Girls Love Tae kwon do
Kalynn Amadio
I went to a nightly adult tae kwon do lesson and was changing in the locker room.
The children's class had just ended and there were two young ladies in the locker room changing out of their uniforms. I have taught both girls on occasion so I happened to know both of them. One of the girls even goes to school with my son and they are both in third grade.
She was watching me as I dropped my bag to the floor and dug out my uniform. I looked up and smiled figuring she was trying to remember my name.
"You're DJ's mom, right?"
"Yep," I nodded.
She didn't seem to have anything else to say so I figured our conversation was over. She surprised me when she said,
"Man is he lucky."
Okay, now I was interested. Like most boys, my son doesn't tell me very much about his school day. So I assumed she had some terrific piece of gossip that I just had to know.
"Why do you say he's lucky?" I asked her.
"Because you're very strong."
It took me a moment to process what she was saying. You see, this girl had been at my 3rd dan black belt test last October. She witnessed my break test where I was the only woman in our school to break 2 concrete paving blocks standing on end like dominoes, no one holding them. It was a pretty amazing thing that I practiced with pads for weeks in advance. I didn't try the real thing until the moment of my test, so even I didn't know if I could pull it off until it happened.
This young lady was at the test as a student earning her first degree black belt, an achievement gained by few, especially at her age. But for that short moment, she watched me like I had just walked on water.
And at that second, I believe I could have.
I am a reluctant hero. It both pleases and embarrasses me when people praise my martial arts techniques. Yet when I think back to my childhood, there were very few female athletes that I could look up to.
Good role models are hard to find. That's why I'm modestly willing to tolerate a bit of hero worship if it means helping a girl make her dreams come true.
Before you decide on a martial art for your child, visit Kalynn Amadio's website, http://www.taekwondo-network.com/ Taekwondo-Network for resources on the most popular martial art on the planet. A http://www.taekwondo-network.com/tae-kwon-do-girl.html tae kwon do girl in the making will thank you for it.
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