Master Robbie, Master Eli

Today my Tae Kwon Do instructors are my sons.

After returning from our trip to the Mississippi River Museum, we head over to
Tae Kwon Do class. The boys had been reluctant ("It's spring break! I don't want to go to Tae Kwon Do!") but once in the car, they're cooperative.

But there's no one at the dojang when we arrive. The metal gate is locked at the bottom of the stairs, and it's dark up there. We get back in the car and head for home.

On our way home, we pass the Coe racquet center. "Do you guys want to stop and work out?"I ask them. "Yeah!" they chime.

It's a cold, rainy day, and I just spent 3 hours of my day in the car, so I'm glad we'll get a workout. We begin with a walk around the track, then move to an empty squash court to do Tae Kwon Do. We pull off shoes and socks, and Robbie leads us in some warm ups. He remembers the order of the warm up correctly: middle punches first, then straight up stretch kick, outside-inside, inside-outside, front snap, and so forth.

Eli wants to lead basic moves, so he trades bows with Robbie and begins. We go through the basic moves (low block, middle knife hand guarding block, high block) and combination kicks. At some point Eli's had enough (we are all sweating), so I take over. We end with forms.

At one point, I look up to see three children looking down at us from the upper floor. I wonder if Hughes Institute has ever given a demonstration at Coe. Hmmm . . .