so I attacked her...

Yeah, that sentence said out loud without any sort of context makes me sound like a crazy psychopath in a back alley in the bad part of town, but I'm not, you all know that by now :)

Yesterday was Andrew's usual midweek class. That class is what our kenpo school calls a "satelite" class in the sense that it doesn't happen at the dojo but at his regular school (as in daytime school). This is nice during the week since even though it's given by his regular instructor, it's only 2 1/2 minutes from our home instead of the usual 15 minutes.

I've been tagging along with Andrew for the last couple of months, "borrowing" a corner of the big gymnasium to practice with my bo. We even were going 30 minutes early so Andrew could practice his bo kata too, and I guess he liked that half hour since yesterday, as I asked him we were going, he picked up both bos even though we were leaving only 5 minutes prior to the start of his regular class. I had decided that he'd only go to his regular class since our competition season is over. He gave me a sad, pouty face that told me he really wanted to practice with his bo. In a weird way, it made me smile inside. Never had I seen him so enthusiastic about karate before and it was to see...

So back to me and attacking her. Well, I started with my bo but as I said, our competition season is over and our next competition is only next October. I decided to go anyway since I find that handling the bo is relaxing to me. Even when I'm not really pushing myself, simply to spin it, do some strikes, throw it from hand to hand, it relaxes me... Anyway, their class started with about 30 minutes of some back to basics, including the stretching and such. The end of that first half hour coincided with me deciding to move from the bo to working on my self defense techniques, by myself in a corner. That's when Andrew's instructor turned to me and asked me if I could go and attack her. "Her" is a black belt girl, maybe 14, no more than 15. From memory, she must have passed it last Fall or maybe Summer since I remember seeing her as a brown belt last Spring. As I said in a reply to one of Mat's comments, our kenpo style is really rooted in self defense. We have 36 self-defense techniques that we need to know by name, first from the view of a right-handed attacker, then from a left-handed one. Anyway, their class only has kids in it, the second highest belt is a 10yo brown belt. The instructor's thinking was that she could use some being "roughed up", meaning having an attacker that, while being in control, could give her some opposition. For example, working on defending against a lapel grab isn't the same when said lapel grab is done by a 10yo kid than when it's done by a 195 lbs 35yo adult.

So I attacked her... I was more than glad to provide said presence even though it felt weird being 35 and "attacking" a girl about 20 years younger than I. I made sure to always be in control and not so much "rough her up" but be firm in my attacks and holds. She did know her techniques quite well, in fact most of them, she mastered much better than I, and some of them that I didn't even know, or had only seen done a couple of times. Anyway, it was nice to be of help to a younger one, even though she is of higher grade than me. I even gave her some pointer as to how she could work more with her whole body instead of only her arms. When the instructor came to us at the end of the class and asked her what she thought about it her answer was that it was cool but also that she'd worked harder than usual, to which the instructor replied that she indeed looked like she had to work harder. :)

That is one thing I like, being able to help any which way I can. Even if it's only by being the dummy that gets hit by my instructor in our Saturday morning class, or helping somebody who has some questions regarding a kata that I do well, as happened last Monday. I like it because it work both ways. At some point, I'll be the one needing help, and I won't be afraid to ask...

As for my son, remember I said he was disappointed that he wouldn't be practicing his bo yesterday? But wow, is he motivated to learn now! The minute the class ended, he ran to me and insisted to show me what little new part of his latest kata he'd learned last night. It's called "Statue of the Crane" and while it's an interesting kata, it's also kind of intricate since it's got a couple of pauses with jumps ending in a crane position, as its name would imply. Anyway, I was impressed with how well he remembered it. He's about two third through it and seeing him do it made daddy proud. :)

FM