We're still here!-- again!

I know, I haven't written much in months. Drew and I are still taking TKD. I took a month off in August, and in September with the new school year, we started back up, and just had another graduation this past week. It's amazing to think it's been a year already since I earned my 1st degree black belt. If I hadn't taken some breaks this past year, I would be about halfway to my 2nd degree black belt by now, but it's not a race, as SW would say. Drew is definitely evidence of that. Due to circumstances and breaks he has taken, he's far behind some kids who started after he did-- they are earning their black belts now. He's not quite there yet-- BUT he's getting much closer now. He finally earned his brown belt this past graduation. He broke his board for permission to test (and I didn't think he would), and he held his own doing Chung Jung #2 (the hardest color belt form) as a blue belt.

And then, there was freestyle weapons. Weapons are Drew's favorite thing to do. And this cycle, he was able to do his favorite weapons, which is the Jahng Bang.

Observe:


Drew's JB moves!

Okay, so he dropped it, but a big part of the success of this routine is that he didn't freak out for all the times he dropped it, and he didn't have a meltdown afterwards because of it. And he actually has some decent moves in there for a 7 year old, if I do say so myself.

Drew is a total contradiction when it comes to TKD. He wants to be in Leadership so that he can be an assistant/junior instructor trainee, but he claims he doesn't want his black belt (and yet he's so close now!). He also wants to train only on weapons, as that's his favorite, and is not so cooperative about doing the forms, sparring and board breaking. He's actually very good at sparring too, but it's not his favorite. Well, it doesn't work like that. You have to do it all, after all. Oh well. I just get him to plug along, and if we can have a day where he doesn't fight or argue too much, we're happy. The other day he was pissed at another kid for not holding the pad firmly still for a drill. So rather than freak out, he actually just went to the side of the mats, and sat down and sulked. He didn't cry or anything. He kind of put himself in a time-out. Hey, that was fine. It was better that he did that, and started back when he was willing to cooperate than have a total meltdown/freakout that disrupts the class. We'll take what we can get, after all!

My own studies are going slowly. I finally have the first half of the BME form down now. It's far from perfect, but it's acceptable. I know the second half is mostly the same thing but doing it with the left hand. That's going to be quite the challenge, as I've rarely done anything left-handed with the BME. So that will be interesting, but at least it will be easier now that I understand the first half. In looking at the 1BD curriculum, it's okay. I always do the same form, and each cycle, I make a change with weapons, spar, and I don't have to board break again until I'm ready to get to my 2BR level, and then again at 2BD level.

So, we're plugging along, and there's not really that much to report. But we're still here, and still doing taekwondo! Ai-yah!