Brutal! That's how I'd describe sparring at TKD so far. Today, I still didn't have all my sparring gear, but I put on all that I had so far, and had to spar with a green belt, and a black belt. The black belt, Dr. Albani, is one of the instructors who helps Ma'am out during the adult class on Saturdays. He is brutal! I hadn't really sparred much before, since I only got my equipment the other day, but Dr. Albani was just making me move and move and move and making lots of strikes to the point I was sweating and exhausted and having a mild asthma attack! I was learning stuff, but it was learning a little via the means of trial by fire, so I felt a little intimidated by it. Then when we had to switch partners, the green belt, Evelyn (I think that was her name), went a little easier on me, insofar as since she had pads on (Dr. Albani didn't), she let me practice kick/punch combinations on her, but she got me quite a bit too. She even hit one of my gloves so far that even gloved, she hurt my thumb joint temporaily! OW! On a positive note, we had to do these double jump kicks today, and I was doing them okay. Ballet years are paying off again. Dr. Albani had me kicking the xray paper again instead of the pads, and when my buddy Laura was holding the paper, I kicked it right out of her hands! I told Dr. Albani that I think I could handle the pads just fine, thank you. (Heck, Ma'am has never used the paper with me, or at least I never had to use it by myself like today! It was kinda insulting, but I brushed it off, because in the end, it's Ma'am who ultimately makes the decision how well I'm progressing, not Dr. Albani.)

The ironic thing was that since it was Halloween weekend, Dr. Albani had dressed up like a scarecrow. Originally, Laura's son Harris made a funny comment that he didn't take instructions from a guy with no brain (referring to Dr. A's costume), but later, Laura commented to Ma'am, quite correctly, that Dr. A was more brutal when wearing the costume, and I chirped in, what do you expect with a scarecrow with no brain! :-P

Oh well. And it was the day I had hoped that it was going to be easy going, as I had to go directly to a show to work, and my shirt, which I was going to wear and had worn for class, was drenched. Brought some linen spray, thank goodness, and washed up as best as possible for the show, but MAN, sparring, I don't think, will be my forte unless Ma'am starts showing me some more stuff. Dr. A caught me out of nowhere, and I kept expecting him to make the first move. If I have to spar with him again, I'm gonna have a heart attack-- literally!

In other news, JC (the hubby) took Drew to Tiny Tigers today, and he said that Drew did fine. Drew also attended Drop and Date, where we drop him off at the ATA, and we go on a date. He had a blast and didn't want to leave! Tomorrow, we have the ATA hayride, so it's a busy weekend!