Playing with the big boys

We finally had success tonight in TKD class for Drew. And as usual, it was a case of Mom's always right, and that was proven today.

As written in past posts, Drew has been a real problem in TKD classes lately, primarily because he's bored. It's been difficult, and I don't blame him, because while they are reviewing information that he's been over several times, and that in itself is boring, they go at a snail's pace. I'd be bored out of my gourd too!

Today, he started out okay. However, he had a hard time staying focused when the group was split up by age group, and he was the high rank in his group. At one point I went to pick up the phone (and Nina was helping in class), and Drew came into the office because he didn't want to do it anymore. I could tell, from watching, that they were going too slow. So, I told him to ask Ben, who was teaching his group, to see if they could maybe speed it up a bit. At first, Ben misunderstood and thought that Drew thought they were going too fast, but I corrected him, and at that point, Ryan was coming over, and between Ben and Ryan, they suggested that maybe Drew should try going with the bigger kids, as they were going faster. So, we felt that was worth a try. Jorge was working with 4 kids, ages 7-9.

And then it happened.

Because it was a faster pace, but not too fast for him (he still had his moments where he lost his focus a little), he stuck with it, and he was able to get through the rest of class without incident. He was smokin', he was doing so well! He has his usual small issues with sparring with only his punches and mouthpiece, and he behaved generally pretty well during Masters stuff. I tell 'ya, the kid has a wicked palm heel break! (I don't even have that!) He did start to fall apart a little with his SJB work, but it's coming along. Ben was trying to show him how to do the "lasso" move, which is a little difficult, and Drew was having trouble with it. At that point, because it was only him and another kid doing Masters' stuff, Drew really lost his focus, and started goofing off, but it was hard to get him back on track. By that time, he got a few more moves in, they bowed out, and that was it. He actually made it through with a lot-- significantly a lot-- more self-control and focus. I was right in the end. If you can keep him moving and not bore him, he will generally respond better, and he did. Now, if we can just keep it up for the rest of the cycle!!

(Can you tell I'm happy about this?)