Foot Hand Art

Charming Baby had his first Tae Kwon Do class last night.  He has been saying he wants to “do Karate” for a long time now.  Not competitive in nature, he shirks team sports and would rather play Ninja than shoot hoops with his brother.  He doesn’t walk from room to room in the house, he leaps through air giving kicks and spinning around.  He’s pretty good, actually.  We decided to check out martial arts.

I liked the well-rounded approach to Tae Kwon Do (Tae=”Foot”, Kwon = “Hand” and Do= “Art”).  The tenets are courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, and indomitable spirit.  The disciplines include style-forms, self-defense, sparring and break-test.

Before jumping into the popular Tae Kwon Do studio, where you have to commit to twice a week, minimum two-month trial for $200, plus I think you also have to buy a uniform, I thought it was wise to test out his interest level by taking an introductory course at the Ithaca Youth Bureau (IYB), where they meet once a week, for six weeks, for $40, and you can wear sweatpants and a t-shirt.

In my mind I pictured some well-meaning young camp counselor type explaining ancient philosophy to the kids and putting them to sleep.  Charming Baby had visions of doing flips in the air. 

We walked in at 6:00 sharp (class meets from 6:00 – 7:00) and everyone was already rolling.  The head instructor was a very professional looking and sounding middle-aged woman.  She had two rows of assistant instructors, all in uniform, with different colored belts, lined up like a military unit.  Charming Baby kicked off his shoes and immediately jumped into the pack of kids standing in front of the teachers, waiting to begin.

The instructor did an amazing job of blending theory and practice.  She had them bowing one minute and punching the next, seamlessly, without any misbehavior.  You might think this isn’t special.  Then you’ve never watched a coach or a teacher try to keep command of 30 kids, aged 7 to 12, the hour before dinner.  Even I put my book down and was entranced.

She had the entire room, dozens of kids, line up in specific order, by rank, and if someone entered the room that was a higher rank belt, they all paused and bowed to that person.  The troops then had to shuffle down one spot, to their left, to make room for the higher-ranked person entering the line-up.  The order went something like Black, Brown, Purple, Yellow belts and then, last, the beginners, White.  Charming Baby had No Belt.  I wonder how long it will take him to ask for a uniform, or try to wear his Halloween costume to class (it’s black nylon not white cotton but he wouldn’t care).

Charming Baby loved every second.  This is a big switch from his usual shrug he gives me after I drag him to something we want him to do.  I am wondering if maybe we are on to something.