And so it begins…

To get ready for my upcoming “test” I went to class early to work with the kids. I wanted them to get used to me by having me around instead of treating me as the substitute teacher.

I wandered through the rows of students correcting hand positions and stances then Teacher had me lead kicks for awhile – giving me a moment of control over the class.  I thought it was going to go well, until my first monkey wrench appeared with in five minutes. 

We had just begun crescent kicks (inside) when a hand went up in the back.  My first mistake – answering questions.  I can’t repeat it verbatim but it was so left field I wasn’t sure what to do. 

“Yes?” I said.
”I don’t want to be here.”
”What?”
”I don’t know this [sic]move.”

My confounded look and stuttering response was interrupted by Teacher who explained that we get to learn new stuff all the time. 

I was really expecting interrupting and squirrely behavior, but that was novel.

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The adult class was kick intensive and sweat inducing, only made worse by my warm up.  I have no idea why but I decided to make it a real stressor.  Just a lot more volume, but pushed the push-ups to 11.  Big Dave said, “you’re my hero” after we did finger pushups.  

We did a lot of pad work to get some force into our front snap kick.  This was followed by two punches.  It was illuminating to see who could project that hip and create some power.  I did see a lot of folks holding smashed and twisted toes.  I realized that this was pretty important in that it forces folks to get the proper foot position or pay a price immediately.  

We finished class up with Katas/Hyungs.  We did the first 9 with many repeated for newer students.  As we moved up the newer students would sit out and watch the rest of us.  By the time we got to 9 (Bassei) it was just Teacher and I and I was breathing like I’d been sprinting for the last 15 minutes.  No pretense of breathing normally.  Just gasping. 

After class I had teacher explain a triangle choke to Dave and I.  Dastardly stuff.  He took me down and used my body weight to put pressure on my neck.  Horrible position. 

Beard wanted to see me kick for some reason without touching my kicking foot to the ground.  I gave him three successive side kicks – one at to the knee, one to the gut, and one to the chin.  I actually touched him on the chin!  I was impressed in spite of myself.