Sandor is eight and gets to play tackle football this year. He is excited to the extreme. I explained to his taekwondo instructor that he would not be around much for the next two months. This is the first time in five years he’s taken a break from Martial Arts training.
Yesterday was his first practice in full pads. Sandor looked as though somebody plugged him into a car battery; he was so jacked up. The first thing the tiny players did was the sideways crab run. I watched as my boy fell down, stumbled and came in almost last. I couldn’t help myself. I yelled for him to come to me.
“Sandor, this is just rotary jogging, like we do in class.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that. Ok” He ran back to line up. We rotary jog in taekwondo so we learn to use angles when sparing. Sandor turned into the fastest kid in the crab run.
Next the coach (who is wonderful) lined the little boys up facing each other, to work on blocking drills. I watched as Coach blew the whistle and boys crashed into each other like miniature samurai. Then Sandor instantly leg swept his opponent, slung him over his hip and took the top mount. The kid on the bottom was confused and obviously frustrated. I watched Sandor take down all his opponents with the same smooth jujutsu moves.
When the coach saw what was going on he came to me. “Does he watch a bunch of cage fighting or wrestling?”
I shook my head. “He’s been training in Martial Arts since he was three. It’s just muscle memory. Tell him there’s no grappling or leg sweeps in foot ball.”
“Wow, I’ve never seen a kid do that so fast.” He laughed.
“You’re lucky he didn’t arm-bar or sidekick.”
Now Sandor understands blocking, and what is and isn’t involved. But
I want to say “good job” to all you Martial Arts Instructors. Your students do, in fact, remember, exactly what you teach them.