Tae Kwon Do
So Alex did Tae Kwon Do when he was in high school, right? And he was apparently awesome at it - he earned his black belt. He's been away from it for a while, but he's wanted to go back to it. So when his friend, Adam, said that he and his wife, Beth, have been going to Tae Kwon Do at a local school and invited us to come along, Alex readily agreed.
I thought it was probably a good idea too... I mean, I really enjoyed the discipline of being in color guard when I was in high school and I know that being committed to something like that again will be beneficial to my weight loss efforts. I was a little nervous when Alex told me that this week was "buddy week" at our friends' school and that he was working tonight so I'd have to go to meet them alone... but I sucked it up and went on my own.
I did not get there early and that's an issue for me. I don't like to be rushed and I didn't want to have to rush in and get right down to business. The whole way over in the car, I kept thinking of what my old color guard instructor used to tell us, "to be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, and to be late is to be left out." The school was easy enough to find, and less than a fifteen minute drive from the apartment, so it wasn't the drive that made me late, it was the fact that I was totally geeking out in front of the computer and didn't leave until 6:45 for a 7:00 class... 'doh.
I got there and quickly realized that my wardrobe choice - black 3/4 length stretch pants and a black t-shirt - was going to make me stick out pretty badly in the sea of white-wrapped students. But then I realized that my complete lack of skill would have done that anyway. I dumped my sweatshirt, bag, shoes, and socks in the women's changing room and found Adam who instructed me to write myself a "Hi, my name is" name tag. After I was labeled, I found my way to the back of the line behind Adam just as the class was about to begin. There were only two other "buddies" there - Beth's friend, Elizabeth, who I'd met a couple of other times before, and a teenage girl there with her friend who had a green streak running through her brown hair. I noticed that Elizabeth and I were the only two people in the class with painted toenails (and mine were a crazy colored chrome pink)... I hope there's randomly not some sort of rule against painted toenails. I hate my toenails to be naked.
We started with thirty jumping jacks that everyone counted out loud - but it wasn't in English that they were counting and I lost track in my head and so I was very thankful when the instructor said "10 more left!" so I didn't end up being the tool that does an extra jump when everyone else has stopped. After that, we went to the floor for push-ups - I think we did 20 but it seemed like a hundred. I have very little arm strength. 30 LONG seconds of crunches followed the push-ups and then it was back on our feet. We did some stretching - I'm pretty flexible, but not as flexible as I used to be and I was thrilled that if I continued on with this class I'd probably regain my former flexibility. When stretching was over (seemed too short) we started in with punching and kicking drills.
There was some sweating going on. I kept staring at Adam and Beth and the other students around so that I could sort of get the right technique. I think I was punching correctly, thanks to my dad's sporadic teachings as I was growing up. My speed definitely leaves something to be desired, but that will improve with practice. I found that I'm a pretty good kicker - thanks to my flexibility - but again, I'm pretty slow. We moved on to some drills where the first person in line held targets and the next person would punch or kick the target and then move to the back and the next person would do the drill, etc. This was pretty fast-paced and a good workout (read: I got out of breath and sweaty). At the end of the class, the master (? I guess that's what he's called - he owns the school and is the head teacher) showed us some simple self-defense moves that we practiced in partners.
The class seemed to go by pretty quickly. When I was in color guard, practices were three hours long and this class was only 45 minutes, so I was pretty disappointed when it was over. I definitely think I'll be going back. I enjoyed the workout and the structure of the class setting. I think I could actually become good - though I don't envision that I'll ever be that good at sparring. I can see that I'll be able to master specific moves, but the putting them all together and deciding in a fast-paced situation what move to use would likely be difficult for me.
Alex was happy to hear that I enjoyed class. He was adorable - he wanted to know every detail of what we did in class and then told me that he was proud of me for going on my own. He'll be going with me on Thursday - another buddy day - and I'm sure that we'll sign up for classes. I'm pretty excited. :)
But now, I'm a little sore and a lot tired, so it's off to bed...
