Thursday, September 29, 2005

Ooh, Shiny Special!!

I didn't have school today and I don't have it tomorrow either (teacher workdays), so in my eagerness to get out of my boring house, I left for tkd about 15 minutes earlier than normal. No one was there when I arrived, so I just sat in my car for awhile. When it was about 5 minutes till class was supposed to start, I called Mr. Coleman on his cell phone; he said he was running a little late and was just around the corner. When he got there he asked me if I wanted to start teaching (One thing I've noticed in TaeKwonDoMom's blog is that she always writes about children leading the class, and that surprised me because only adults are allowed to teach the whole class at my dojang). I was taken aback because the most that I've done with instructing the entire class is getting them lined up and doing warmups. I said yes, but I think he sensed that I was hesitant, so he said that he would start to gradually let me teach more of the class. I thought about it a lot during class, and I think it would be a good learning experience for me (plus the extra money I'd be making).
I was the only one there for weapons class, so we got to work on whatever I thought I needed help in. We started with tonfa; I was a little rusty (I hadn't been to weapons in a few months) but it started coming back to me after a few minutes. I reviewed my old tonfa forms, then learned a new kata that Mr. Coleman had started teaching us. Its called "Matte ush No Tonfa Ich", and I definitely didn't spell that right! We worked on bo staff next (its my favorite weapon). We went over the Takyooku Shodan and Nidan, then I learned one called "Chunakun Bo One". I had started to learn it a while ago, but had forgotten most of it. Last, we went over "Shihunuke Bo One".
Master Lucas wasn't there for self-defense tonight, and Mr. Coleman focused a lot on proper blocking. We didn't do anything fancy, just different types of blocks that turn into wrist locks. I didn't find it tedious (like I did earlier this week), but found it enjoyable. I was in a group of 3, so whenever I wasn't in, Mr. Coleman asked me to go around and help the younger children. It was... An experience.... And that's all I'll say about that! :P
I stayed for sparring, and after we all had our gear on, Mr. Coleman told me to get them lined up, bow them in, have them pair up, and then start them with a patachagi counter drill. He said he would start letting me teach, but I didn't think it'd be so soon! I thought I did pretty well, considering I was caught by surprise. We did a few drills (I was paired with Blakely), then we freesparred. I don't know why, but think I actually did pretty well with sparring tonight. Sometimes I'm on, and sometimes I'm off. Tonight was great; my back kicks were straight, I got a crescent kick in, and I used my double round kick a lot. We did some ring sparring last (I didn't get to spar, but I was one of the coaches). All in all, it was a great class!
I'm helping out with a demo this Sunday at a student's youth group, so that should be fun. I've also got a demo with Brian's church in about two weeks, so I should have some interesting things to post about soon!

No comments: