Lose the Ribbons, Ladies.

At the beginning of class my Taekwondo master handed me a wrapped present to open. "Sarah, present for you!" It had cute little bows on it and was twisted into a tootsie roll shape. When I felt it, I thought, "Lovely, it must be candles!" I opened it up, and low and behold there in my hands was a jump rope. Not what I expected, but hey, a present's a present, right? While I was opening it, he must have taken the black ribbon out of my hair and hung it on one of the hooks attached to the wall, because I saw it there after he instructed me to start jumping. Now, I always wear that ribbon in my hair to class, but fridays are sparring days. Time to hang up the ribbons. We were to jump rope for 10 minutes straight without stopping, wearing full gear. Then some kicking drills. Then sparring with partners. All the black belts were supposed to sit at the back of the room while the younger kids fought first.

The girls were such whiny little princesses, flinching at anything that came their way, and kicking like it's ballet or something- it was so freakin adorable! (Although I would have had my ass busted if I acted like that in taekwondo class back in the States) But then when you pair one of those girls with a boy her size who is much more aggressive than her female counterparts, she starts to get more intense and you see the untame version come out. I've seen this time and time again. It's interesting to see kids develop in martial arts over several years. It's not until one is about 12 or 13 that you can tell if he has the concentration/drive to be a real player, which none of us at this dojang happen to be. You have to train like five hours a day if you want to be worth a dime. I'm too old for that now. :O)

So there's no other girl black belts at my club and I had to spar with the big boys. Musopda!! But it wasn't so bad, since we were just doing target and speed practice, with less of an emphasis on power. Plus there's always like this unspoken rule when a guy has to spar with a girl: You hurt her- you die. ;o) At the end of class we were all dripping with sweat. I felt like I had turned into a salt water fountain. Our master bought everyone slurpies and wished us a good night. His parting words: You'd better sleep well this weekend...