Superwife - Camo belt - D

My wife of 8 years and mother of our three kids. She started TKD after the birth of Odie, our third child.

Princess - Camo Belt - D

Our seven-year-old daughter. She was originally supposed to be a spectator to Cowboy, but jumped in and has proven to have an incredible talent for the martial arts.

Cowboy - Camo Belt - D

Our six-year-old son. He is small for his age, so starting him in TKD is what got us into this mess. He is very close to our Chief Instructor, and his spirit is twice as big as he is.

Odie

Our youngest son, born in April of 2006. By the time he is old enough to start, we should all be Black Belts.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Cranking It Up a Notch

We all graduated on Saturday to Camo-R's. It was our first mass-graduation, with students from all three Tucson schools participating. It was extremely chaotic, but we really enjoyed it. In particular it was nice to see something other than the Tiny Tigers test while we waited, since that is what we normally do. We also got to see the Candle Ceremony, something that I had never seen before. Being a former instructor (albeit military) myself, the ceremony brought me to tears.

Sunday we left town for a family event, and missed class on Tuesday as a result. On the way home I called one of the other students to ask how class went. I was expecting to hear that we would be given the "daunting" task of learning the second half of Songahm 3 for the Mesa tournament in three weeks, followed by the first half of In Wha 2 (a little more daunting) for our next graduation, just prior to Spring Nationals. I was assuming that we'd be doing Songahm 3 in the National tournament, as well.

Nope.

In addition to the physical portion cranking up a bit (happily, for me and SW), they learned the first six moves of Choong Jung 1. And we're not learning half, we're learning the whole thing. And not for Vegas, but for Mesa.

Mesa's 31 days away.

I'm completely stoked about the challenge, but SW was a little miffed by this latest move. Not two months ago, we tested for a half-belt because our instructors didn't feel that we were able to handle all of Songahm 3 in a complete cycle. Now we're learning a Brown Belt form in three weeks. Again, I'm totally psyched that I'll be able to compete with this form--but a #2 Jump Crescent kick is a little intimidating for the whole class. Especially seeing as though we have half of a belt that's colored yellow.

We also switched to Bong Mahng Ee for Black Belt Club. I was pretty fired up about the SJB's, but at least this will probably be easier to make up a 20-second freestyle form.

Just prior to the graduation our instructor pulled SW and I into his office. With all four of us moving into a different level, the schedule for us became virtually un-doable. With Cowboy in TT's, and Princess in K4K, in order for us to go to all of our classes, and BBC for all of us, we would literally be there every day the school was open. Monday-Saturday. I had voiced my concerns to Mr. N and he said he would look into what could be done. We liked his answer.

Princess will be moving up to our class. This not only allows everyone to stay on the same day, but drops two classes a week from our schedule. In addition, he wants Princess to be more active in helping in the TT class, something that I think she is pretty good at. I'm a little concerned that she won't have any interaction with kids her age, but it's only for a short while as we're leaving in July. After that news, he asked us what our plans were--if we wanted to continue after we had reached Black Belt.

SW and I have discussed off-hand that it would be cool to someday run our own school. It's many years away, but she's already looking into getting her MBA. She needs to get her Master's anyway and this was a useful degree to get it in.

Mr. N told us that it wasn't his call, but that he was going to talk to the school owner about possibly getting us into the leadership program. No other students in the class have mentoned it to me, so I'm assuming that he hasn't spoken to anyone else about it. We walked out of there on Cloud Nine.

I am completely content right now. Things at ATA couldn't be better.


CHALLENGE STATUS

PUSHUP: 0
SITUPS: -42
MILES: -30.4 (ugh)


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Comments on "Cranking It Up a Notch"

 

Blogger Unknown said ... (8:14 PM) : 

WHOA! Lots going on! It sounds like things are DEFINITELY looking up for you! I'm not surprised that y'all are being invited/considered for Leadership. Military aside, just your dedication and intent with your studies seems proof enough that you are up for the job. Glad to hear the schedule will work out for now. That's part of the beauty of being in ATA, that when you do transfer, you really won't lose anything in the process, since the curriculum is the same in all schools. We all learn the same forms, etc. CJ#1 in Mesa! Woo hoo! I remember doing that form. The crescent kick isn't as hard as it sounds, really. Do you remember, "ready, aim, fire!" for the jump kick in one of your forms? It's the same thing, but instead of a front kick in the process, you do a crescent kick. Just get that kicking leg up, and swing around when coming down. Better get those hips limber! ;-)

Now that sounded like a HUGE graduation! I've never heard of the Candle Ceremony, although I came across a box for one in the school attic the other day when looking for something else. I'd be curious to learn more about it!

Well, if you happen to make the pilgramage in March up to Lincroft, NJ for the Master Raimondi's "A" tournament (hey, it could happen), let me know!

I am so psyched that things are going better for you now. Starting with the camo-red forms, you'll really be flying now! (And how appropriate for an AF pilot!) ;-)

Hooray! All good news! I'm happy for all of you.

 

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