fit, happy
Posts by bethany
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0Wow, did I disappear or what? For whatever reason, a combination of stress, life, etc., I didn’t get much done last week. I didn’t work out at all, and I ate not so great either. So we’re pretty much throwing that week out and trying to start fresh this week. Not that I win many points for today so far either…I’m on for P90x but I haven’t found motivation to actually do it.
It’s actually nice outside, and being stuck inside for most of the winter made staying inside and working out seem less than appealing. So I walked the dog, and then took my bike (that I finally retrieved from home) out for a ride on the trail that’s a few blocks down from our house.
Not that I got very far. Apparently, biking takes muscle and stuff, and I haven’t been on one in years. But, I got some fresh air and sunshine. Maybe I’ll try to get P90x in tonight, and get a little further in un-doing the damage that last week did to my progress.
The Art of Teaching
0One of the hardest things to balance in a martial arts class is discipline vs. fun. Our school is fun, and I work hard to keep it that way, but I also try hard to keep it disciplined, and it’s difficult to balance the two. Without discipline, the kids might as well be running circles in the park – yes, they’re having fun, but parent don’t pay us to let their kids run around in circles. With too much discipline, the fun all gets stripped out. I don’t want a class full of kids who are afraid to laugh. And Taekwondo should be fun – it is fun. I just have to find a line where we’re having fun, in a disciplined environment.
Most nights, I think I succeed – but I hope the parents cut me some slack on the other nights. Some nights there are kids acting up, and I have to crack down on the discipline end of things. Some nights, I have to spend less time with the quiet kids and more time controlling the hyper kids. Some nights, I get really frustrated and overwhelmed, and all I can do is my best. Being a black belt doesn’t mean you know how to teach – teaching is definitely a skill, and definitely takes a remarkable amount of patience. I love it, but I’m no pro yet.
And everything I do, I do under the full view of the parents. I sometimes envy school teachers for their isolated classrooms – not because the parents are disruptive, or because I would teach any differently away from them, but because it does stress me out when I have to discipline a kid in front of parents. And I’m not perfect – I make mistakes, and they get to see every one. I always hope that they’ll forgive me for the times when I’m a little scatterbrained, or frustrated with someone else’s kid. But I sometimes forget that they’re parents, and they already know what I’m quickly learning – you do the best you can, and hope that somehow the kids pick up some tiny part of what you’re trying to teach them.
Roxanne Modafferi is getting a shot
0846 days
How about some random news from the world of mma? Roxanne Modafferi is on for the next Strikeforce fights, on the same card as Fedor. I know you don’t know who that is, but it makes me excited on a SQEE!! kind of level, I kid you not. Almost no one has any idea who Roxy is, but that’s sort of the point. Gina Carano is pretty much the face of women’s mma, which is great – she’s done amazing things for the sport. But the fact of the matter is that she got as famous as she is for one reason – she’s hot. Not because she’s a good fighter (although she’s not bad), but because she’s hot. It sucked for her, because she didn’t get to earn fame from her fighting, and it sucked for the sport. And all along, fighters who are just as good, possibly better, struggle to get fights because they’re not blessed with Carano’s genes.
It’s stupid to build a sport around attractiveness and not actual skill. Roxy has a record of 13-4, and a SIX fight win streak, and hasn’t been able to book a fight in almost a year – the insanity of that blows my mind. It’s crap, and it sucks that girls who are working so hard to excel at their sport can’t catch a break because promoters only look at their head shots.
But in a massive stroke of luck for Roxy, a fighter had to drop out of the strikeforce card, the backup fell through, and she’s in! And this is on a card with FEDOR. And Fedor, if you don’t know, is a bit like the Michael Jordan of mma. There’s going to be exposure with this fight that’s unreal, even by UFC standards. I really hope that if nothing else, this will give her a chance at the career she deserves. I’m so happy for her, her opponent, and all female mma fighters, in a dorky giddy kind of way. Her fight’s on the undercard, so I’m really, really hoping that the main card fights go quickly and the whole thing will get shown, not just highlights…I haven’t been this excited about an mma fight in quite a while.
So – Strikeforce, November 7th, CBS, 8pm. Be there.
Oh, and as a bonus? I get to try to watch this fight at home with my parents. THAT should be fun. I’m still not sure how I’m going to talk them into it, and whether I should let them watch and try to explain things, or just try to get them out of the room before there’s any bloodshed. Showing mma to the world, and showing mma to my parents…two very different things.
– UPDATE — Unfortunately, Roxy lost to an armbar in the first round, and Strikeforce failed in their schedule management and didn’t get the fight on TV… I still give her huge credit for taking the fight on 9 days notice, and I hope she gets another chance to fight soon.
Please run around this bag until you are tired.
0Some nights, you crow about your fellow instructors and the kids’ parents for being your constant supporters, the next all your instructors cancel last-minute because of “work” or “swine flu” and half the kids don’t show up…typical. Which is to say, it was a slooowwww night at taekwondo. The combination of kids being sick, and the fact that I think most of the parents decided we weren’t having class because it’s testing week (note: We did. We always do. Just so you know.), meant three white belts for intro class, and only TWO kids for regular class. It all sort of worked out though, since as I mentioned all my help had to cancel. If we’d had a full class I would have been in trouble…
Teaching two kids is hard though, it’s hard to build up much energy in class. Or in this case to stop the 45-minute long case of the giggles (and they’re boys!). Actually, one of the first things I learned working with kids is that anyone under the age of 13 is completely prone to the giggles. I sort of let it go, but it’s mighty hard to stand up and do taekwondo while laughing like that. But better that than boredom, I figure, so I just tried to keep the goofiness to a manageable level while kicking up the conditioning drills a lot. Pushups? Yes! See Who Can Kick a Bag the Most? Please! Running slaloms around bags because we can? Of course!
And the next time you’re teaching a taekwondo class (because I’m sure this is a problem you have often), and you’re looking at the clock, wondering what on earth you’re going to have these kids do for the next 20 minutes, I’ll share a little secret with you…the slow motion race. Slow motion, eyes closed, last one done wins…I consider it one of my most brilliant inventions. They love it, everybody can do it (so even the ones who hate normal races are happy), and they actually put a lot of effort into it. Plus, you get to sit and watch the kids do matrix-slow moves with their faces scrunched into incredible shapes of concentration – either because of the taekwondo or from trying to physically force themselves not to peek, I’m not sure. Either way it’s pretty entertaining. Actually that will only kill about 5 minutes, though, so you’re own your own for the other 15…sorry. That’s the joy of teaching :)
