I'm feeling a little better about my abilities with TKD tonight. It was a small class, and Sharon was there, and I like her. Her kids, Amy and Greg, are black belt leaders/instructors who are really good kids too, and I like them as well. Anyhow, we did a few warm ups with sprints and such, and I was able to beat the teenagers with speed, surprisingly enough. Of course I was having an asthma attack as a result, and chilling out while we stretched afterwards, but I was fine. We learned the second half of the form, which I'm going to have to practice and have JC read the directions to me. At least Mr. Anderson was really good about helping with the navigation/directional problem. Sharon hadn't done the form in a while, but her kids have done it, and she did it a long time ago, so it was coming back to her a little bit. I think I can do it, it's putting it all together that's the trick. So, I think I'll be okay in the end, because they are teaching it a little differently this cycle, and so we'll have a few weeks to review. Then Sharon, and a boy who has Downs named Matthew, and I worked on some kicks, but then moved to weapons. I told Mr. Anderson that I'd help Matthew with his weapons, as he hadn't used the Bahng-mah-ee before, so I was teaching him on the BOB dummy where the strike lines were, and I think that helped a lot, because it helped me understand where they were. Hits on each side on the ear/neck, each side of his tummy, each of his knees/ankles, up between the legs, bop them in the head, then spear them in the belly button. He was getting the hang of it after a while. Then we had board breaks. I was doing better, getting more rotation on the break, and Mr. Anderson said it's actually okay to get a wind-up in that hit because it helps with the waist rotation. So I broke it a lot faster. I also have to get the board up higher, because, well, I'm tall after all, and most of the people who hold for me are short. But I was happy to do better with that. And having the pad over my elbow helped too. Then sparring-- since I was the last person to break, I was the last one ready with my gear, but I got in, and sparred a tween who's an orange belt and kept him on his toes. Then the next round, I sparred with Sharon. Now, keep in mind, Sharon is a brown belt now (wow, that went fast, but then again, I think I met her as a green belt), so she and I naturally gravitated to each other being that we were the only adults and the only females in class. She was surprised by my double kicks that I've been working on, and she has the same problem with leaving herself open as I do, especially when kicking. But it was fun to spar her. After bowing out, those in Masters and up (that's me) could work on some advanced kicking. Mr. Anderson broke it down in 4 steps. Step one was a outer crescent kick, opposite leg round kick. Step two is the same kicks, but a jump on the round kick. Step three is a spin to do the outer crescent, then the jump roundkick. And step four is a jumping spin crescent kick and jump round kick in one motion (more or less). I could get to step three pretty well, but was having a little difficulty with step 4. Not too bad for someone who hadn't tried it before and was up against teen boys. Even as I left tonight, a middle aged fellow who was in the aikido class on the opposite mat complimented me and told me that he'd been watching and that I did a good job tonight. He seemed to know his Aikido pretty well, so I took that as a compliment indeed. Part of me tonight just made me feel, having worked with Matt, working alongside Sharon, knowing how meticulous I am in learning my form and how I take my work in class seriously while having fun, and seeing that I'm improving, makes me feel like, yeah, maybe I should be looking at the leadership program. I'm a natural for it. There are plenty of moms who take class like me just to get the exercise, but I feel like I'm working towards more than that. Now, if I can only convince JC of this and that I think I want to give this a try. It was a good night overall. :-)