Sometimes, class doesn’t go as planned at Montaño Taekwon-Do. And that’s perfectly fine with the lead instructor. In fact, Rebecca Montaño embraces the challenge.
Her family-friendly dojang operates in the basement studio of the Korean United Church on Napier Street in Hamilton, and has earned a reputation as a welcoming, inclusive space, especially for neurodivergent students with a myriad of needs.
Montaño, who started out teaching classes at the Flamborough Family YMCA back in 2017, was presented with a Hamilton Accessibility Trailblazer award in the business category at a special ceremony at City Hall on Sept. 26. It’s a meaningful milestone for her, in more ways than one.
Montaño is a sixth-degree black belt and, in addition to running her own dojang, she is the Director of Special Needs and Inclusion for ITF-TAO Canada.
She is autistic, and was diagnosed as an adult with ADHD; she is also dyslexic.
“I can stand in front of my class and go, ‘I get it. That's where you are today? That's okay. You don't have anything to worry about,’” she said during a recent interview with FlamboroughToday.
Montaño took an untraditional route to her career as a taekwon-do instructor. After obtaining a Bachelors degree in engineering physics at the Colorado School of Mines she earned her Masters in physics from the University of New Mexico, before working in Albuquerque imaging the brain. She came to Canada in 2006 to do her PhD, married and started family.
“Academia, I went far in it, but it was extraordinarily challenging and it wore me out,” she said.
All the while, Montaño was practising and competing internationally in taekwon-do - a passion inspired by her father Barney, who trained alongside his daughter, and earned his seventh-degree black belt. His impact on her life was immeasurable.
“This was the person that had my back, no matter what I did,” she said. Her father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and passed away in 2015. His death sent Montaño into a profound depression and, ultimately, changed her life path.
“When my dad died, I went into a very deep depression and nothing was getting me out of it. I kept hitting the wall and spiralling down,” she said, noting that at the time one of her kids had been diagnosed with ADHD and she wondered if that was the wall blocking her way.
Her first day on medication was a revelation.
“I felt like I was under water because everything was going so slowly,” she said. “I could see the tasks that I had in my day, things that I needed to accomplish, then I could prioritize them. It was really quiet and slow. And then about halfway through the day, I burst into tears because I realized that's how everybody else sees the world. So I had spent 43 years fighting this.”
Then living in Waterdown, Montaño had been traveling to Oakville to train at Morningstar Taekown-Do; she also started working out at the Flamborough YMCA, which was much closer. She approached them about teaching a class for families, and started out doing two-nights a week at the Parkside drive facility – an arrangement that lasted a few years.
When the master at the Hamilton dojang decided to retire to Manitoulin in 2021, she jumped at the chance to create a space that would give neurodivergent kids and families a chance to learn - and shine. Several of her YMCA students followed her, and today she has about 50 students.
In her dojang, behaviour that otherwise might draw “the look” of disapproval is accepted. Water breaks are allowed, and if someone is overwhelmed and has to stop partway through, they can. Expectations are verbalized specifically - neurodivergent students don’t always understand social cues. At Montano Taekwon-Do they aren’t labeled rude or difficult for not answering questions or acting a certain way.
“It's all about picking up on the etiquette and anything it has to be explicit or we're not going to know, and so you should be able to offer that grace,” said Montano.. “‘You're fine. Today is not your day, come back. It's fine,’” she tells them. “It's important, and it breaks my heart to see them…when they’re worried about coming back because they think I’ll be angry. And I’m like, dude, no, no, no, I get it.”
This recognition is important, says Montaño, noting that In her role with ITF-TAO Canada, one of the first things she did was work to have the position be reserved for members who live with a disability.
“They must be disabled, because if you're not, you’re not going to see the tells,” she explained. “So it passed and from here on out there will always be disabled person on the board of directors.”
The growth of her dojang is testament that there is a need for training that accommodates families and kids with neurodivergent needs.
“They find me,” said Montaño. “I live openly autistic and loudly, so that people know it's okay. Once word gets around that there is an ADHD instructor that isn’t going to make the students feel bad for the accommodations that they need, they find me.”
Montaño is working on knocking down a few more barriers. For instance, she wants to test for her seventh degree black belt - something her father did at age 68. She also wants to pave the way for others.
"It’s not if there’s going to be another sixth degree autistic black belt…it’s when. I’m just the first autistic woman black belt," she said. "I’m only going to be the first. I’m trying to kick that door down so even if I’m too old to do it, they’ll be able to."
