Our second son, who had the opportunity to attend Cub Scout Day Camp last summer, was not able to have the opportunity to attend this year, due to circumstances beyond our personal control. Since he had loved Day Camp so much last year, we decided to offer him a consolation prize. He didn't demand one, he understood the reasons that he wasn't going to be able to go to Camp, but we felt that he deserved to get to do something fun this summer, so we gave him a choice between swimming lessons and Tae Kwon Do. At first he decided on the swimming lessons because, he stated, he was already really good at fighting and could fight his way away from any kidnappers or robbers that might cross his path. He also decided that swimming and Tae Kwon Do had about the same amount of chance of saving his life someday. Soon after that though he changed his mind and went for the Tae Kwon Do option. (That may have had something to do with the potential for a cool uniform and something about Halloween). So a couple of days ago he began his lessons.
First let me say that we are doing this through the Parks and Recreation Program, so its not nearly as expensive as it could be, but its also not nearly as high quality as it could be. He is the only beginner in his class, and it is a mix of kids and adults at varying degrees of advancement. His first class, we arrived, and after he took his shoes off he was able to get his first injury. His instructor was having the little kids (there are four of them including my son) do this kind of running/climbing stairs in place exercise in front of a ledge. Since this was a new exercise to my son, he promptly stubbed his toe repeatedly. He has a tendency to do things really fast when he gets excited and he was trying to keep up with the instructor. He got over the toe stubs relatively quickly and the kids' half of the class moved on to punching a heavy bag repeatedly, then kicking it repeatedly, then working on blocking, front kicks, turn kicks and jumping kicks. I am not sure I have ever seen anyone so excited in my life. He looked a little awkward trying to do some of the moves, but he was trying so hard. He learned important lessons like, don't punch with your thumb tucked in, and that if you goof off you have to do pushups (he learned that second one because of other kids goofing off, he was very attentive to the instructor himself). He had the time of his life. He was glowing!
Myself, I didn't really know too much about Tae Kwon Do other than it's a Korean martial art. I spent the class alternating between watching the kids on one side of the room do their punches, kicks and blocks, and watching the two teens and one grownup on the other side of the room trying to kick each other in the head. I think I have seen too many superhero and action movies where people do their martial arts with the aid of wires, because the sparring didn't look nearly as cool as I thought it would. I did gain a new respect for the people who were sparring because they can kick about five times higher than I can.
At the end of the lesson they repeated some kind of oath of Tae Kwon Do involving world peace and how peace begins with me (me being the student repeating the oath). When I got home I looked up a Tae Kwon Do website and read up on some of the philosophies of it. They do talk a lot about peace, yet had pictures of things like a two guys in Tae Kwon Do uniforms standing in front of a beautifully peaceful mountain lake, while one of them kicked the other one in the face. How is that peaceful? I am just wondering. Maybe they just maintain the peace through intimidation. I wish I could kick that high.
First let me say that we are doing this through the Parks and Recreation Program, so its not nearly as expensive as it could be, but its also not nearly as high quality as it could be. He is the only beginner in his class, and it is a mix of kids and adults at varying degrees of advancement. His first class, we arrived, and after he took his shoes off he was able to get his first injury. His instructor was having the little kids (there are four of them including my son) do this kind of running/climbing stairs in place exercise in front of a ledge. Since this was a new exercise to my son, he promptly stubbed his toe repeatedly. He has a tendency to do things really fast when he gets excited and he was trying to keep up with the instructor. He got over the toe stubs relatively quickly and the kids' half of the class moved on to punching a heavy bag repeatedly, then kicking it repeatedly, then working on blocking, front kicks, turn kicks and jumping kicks. I am not sure I have ever seen anyone so excited in my life. He looked a little awkward trying to do some of the moves, but he was trying so hard. He learned important lessons like, don't punch with your thumb tucked in, and that if you goof off you have to do pushups (he learned that second one because of other kids goofing off, he was very attentive to the instructor himself). He had the time of his life. He was glowing!
Myself, I didn't really know too much about Tae Kwon Do other than it's a Korean martial art. I spent the class alternating between watching the kids on one side of the room do their punches, kicks and blocks, and watching the two teens and one grownup on the other side of the room trying to kick each other in the head. I think I have seen too many superhero and action movies where people do their martial arts with the aid of wires, because the sparring didn't look nearly as cool as I thought it would. I did gain a new respect for the people who were sparring because they can kick about five times higher than I can.
At the end of the lesson they repeated some kind of oath of Tae Kwon Do involving world peace and how peace begins with me (me being the student repeating the oath). When I got home I looked up a Tae Kwon Do website and read up on some of the philosophies of it. They do talk a lot about peace, yet had pictures of things like a two guys in Tae Kwon Do uniforms standing in front of a beautifully peaceful mountain lake, while one of them kicked the other one in the face. How is that peaceful? I am just wondering. Maybe they just maintain the peace through intimidation. I wish I could kick that high.
1 comment:
You should take the class too, so that you too can save the world. And do cool high kicks.
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