Pastor passes her taekwondo black belt

LAC LA BICHE - A pastor, an artist, and now a black belt. The multi-talented pastor at the Lord of Glory Lutheran Church, Jailyn Corbin, completed the Taekwondo black belt test on Nov. 14 hosted by the Lakeland Taekwondo Club.

Taekwondo Masters from Whitecourt came to Lac La Biche to judge Corbin and the six other students from the local club during the two-hour test of patterns, sparring, self-defence and power skills of breaking wooden and concrete objects 

Corbin says having to remain balanced during any of the eight pattern sequences — with 20 to 25 individual moves in each one —  was the most difficult part of the test for her.

“So, you’re up there, shaking and terrified of this test, and then you have to do all of these moves that require a lot of balance, and you’re trying not to fall,” Corbin told Lakeland This Week. “That was the most nerve-wracking part, because it was the first thing we had to do.”

Corbin has been practicing Taekwondo on and off since she was a teenager, but it wasn’t until 2016 when she started to take it more seriously. Throughout the last four years she has worked her way through the nine belt colours. It's been a long and challenging time.  Aside from her own positivity and determination, she says the people surrounding the sport are what always brought her back.

“A lot of it really is the community. The best way I can describe Taekwondo is fun — and it really does feel like we are actually a family. We’ve all seen each other fall flat on our faces, get up, and laugh it off,” said Corbin. “It’s the most fun sport that I’ve ever been a part of. That’s what I like most, is that we are learning how to protect ourselves, and we are also making a connection. We are making friends.”

But she admits that not all of her training comes from the desire to make friends. In her profession, she admits, there are times when a single priest or pastor, imam or cleric may face an unwelcome threat from someone who comes to them looking to ease their troubles. As a pastor, Corbin has to work a lot with the public, and even though she has never been put in a dangerous situation, some of her colleagues have been put into uncomfortable or dangerous positions.

Corbin hopes that she won’t have to use her Taekwondo skills in a real life situation, but if she does, she will be ready.

“This is why I need the martial art, you never know what situation you’re in in this industry, because we work with the most vulnerable people,” she said, calling the self-defence aspect of her training the "practical part."

Attaining black belt level isn't the end of the learning curve for Corbin and others. There are nine levels to a black belt, and she won’t be able to reach the second level - second Dan black belt - until she has been practicing as a first Dan black belt for a year. Corbin is just happy that she stuck to her goals.

“It was amazing. I’ve worked so hard for so many years - having first tried Taekwondo as a teenager, and putting that on my bucket list to get my black belt, and there were so many obstacles,” said the married mother of four young children. “As you get older, life happens, you have kids, and school, and work. And I did it. I actually got my black belt.”