What to Expect at Your First Adult Martial Arts Class in NYC.

What to Expect at Your First Adult Martial Arts Class in NYC.

Starting martial arts as an adult can feel intimidating. You may wonder whether you’re in good enough shape, whether everyone else will already know what they’re doing, or whether you’ll feel out of place walking into a martial arts school for the first time.

At International Martial Arts Center (IMAC) in New York City’s East Village, we want you to know something before you ever step onto the training floor:

You will be welcomed.

For more than 30 years, IMAC has built a martial arts community around a simple principle: we help one another become better.

You Don’t Need Experience to Begin
Many adults searching for martial arts classes in NYC think they need to get in shape before starting. You don’t.

Your first class is the beginning of that process.
You won’t be expected to keep up with someone who has trained for years. You’ll begin with fundamentals and progress at your own pace. As your technique develops, so do your conditioning, coordination, flexibility, balance, confidence, and understanding of martial arts.

Everyone was a beginner once.
And at IMAC, experienced students remember that.
A Friendly, Welcoming Martial Arts Community
One of the first things new students notice at IMAC is the atmosphere.

Our students train seriously, but they don’t train with ego.
Higher-ranking students help newer students. Training partners encourage one another. If you don’t understand a technique, someone will help you. If you’re struggling, nobody is judging you. We want to see you improve.

Positive. Friendly. Welcoming. Helpful.

Those aren’t marketing words for us. They describe the culture we have worked to build since 1994.

Martial arts may begin as an individual journey, but you don’t have to make that journey alone.
Traditional ITF Taekwondo and Reality-Based Hapkido
IMAC offers adults a distinctive combination of traditional ITF Taekwondo and reality-based Hapkido.

Our ITF Taekwondo training develops powerful striking techniques, kicking, movement, balance, coordination, patterns, discipline, and control. Students learn not simply to perform techniques, but to understand how the body generates speed, accuracy, and power.

Our reality-based Hapkido training adds another dimension, including practical self-defense principles, close-range techniques, joint manipulation, releases, and responses to realistic situations.

Together, these arts provide training that challenges both the body and the mind.
You’re not simply coming in to burn calories for an hour.
You’re learning a skill.

What Happens During Your First Class?

Don’t worry about knowing how to bow, stand, kick, punch, or move correctly. That’s why you’re coming to us.

We’ll introduce you to the school, show you the basic movements and help you through the training. You’ll see students at different levels working together, from beginners learning their foundations to advanced students refining techniques they’ve practiced thousands of times.

Nobody expects perfection.
We expect only one thing:
Come in willing to learn.
Everything else develops through training.

More Than a Workout
New York City can be demanding. Work, responsibilities, phones, screens and constant noise compete for our attention every day.

Martial arts training gives you something different.

When you step onto the floor, your attention comes back to your breathing, your movement, your technique and the people training beside you.

Over time, students may discover something they weren’t necessarily searching for when they joined: a community and a place where they belong.

That has always mattered at IMAC.
Your First Step Is the Hardest One
Almost every experienced martial artist can remember being a beginner.

The uncertainty disappears surprisingly quickly once you walk through the door and meet the people you’ll be training with.

So if you’ve been searching for adult martial arts classes in NYC, ITF Taekwondo in New York City, Hapkido in NYC, self-defense training, or martial arts in the East Village, don’t worry about whether you’re ready.
Starting is what makes you ready.

Come meet us. Experience a class. Meet our students and see the atmosphere for yourself.
At International Martial Arts Center, you’ll train hard, you’ll learn, you’ll improve—and from your very first day, you’ll have people around you who want to see you succeed.

INTERNATIONAL MARTIAL ARTS CENTER
East Village • New York City
Traditional ITF Taekwondo • Reality-Based Hapkido
Established 1994

“FROM CALMNESS THERE IS POWER, FROM SILENCE THERE IS AWARENESS.”

Best regards,
Master Hahn