TKD Demonstration

The school had its first TKD demonstration this evening for families at the Atkins Elementary School.


First off, I'll say that martial arts shoes, with their smooth soles, do NOT work well at all on a freshly waxed, hardwood gym floor! Every kick above waist height made me feel I was going to flip over backwards. Between kicks & forms, I kicked those boys off so my kicks would look decent (ie - not falling on my posterior).


I demonstrated my highest form, Ge-Baek, along with some color-belts with their forms. Everyone did really well, as expected.


We had a few students do a demonstration for breaking. We had one of our recommended black belts attempt a break with a straight punch on two boards. Now, Mr. Eschen has tons of power so this wouldn't normally be a problem. However, when he struck the boards, all you heard was a crack & nothing else happened! The second time, he may have injured one of his knuckles.


Since he's got more power than I do, this was a shock. After they put the boards down I took a look at the back one & it had a big ol' knot in the middle. I'm not saying he couldn't get through it but it would be one heck of a big deal to punch that thing out.


After we wrapped up the TKD part of the demo, Darren took over with his Arnis demonstration. It only lasted about 15 minutes but was very impressive. He had four junior students with him & I have to say (being only 1^st level in Arnis) these kids have learned quite a lot!


I'm hoping we can do a HKD demo the next time around. Unfortunately, this time we couldn't get anyone to show besides me & Master Rion that know how to do advanced techniques. Maybe next time we can get Mr. Reif, Mr. Godfrey & Mr. Willfong there to make a good show of it.