My Karate Kids
Posted by izekream on July 5, 2008
Ok, the title might be misleading. Karate is Japanese but unless there is a better martial arts movie than this Daniel-san-Mr. Miyagi classic, I’ll use it as a reference even though my kids are, in fact, into taekwondo.
It started when last summer, we were thinking of what activities the kids may want to enroll into to keep themselves busy. While attending a mass on a Sunday at our local parish church, there was an announcement that they are offering taekwondo classes to students and relatives of the school where my daughter studies.
Taekwondo is a South Korean martial arts; and in fact it’s the country’s national sport. In Korea, tae means “foot”; kwon means “fist”; and do means “art” or “way”; thus taekwondo basically means “the way of the foot and fist”.
Taekwondo - foot... fist, ...and fun.
The schedule was used to be twice a week during the summer (Wednesdays/Saturdays) from 2:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon. When classes resumed last month, they changed the frequency to once a week only but this time from 1:00 to 5:00 pm.
From that first day for nearly two months, the classes were mostly concentrated on exercises, simple meditations, basic drills and formation. They were ably trained by Sir Arnold Gariega and Sir Ronnie Bale, both black belts from the Philippine Taekwondo Association.
Last Saturday June 28, they had an examination for promotion from white belt to yellow belt. The examining officer was Sir Jun Labing likewise from the Philippine Taekwondo Association and also a Marine. The test is composed of both the basic Poomse (Foundation Forms), Three-Step Self-Defense Forms, Basic Strikes and Blocks, and also oral examinations. (See the execution of Formation Form No. 2 here by John Mitchell at YouTube).
The karate kids proudly display their new yellow belts
To cut to the chase, everyone in the “class” passed so they are now officially either an 8th or 7th grade Yellow Belt.
Today is the start of their Yellow Belt sessions. It means there will be more contacts. The instructors had advised the students that they will learn some sparring, combats, and self-defense techniques in this stage. They are now required to don padding specially the arm and shin guards. Likewise, body armors and headgears will also be needed.
I sense they feel better with a yellow belt. The uniform is already pure white so a little shade of another color will not hurt. Yes, yellow is a little bit soft and you wished they would be wearing an imposing black instead… but then again, we’ll get there.
When we enrolled the kids, we did not intend them to be Olympians or Bruce Lee (I know that’s another form of martial arts but you get the point). We are just glad that taekwondo trains the kids to be disciplined and self-reliant, self-confident and modest.
I say the kids are enjoying it. And as a parent, I enjoy seeing them having fun and setting goals. So when my wonderful friend Bong satirically blogged a column entitled “Hey Dudes, Read My Lips: “Don’t Have Kids!”", I have another one reason to disagree with the title.
… or three.
