You never quite lose it altogether

It's funny how people, especially kids, who aren't doing martial arts, find it incredibly cool when they see that you can do it, and actually see you demonstrate it, even if it's in a minor way.

Today Drew had a friend over who LOOOOVES Star Wars. He has two toy lightsabers, and Drew got one from Santa for Christmas. I made sure that the friend brought his so that Drew could actually have a little duel with him with an equal toy rather than galavanting around swishing at nothing and nearly hitting other things instead. There were rules, of course, that I made sure that the boys followed while they played, which were no-brainers for the rest of us-- don't actually swipe at a person, don't put the saber in someone's face, don't hit but if you do don't hit hard, etc. Basically, keep it to saber on saber action, and keep good control of your weapon, as simple as that. At one point, they wanted me to play, so since I didn't have my sword with me (it's kept at the school), I used my BME, which is a little shorter than what they had, but sufficed nicely. When I did the simple "roll down/roll up" action with my wrist, the friend said, "COOL! How'd 'ya do that?" It's one of those no-brainer things that you learn when you learn how to use a BME, but granted, once it becomes a natural thing, it does look pretty cool. I showed them some basics of gumdo, and then were teaching him the basic strike lines. It was cute, because when his mom came to get him, the boy remembered some of them pretty well, and she was impressed by his little display. I think he also thought it was cool that somebody else's mom would play lightsabers and know some cool "tricks" to make it look real showy like in the movies.

So, while I haven't used a BME in a while (I will again in a few cycles), you never quite lose those skills altogether. I might not be a master swordsperson by any means, or anything close to being that good in BME, but it's cool when you can impress a little kid like that with basic strike lines stuff. ;-) Makes you feel appreciated, and he also appreciated that his friend Drew was learning this stuff too. He liked seeing Drew's #3 jump round kick that he likes to do. It IS impressive looking.