Welcome to Thinking About Getting Into: a newsletter about interesting people with interests.
Have you ever felt like you missed out on a childhood ambition? Maybe there was a sport or class that you wish you’d gotten the chance to do but for whatever reason, didn’t? That’s how Anna B. Albury felt about taekwondo. You might know Anna for her rug designs and interior styling, or her newsletter Coolstuff.nyc, which she curates with her husband Garrett. (ICYMI, it just celebrated its 200th edition). But in her spare time, she practices taekwondo.
I saw you posted about getting your blue belt over the summer! So how did you get into taekwondo?
I always wanted to do taekwondo since I was young, but I never acted on it. My brother did it while I did ballet. I always thought taekwondo was really cool, but at the time, I felt like it was a boys’ thing. Then, about a year and a half ago, I was at a street fair in Cobble Hill. A taekwondo studio there had these wooden boards out—really thin ones, for kids. But they said, “We have adult classes. If you chop this in half, you get two weeks free.”
My husband Garrett was like, “You have to try this.” And so I chopped the board because it was paper thin. I got the two weeks of classes, and I went.
Taekwondo is a very solo journey, which I like. Everyone is on their own different belt that they get by doing a different routine, but everyone takes the test together. It was really hard to jump into—six people had black belts, and I was just wearing leggings and a T-shirt. But it was something new, and I loved it. So, I signed up, and now I’m halfway to a black belt.
That is awesome.
It’s so fun. When I started, I had two instructors who were really cool taekwondo ladies, and I think that’s why I started to love it. They were super encouraging while also being really tough.
What’s the class structure like, especially with it being open-level?
The first quarter of the class is high-interval training. We do things like push-ups and burpees to warm up, and then we all practice the techniques of certain punches and kicks. Toward the end of class, we start practicing solo. We all have specific routines—you’re not fighting other people; it's just punching the air, which is more my vibe than trying to hurt somebody. Then our instructor comes in and gives us tips and individual attention.
Things like breaking wooden boards—is that a part of your testing?
Yes! To get the next belt, you have to chop a board. It gets thicker as you advance, but it also gets easier because you're no longer afraid of cutting it in half. But the techniques do get harder. My last one, I had to run in, literally jump in the air, and kick from the side.
Oh my God!
It was insane. But I got it on the first try, which was exhilarating. Sometimes, they throw in a bonus board technique, which can be scary, but it's all about thinking about going through the board.
I feel like so much of it must be like a mental exercise, too.
Totally.
It must be really satisfying.
For sure. Also, because I'm not a tough type of person, it's kind of funny that this is my hobby. But having a very unexpected thing that's just yours is fun.
I leave work, and then I have to remember a routine and perform it to get a new belt. It's really rewarding because there's nothing similar you experience as an adult besides getting a job promotion or something like that.
That's a really good point. So you have your blue belt now—how many belts have you gone through?
You start with no belt, and you have to earn the white belt. Then yellow and orange, green, green with a black stripe, blue with a black stripe, and I now have the blue black striped one. The next belts are variations of the colors.
When you get closer to a black belt, the tests start to get very crazy, and you have to memorize all the routines that you did prior.
Oh wow.
I also just learned to get a black belt, you have to do almost everything that you've learned 100 times in a row.
How long does that take!?
I don’t know, but I'm okay with it because I don't know if I could do that.
I think you can—it seems like you’ve moved up really quickly to be halfway to a black belt after a year and a half!
I know. But yeah, it would be like, 100 flying side kicks in a row.
That's an intense workout.
I know. So we'll see.
How frequently have you been doing these tests? Is your instructor the one who's like, “Okay, you're ready for this test,” or is there a set date?
It's an instructor telling us; everyone tests at the same time. It's about a month, a month and a half, or two months between the tests. They tell us, “I think you're ready,” or “You need to wait a few more weeks.” Sometimes you don't feel ready, but they say you are.
Are they weekly classes? How often are you going?
It’s two to three times a week.
Are the same people always in your class? Have you made friends through it?
Yeah, it's a mixed adult and teen class. There are some teens, which is entertaining because they're complaining about their SATs and like, “Where am I gonna go to college?” But then I have other classmates who are really great, and we go and get K-BBQ and hang out with our instructors, who are the same age as us—which can be funny because we have to call them “ma'am” and bow.
Did anything surprise you when you first started?
It was way more of a workout than I expected, which was a good thing because I wanted to find a way to have some sort of exercise in my life. I've tried barre classes and yoga and things like that, and it always felt really competitive. That's not me. I like that taekwondo is truly your own journey, but you're still in a class with people who can encourage you and get you to work harder.
Also, you have to yell every time you kick, which was really hard at first because it felt silly. But it helps you!
Do you think doing taekwondo has changed anything in your day-to-day life?
You have to have a lot of discipline to go to something after work two or three times a week. It's hard making time for something like that, and I think that's something that is new—having a responsibility other than work that I would feel really bad missing.
When you first started, was it something that you immediately fell in love with, or was it something that built more as you got more experienced?
It definitely built. But I knew that I wanted to sign up and commit. The reason I keep going is the instructors hold you accountable. You prepay for months at a time, which honestly helps a lot. It's not just like, “Oh, I might show up this day.” It's a schedule.
Is there anything that you would tell people who are thinking about getting into taekwondo?
Make sure you have time to dedicate to it and practice at home. A lot of people start, and they're only in it for the first two or three weeks. It's hard to keep doing something like taekwondo, but if you have the dedication to it, that's the key.
I always told my friends, “I want to do taekwondo because the outfits are so classic.” And I always said that I wanted to stop with the cobalt blue belt because it's my favorite color. But I’m trucking on by!
You keep the belts, right?
Yeah, I have a rainbow in my closet.
What do you think is the best thing about picking this up as your hobby?
A hidden skill is a fun thing to have for yourself. Knowing that I've made it this far and I'm still going and improving is very rewarding. ▲