” he said.
First-degree black belt Gavin Trumbull began training when he was in elementary school, stopped for a while, and then picked it back up at Bellarmine. He said while he’s getting a good workout in, he also does it for the social aspect.
“It's a social thing because I get to hang out with some of the people who do it and talk with other people who have more experience with it,” Trumbull said.
Green belt Taylor Slone invited her friends to join her at taekwondo. “I think if you have people that are your friend outside of taekwondo, it can make [it] fun because you pair up and you do no-contact sparring and you practice blocks and attacks and all this stuff, which is fun when it's somebody that is your friend because you can just giggle about it,” she said.
Taekwondo lessons are every Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the SuRF. No sign-up is necessary. Students can come whenever they are available.
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