Seeing your kids grow

Yesterday was our Wednesday night special. I only got to practice for about 40 minutes as my wife couldn't had to leave work a bit late. I kind of took it easy and again worked mostly on agility stuff with the bo, figuring if I can imprvoe my swift handling of it, my transitions will only get better and as a result, after a better transition, my strikes will also fit in better.

I think I did my whole kata only once from start to finish and it was at a reduced speed, trying to really do it with perfect movemements. I did work on making many repetitions of some particular sections though.

Best part of the night came with only 6 or 8 minutes to go in the class when their instructor got them to line up as they were at the beginning of class, got them through meditation earlier than usual in order to talk to them a bit about the upcoming show.

As I told you, Andrew just didn't want to do it the last time they did such a show a couple years. Even though he was two years younger at 7 back then, his attitude didn't seem to have changed last Tuesday when I told him about the show. After I'd told him I would be part of it, I asked him if he wanted to too, but he had shook his head vehemently. I then talked to him about maybe doing a synchronized kata. Every reasons were good for him to turn it down, but not as vigorously. He said he thought I would spin too fast. I told him he will get better with his new lighter bo and that I could adjust my spin to his spin, saying that a synchro was a teamwork. I thought I had piqued his curiosity.

Then came yesterday. Their instructor made a heck of a sales pitch. To the whole group of 12, he told that they HAD TO participate in that show. He made the tough face and told them he thought it was a requisite and that their parents would be happy to see what they are really practicing behind closed doors. He said that they would only present stuff they can do, stuff they work on in class. He added that he was not expecting them to do anything crazy like the stuff that Emilie does in competition and in her demo shows, or *ahem* even stuff that Andrew can do with his bo. I suddenly felt great pride in my boy, seeing him being singled out positively like that, as an exemple of someone being able to do something special that is not expected from others. I guess he must have felt the pride. After class, even before we got out of the room, I asked him if he would do the show with his group and he nodded a confident yes. To me that meant he would do it with kids, while I would present mine with the adults, however a few minutes later in the dressing room, I heard him tell a friend about how he would probably do a synchronized kata with his dad, I told him that this time he would do the show with his friend. Their instructor had told them he already had a very good idea of what they would present and I reminded him that he should trust him. I expected him to pout and maybe start saying he wouldn't do it then, but no, he nodded again when I told him that we would keep on working on a possible synchronized kata to present someday. Even better, in that dressing room, he reminded me of what his instructor had just said, that they were welcome to invite not only their brothers and sisters and parents, but also grandparents and even friends. As he put the emphasis on "friends". I asked him if he had a friend in mind and he immediately mentionned is best friend of the moment. After a bit of prodding, he said he wanted to show him what he was doing in his karate class. Talk about growing in confidence overnight. :)

As of now, we don't what his instructor has in mind, but I trust him to try and use Andrew well in their part of the show. Shouldn't be that big too, as each school only has 10 minutes on stage...

FM