Another fun filled Wednesday

I was pretty wiped out, as usual, from a long Wednesday. Morning class was alright. It's not quite as fun since Sandy's not there. She's out of commission for a while, doctor's orders, because her ankle is THAT messed up. She has to go to PT, but other than that, she is supposed to keep off it as much as possible. At least the timing is good, because December is usually a pretty dead month once graduation is done. It feels a little odd, even though it's a small class, that I'm now one of the high ranks as a black belt now. It's amazing how the change of status really does change things, even if it's a little bit. We have two new moms who have joined the morning class. One started last week, and one started this week. At least they have partners to move along together. I had nobody until Sandy came along!

Drew is holding in there. SW and I had a conversation about the day before, and she assured me, as I suspected, that his crying jag with the board breaking was just a 6 year old thing. I figured as much. She said he was still following everyone in the class when doing the form, but once she made some small adjustment comments to the class (without singling him out, although others were doing it too), he was keeping up pretty well, she felt. Sparring is still an issue, which reared its ugly head in Wednesday's class. He was doing well until sparring. He was paired up with another boy who's about 8 named CG. CG is big for his age as well, and well, a little more gawky with his movements, and he doesn't seem very mature for his age. Well, both of them were kicking each other's shins rather than getting in the higher kicks, and NK separated them and reminded them of the rules. They went at it again, including face punches. She reminds them again. Next time they are getting into it, they are evidentally mad at each other and wrestling! Grrr. So, she separated them, and told them both to take off their gear because they were done, especially since they couldn't play by the rules. Simple enough. Well, it got Drew into a crying jag where he couldn't stop (he could've been tired too), and by that time, my class had started, but JC was there. I knew he could handle whatever was the problem. I saw later that the kids were bowing out, but no Drew. I think JC just did what he had to do, and got Drew out of there. Sometimes that's the best thing to do, and after I heard the whole story, it was the best thing to do to get Drew out of there. Drew is not a violent kid, mind you, he really isn't. But, he's just 6 1/2, and still figuring out the solidness of his body, and controlling it and such. There are a couple kids like that, so he's not the only one. He just ends up going up against those kids. He was fine, but he just has to learn better control-- of his body, and his temper. He's still a work in progress.

My regular class in the evening was fine. Some of the drills that we've been doing in the last two weeks have been very intensive on the knees, and that hasn't helped. It's gotten to a point for the last two weeks that my *good* knee is starting to have problems. That's not good at all. Geez. Just what I need. So, I don't do any jumping, and I think I have to really watch it with some of the sparring drills we've been doing, because a lot of them have been lunge and duck-and-weave type drills and they are killer to my knees. Oh well. I am pretty sure I have my half-form down for both regular form and weapons, as it's just a matter of continuing to practice. I don't need to break any boards this time around, but I did do a front kick break with my opposite (read: left) foot, to try it out, and it was a no-brainer. I also had some decent sparring rounds, although I was totally exhausted. The best round was with Dr. P, who's just a lot of fun to hang out with, and a very good martial artist. He's one of those few who never went into leadership, yet is approaching his 3rd degree soon. He's very good. He's about my age, and we were sharing old geezer aches, and he didn't realize that I'm a big kicker, and usually go for the ribs and head in combos. (I don't think I've sparred him too often, and it's been a while.) So we had a pretty decent bout, to say the least. He got some good punches in, and he said I did pretty well, all things considered. It was good.

Instructor class was mostly about talking about how to deal with situations much like what happened with Drew. I volunteered the information about Drew, because I'm the first to admit, unlike most parents, that he can be a problem kid sometimes. SW had mentioned another ADHD kid, and things that we had to change in attitude that had been working for Drew to apply to this other kid, as well as other children who try to get out of doing their work in class or behaving. In that respect, I think people are glad that I'm not in denial about my kid, and they know it's okay if he's disciplined another way. They all know that Drew is not a bad kid, but one who doesn't know how to control his actions very well, and that's part of the reason he's there. So, the kids in the class were asking, so, if a kid does this, how do you handle that? What are the options? Being the only parent in the group (as well as adult), I could give them both the parent perspective AND the ATA perspective, and how they really do work together. So that was a good class too, not too stressful on the knees!

Graduation is next week. I think Drew and I will be fine. Just have to practice between now and then. ;-)