Kuk Sool Won of St. Paul

I moved to the Twin Cities in early June, so I haven’t been here all that long. But I have spent a lot of time at a bunch of other martial arts places including FLO MMA in Chicago and Pacific Ring Sports in Oakland.
So when I say this place is something special, I really mean that.
For the boring setup stuff: The do jahng itself is effectively in a converted loading dock, so there’s a crazy amount of space for classes to be held. The flooring is setup using semi-​foam stuff like children’s playmats, but it’s almost as solid as normal wood flooring or carpet without being hard if you were to actually fall. Easy to jump on stuff, that kind of thing. Standard blue mats are brought out for added safety and comfort for falling /​rolling /​throwing when those particular drills come up. Various equipment that you’d see in any other boxing or martial arts studio, with weapon racks for the upper-​belt forms and training (Not touching without permission kinda goes without saying). There’s also a pretty good viewing area for parents to see their kids in class if they would like, but please be mindful of people working in the space, since your voice does travel.
For the KSW-​specific stuff: SBN Steffen and SJN Nicki are pretty great people in general with a pretty nice sense of humor about, well, everything. As someone who goes primarily to the adult class at night (Which starts at 8PM, so even if you get stuck at work it’s fairly easy to get to, I don’t interact with the kids that often, but the kids themselves are surprisingly well behaved during things like belt tests and the monthly promotion potluck. Which goes into the atmosphere.
One of the things that I never really received in my other martial arts classes was something beyond, for lack of a better phrasing, form and technique drilling. KSW here has a strong emphasis on the traditions of KSW as well as making sure you’re generally just a good person. Adult class specifically (I’m pretty sure the kids do this too, I just can’t speak from experience) starts off with a discussion of the topic of the month (Last month was integrity, the month before was courage), and SBN typically breaks the topic down in small parts over the course of the month while relating it to something either personally relevant or more topical (The last integrity discussion he read The Oatmeal’s Columbus Day comic, citing Matthew Inman as his integrity hero). It’s actually my favorite part, and I have a feeling it’s what contributes to the overall controlled tempo of the environment.
The last reason I love this place relates more to my wife than anything else. She has spent a large portion of her life doing and teaching group fitness and personal training, yet after a fairly poor Tae Kwon Do experience at our undergrad, she refused to even entertain martial arts (in short, higher-​belts exerted poor control when sparring and there was «punishment» not by pushups but by belt hitting and punching). So the first week I went, she was completely terrified about starting martial arts again. What if they were mean? What if it’s too hard (Which I find weird, because she invents absurd tabata workouts all the time for herself)?
Since we started going, she absolutely loves the workout intensity, bringing a lot of the things she has learned into her own workouts. Both of us completed our first belt test this weekend. She’s excited to do more, and is more than willing to keep going even if I’m not there.
Seeing that change is more than a simple 5-​star review.

I had a great first workout at St. Paul Kuk Sool Won. Compared to other schools I’ve tried this one was very organized and the classes were a lot of fun.