Archive | December, 2014

Much better to break a board than be bored (or worse)

19 Dec

Just this morning, six guys sitting around.  Five guys in their 70s. Me, young enough to be a son. We meet in a youth group room: old furniture, foosball tables, red plaid carpeting (it IS a Presbyterian — Scottish roots — church after all).

Every Friday morning, 6:45 am, leave when you have to. Sometimes discussion centers around a common reading, video, or podcast. Those are the most targeted discussions. Sometimes we have no focus, just sharing. There is always too much time distressing over local and world affairs.

We often view this distress talk as coffee shop banter, wasted time. However, I see it as older guys sharing their concerns in the context of life not being all-right, running out of time and not being able to do anything about it. How did things get so wrong?

Scene change to belt promotion testing just last night. An eight year old makes three sloppy attempts at a turning side kick board break. He seems worried, in early stage exasperation. I give him a tip. His next attempt is slightly better, but still not nearly good enough. Continue reading →

KISS (not the band)

11 Dec

In my last blog entry, I wrote about the challenge of change, drawing from the experience of just recently closing down and relocating our dojang of many years. We’ve now finished four classes in our new home and I think people — students, parents, instructors and ME — are more at ease that Everything’s Going To Be OK. I knew we could do classes in a different training environment but I was still stressed that too many others would not. I did not want students to quit because of disappointment, nervousness, or even fear. Just because we’d be training in a different kind of space.

Possibly quite different to many eyes. Parents in particular looked a tad agitated the first night or two. Lots of pacing and peeking. Continue reading →

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