my weekly saturday ritual consists of teaching at killarney and the new civil war season that just started up again. it was crazy hectic today, for it was the first class of the term, preparing students for belt test while teaching with two less instructors. it’s true my work week doesn’t really end of friday, and sometimes doesn’t even end of sunday. i enjoy teaching, but weeks like this i do need a break in between before another work week begins
i’m beyond stoked that i just landed my first ever back tuck on unsprung floor. with the successful reps i had this week, i was encouraged to try it on taekwondo mats. i stretched and warmed up on four separate occasions but stopped short and almost wanted to back out because i felt pressured when there were too many students and parents around. i waited until the last hour of teaching before i decided it’s now or never. i committed to the tuck with everything i got, and to my amazement, i landed on my feet. i did it a second time because i couldn’t believe it. every part of me was shaking well after, but all i felt was the craziness of succeeding on something i’ve been longing for
this is the end of our poomsae training sessions before saturday’s bc championship. this is one of the largest killarney team we’ll have at a provincial competition. through the past several weeks of training, they’ve work really hard and improved a lot. i want to keep growing killarney’s competition team and create the comradery that we’ve never had before. hopefully this will lead to something good like taking some of them to bigger stages
another term of killarney started today. like any start of a new term, the first day is always busy tending to new students and registrations. i sit in the empty dojo after everyone filed out and reflected on the day. i’m happy that the enrolment has grown this term; the number of registrants across saturday class is more than any previous terms since my instructor days began. i’m very happy that my taekwondo class has reached more people than ever before and looking to continue growing this sport and business as a whole
it’s showtime for my students who’s going to compete in this year’s master cup. to all those stepping on the mat at provincial stage, i’m proud of all of them to have the courage to compete. to all my competitors, i’m happy to see the improvements in each and every one of you. this is the first time friends outside of taekwondo world came out and it was quite fun. the freestyle poomsaes is what i had to stay for, even if it meant i would be late for teaching. i’m super exhausted after the long day of coaching and teaching. i cleaned up to pass out before ten thirty
two teaching shifts after lots of jamming isn’t ideal. not the best day of teaching at taekwondo having to deal with a number of difficult students. the first hour had a handful of uncooperative students while managing a class of thirty two very beginner class. one kid wouldn’t follow instructions, one wouldn’t stop complaining, and one wouldn’t move and kept crying. i couldn’t attend to at the same time, but i did the best i could out of the gongshow situation. survived the day on two peanut butter toasts and a sore throat
changing up the advance class with less instruction and more freedom. the theme of this week’s class is creative poomsae. this is a chance to not only open their mind to creative poomsae, but also build on their friendship and camaraderie. some of it wasn’t glamorous, but they sure pulled out some wacky unheard of moves. based on what i saw today, no one is near ready to compete in creative poomsae, but at the end of the day we all had a good laugh watching each group perform
