Weapons training begins

For years now Alex has been a little bored with Tae Kwon Do. Really it's amazing that we've stayed at it as long as we have. Alex wants to learn something new. He wants weapons. Over Memorial Day we were at the Boulder Creek festival and ran into a few martial arts studios. One of them seemed especially professional and friendly. They even called me back once immediately and then again once they knew we were in Boulder. Monday afternoon while Wee was still at camp Alex and I had our first weapons martial arts class. The first decision was what weapon to choose - broad sword, nunchucks, or bo staff seemed to be the leading contenders. I couldn't imagine myself ever really coordinated enough for nunchucks and bo staffs seem too big for a little elf like me, so broad sword it is. They actually had three different swords which pretty much used the same movements, but were different weights. Alex took the heaviest version and I took the mid-weight version. I almost went for the light and floppy one that makes cool noises whenever it moves, but they said it was a little sharp even on the back. I could just imagine myself half cutting my hand off by accident and I handed that one to the instructor. So there we were pretty much in street clothes hiding looking outwardly like total amateurs. We giddy and giggly at the thought of actually using a sword just like we had seen TKD students giggle at punching and kicking on their first days. The drills started in front of a mirror with a few slashing motions with the wrists kept stiff. I thought of how floppy my wrists often are in tennis, but thankfully in martial arts there are no balls sent awry making my faults blatantly obvious. Just do 50 or so out to in and in to out. 50! That seemed like a lot for the first day, but we're black belts we made it through. Ok, now switch the sword to your left hand. Excuse me, what? We actually had been playing tennis earlier in the day so our right hands were channeling that experience somewhat, but left hands had no clue where to even start. But start they did and, although awkward, it kinda worked. After all in the Princess Bride didn't Wesley fight left handed for the first part of that epic sword battle? Enough with these warm-ups. Time to learn a form (pattern to us). Sword at side, unsheath, sitting stance, push out and support, step to the side with sword version of outer forearm block, inward slash, downward hack with kiyay, and then wipe the blood off in a good extended very kung fu like stance. Awesome. We'll definitely be back.