Sunrise Tae Kwon Do

Sunrise Tae Kwon Do is a great place to train your kids in TKD and have them pick up general life skills along the way. The instructors provide strong positive and consistent guidance, motivating young kids to stick with the program and eventually earn their black belts! It is amazing to see Grand Master Kim and the the instructors coach children. This has been a great experience for us! I highly recommend this program!

All three of my children trained with Grand Master Kim beginning at age 4. My children all competed at the Junior Olympics several times across several states with Grand Master Kim, earning gold and silver metas. Grand Master Kim and his staff are truly dedicated. The staff at Sunrise Tae Kwon Do worked not only on competing at the top level but teaching the children personal integrity, self discipline and leadership skills. My children are now high school aged and earned their second degree black belts. I recommend Sunrise Tae Kwon Do!

Our son has been with Sunrise TKD for almost 5 years. He has achieved more than we could have imagined; confidence and focus. He is on the principal’s honor role in middle school and almost a 2^nd degree black belt.

Master Kim, and instructors Sean and Ryan do an excellent job with the kids. My son is better for attenting. The combine Tae Kwan Do with valuation life lessons. I recommend Sunrise TKD

My daughter begged us to take martial arts classes at age 7 so we tried Sunrise on a recommendation from another family. She loved it and stayed three years to earn a black belt. I also decided to try the adult classes and ended up earning a black belt myself, as well as getting in much better shape and making great friends! It was an unforgettable mother-​daughter experience that we will always share.
The masters and instructors are top notch, and bring the best of their Korean martial arts expertise, but also are flexible to fit American families. The owner, Grand Master Joon Kim has been teaching in San Clemente for over 20 years and has been recognized by the city for his contributions. He has actually «graduated» a number of his employees who have trained under him and then gone on to open their own taekwondo studios in Southern California, which says a lot about the strength of the program. He truly cares about each and every student and gets to know them and their families. All the instructors are kind and encouraging.
The character-​building part of the program is just as valuable as the physical.
My daughter did not have behavior issues, but she did start out quite shy at the beginning, and 3 years later at age 10 she was a different kid, showing leadership and confidence in her abilities. She even used some of the self-​defense training to get away from a difficult situation at school, and has used it to help friends deal with bullies. She adored the masters and couldn’t wait to go to class each week.
I’ve also seen kids with discipline issues who benefited tremendously from the training program. The masters encourage parents to really integrate the ‘black belt character’ into their lives, so that the kids can be rewarded for good behavior/​good grades, or potentially (with mom/dad’s involvement) get a stern talking-​to, if they are behaving badly or disrespecting their parents. Lots of the moms know that just threatening to tell GM Kim about naughty behavior is enough to make that child shape up quickly! Sometimes that is needed above and beyond what Mom and Dad are doing.
The Sunrise staff became part of our family and I consider that invaluable. Yes it’s an investment, but certainly not out of the realm of club sports or all the other activities that are part of raising a child in Orange County. I would certainly rather invest in this type of program than to buy them another video game or pair of designer jeans.
We’ve just started our son at Sunrise and I can’t wait for him to experience all the benefits his older sister did!

My son has been going to Sunrise Tae Kwon Do for over a year now and it has been a great program. My high-​functioning autistic son started when he turned 4 years old and we enrolled him to help with his balance, coordination, and eye contact. He attends small classes twice a week and we have seen an improvement in all these areas. The instructors are patient and encouraging and the little dragons class is fun so my son always loves to go! Money well spent.

My son has been going to Sunrise for 4 years and it has been an amazing experience for us. Not only does he love it but what he has learned through this program is unmeasurable. Confidence, strength, focus, motivation, making smart decisions and respect comes first and those attributes are so very important in life and Sunrise has done a tremendous job in doing this for the kids. The masters truly care and love the kids they teach. Thank you for the past 4 years and we are looking forward to many more!

Warning! Just my opinion and many others who have went through the program but the owner’s sales tactics are over the top. He is why they call this activity «Take Your Dough»… One thing I noticed though is TWD is not a martial art as much as it is a silly sport. All the black belts spar with their hands at their sides. Most black belts cannot do a correct push up which is crazy. If you decide to quit or leave his program, get ready to be disliked. Take the 2 free weeks and TRY a few other programs before you let them high pressure sales the hell out of you. I don’t believe the so-​called black belts are not going to be able to defend themselves in a fight unless they are naturally strong/​athletic kids. The high pressure sales is my biggest problem though. They have NEVER failed one kid in a belt test in the 3.5 years I was there. I will say the program can be decent for a few months to get kids listening better, maybe learning to kick and then having fun with the dodge ball they play. Best of luck whatever you try but please beware. I’d like these people to start letting people choose the program vs. high pressure sales. The funny thing is if you sign up I guarantee you they will lock you into a very long contract. They won’t let you go month to month unless you pay a very high price compared to what they are trying to sell you. I feel like I wasted years of the kids lives. We are at the San Clemente HS youth wrestling team now. Love the discipline, skills, conditioning. Only water polo can compare on the conditioning side and I don’t think there is a youth program in SC that compares if you are looking for discipline. Ironically, the wrestling team runs about $ 40 a month per kid for 3 two hour practices per week.