Thursdays are for Sparring

The back space button is getting a lot of use tonight.

Attempt at a blog entry---take three.

I may as well include all of Energy's journey in this blog. I'm never going to keep up two blogs....and todays blog is all about Sweetling anyway. "Hooray!" says Sweetling behind me.

Thursdays are the sparring days at Tae Kwon Do. Sweetling is now a yellow belt. ("Hooray!" says Sweetling, still behind me.) Sweetling had a belt test a couple of Saturdays ago. She broke a board with her foot. ("Hooray!") Master W worked with her specially on breaking the board.

But Thursdays are for sparring. They all get pads that cover their chests, stomachs and sides and foam helmets. Then they spar. Now, there are two other little girls in Sweetling's class...("and they are both very cute"). Ususally Sweetling is paired with one or the other of the little girls. The girls are smaller than Sweetling, but one is one belt higher, and the other is two belts higher. There is often a lot of giggling going on during the little girls' sparring matches.

Last Thursday, there was perhaps a bit too much giggling, because during the next round, the little girls were not paired with each other. Sweetling got paired with a boy only slightly bigger than her who has a high red belt. (The belt order goes...white, yellow, orange, green, high green, blue, high blue, red, high red, junior black, black.) Against the high red, Sweetling resorted to the time honored technique of running away....which in this case meant that she ran in circles around the edge of the ring. The high red just stood there and watched her. The assisstant instructor said, "Sweetling, why are you running around?"

Sweetling replied, "Because he's trying to kick me!!"

The assistant instructor convinced her, after some talking, not to run around in circles. He demostrated dodging and the side step thing that they do. Sweetling stood there. The high red decided it was time to land a kick.

Now, I've seen in movies where a person gets kicked and gets sent flying, but I've never seen it in actuallity....at least, not before Thursday. The high red landed a kick. I think Sweetlings feet did hit the floor twice before she hit the wall behind her, but they mostly just skimmed the floor like a rock skipping across a pond. But, she got back up, and went right back into the sparring ring.

So, I was a little concerned this Thursday when Sweetling was paired up against the same high red. But Sweetling did a really good job of holding her own. She took a couple of hard hits, and she went down a couple of times, but she didn't give up and she kept trying to land her own kicks and punches. I saw her face twist up on the verge of crying once or twice after the high red had landed a solid hit, but she didn't cry, and she didn't whine, and she didn't fuss, and she didn't give up. She stuck it out till the end and I was really really proud of her and of the progress she had made.

On Tuesdays, by the way, they work on their forms and practice various kicks and punches on pads. Last Thursday, Sweetling was struggling with this elbow thing and this sucker punch looking thing (yes, Mommy knows so much about this subject). Master W pulled Susan aside for private instructions. Sweetling still wasn't quite getting it with the pads, so Master W put the pads aside and showed Sweetling how to elbow him across the face and how to sucker punch him in the gut. So Sweetling practiced her elbow thing and her sucker punch thing on Master W's face and stomach rather than on the big thick pads. I just had to throw this one in there.