The best way to know...

Our class structure starts out with meditation and warm ups. After that, the class usually breaks up into smaller groups with a pair of assistant instructors at each group. The lead instructor has one assistant instructor lead the group while the other pays attention to individual students who are needing that extra bit of help. I've usually been that "other" instructor. A couple weeks ago, I was put in charge of a group to teach them the first 8 moves of a form (Palgwe Yook Jong) that I had only recently learned myself (I did Taegeuk forms during my black belt training). It's a fairly straightforward form that is deceptively simple to do but if you make a mistake it's very obvious. It has to be darn near perfect to look right.

So....my brain went blank. I couldn't remember how it started. Part of it was panic attack in the "OMG, I'm leading a whole group, what am I going to do" vein of attacks. The tune stagefright popped into my head.

I improvised.

I asked the students who had done it before. Several of the students raised their hand. I called on one of them to demonstrate for the rest of us. I suddenly remembered what to do. All was well. I led them through the form step by step giving instruction each step of the way. I realized I knew the form better than I thought and came away from the evening with one thought in my head......The best way to know that you know something is when you can teach it to others.

I'll be forever grateful for that student demonstrating though.

Bonus points for today: without googling it up, name the arena the music video is from. I'm proud to say I was at that concert. Mullet, ripped jeans, bandanas and all. There was a camera rolling on a track right in front of me the whole time.