Friday, December 7, 2007

Theme word - Cooperation

Cooperation - Together We Can Accomplish More

That's been the theme word and the dojang's definition of it for green belt. I've really noticed this spirit in our lessons. We end up seeing the same people on a regular basis. Of course, a lot of that has to do with the fact that we generally go to the same class times each week and everyone has their own weekly schedules. Seeing the same people all the time does build a spirit of camaraderie knowing that we are all working toward the same goal.

During the class, we usually end up pairing off for some of the drills. We are encouraged to critique each other's technique and also praise each other for things we are doing well. We also help each other out with figuring out exactly what we are supposed to do (generally when someone didn't hear the instructions quite right).

Pairing up does it have it's consequences though. One of our drills last week was practicing our back kick into a kicking shield held by our partner. From the normal kicking stance, the kicker rotates toward their back shoulder and then kicks with what was the rear leg but is now their front leg backwards. The kick is supposed to go straight back. You should be able to practice this up against a wall (wall to your back in the kicking stance position) and not hit the wall with your knee. Well, I have a slight problem with height on this kick and I ended up too low for the pad and kicked my partner in the knee. His knee was sideways. Luckily, I wasn't kicking too hard and he claims to be fine now.

One of the examples of cooperation given on the motivational poster at the dojang is "Sharing your toys with your siblings." My oldest daughter barely tolerates her sister at times, despises her most of the time, and on the occasional basis actually plays with her. She has a hard time sharing anything with her. I've been really, really stressing this aspect of the theme word to her. I've seen some improvement but I think we have a long way to go. The "discussion" with her usually ends with the following statement: "What's more valuable to you, that toy or your sister?" She knows the correct answer but I can see it in her face that she wants to answer the toy.


No comments: