way of the chinese ant

So Toby and I decided that it would be a good thing for Owen to participate in some sort of athletic endeavor because Toby never did that as a kid and he felt that he suffered as a result. We both thought karate would be a good idea because of the discipline and I’d prefer he wasn’t doing football or some sport where the parents get crazy competitive and where his self esteem might flounder instead of getting bolstered. Owen started taking karate in January and has been going 2 to 3 evenings each week, which with Toby in class two nights a week as well, makes for a stressful dinner time, although it doesn’t take all that much to totally stress me out when it comes to making dinner. We started Owen in a karate school that is very inexpensive, some of these places can be outrageous in terms of signing children up for 4 year contracts, we just figured we’d start him in a cheap place and if he really likes karate we can always switch him to another place later if need be. Even though the place he goes to is cheap and it’s in a tiny room Toby and I both like the teacher a lot. He’s very good with all the children and I respect his whole philosophy about karate, which he talks about on his website. Toby’s usually the one who takes Owen there while I stay home with Oona and make dinner but Monday I went with Owen because I wanted to see how he was doing. First off when I say this place is tiny I am in no way exaggerating, he used to be in a larger space but there was a fire in the building so lessons are taught in this temporary space which can fit 6 chairs and a door width-wise, all the chairs were taken when I got there so I just sat on the floor. Before class starts the kids usually run around like crazy for five minutes and Owen kept trying to wrestle with this one solidly built boy with a mohawk, who’s an orange belt. Owen is a waif, his rib cage is perfectly visible on his little chest, every darn rib. You can see his hipbones protrude through his back, I worry about how thin he is but Toby’s Mom insists Toby was just like that growing up so I shouldn’t be concerned. So Owen continues to run after mohawk boy and play wrestle with him and I’m sitting on my hands, biting my tongue, doing everything possible to stop from shouting at Owen to not do that, it’s so hard knowing when to let kids just work things out on their own. Mohawk boy then delivers a strong kick to Owen’s tummy and I’m ready to leap up him and deliver a kick of my own, but I hold back since Owen provoked things running after and trying to wrestle with a kid much stronger than him. Owen seems fine, I exhale and class starts. The children go through various maneuvers kicking and hyahing the length of the room then running back to the other end. Mohawk boy is getting admonished a lot because he doesn’t pay attention, talks or is draping himself along the wall. At one point when the newer white belt students are waiting for the older yellow & orange belt students to run back to place Mohawk boy kick a tiny (ten pounds and so many inches smaller than Owen) girl square in the chest. The teacher doesn’t notice this but his Mother does who makes some ineffectual yelp to which Mohawk boy whines, ‘but she kicked me first.’ I’m now wondering if maybe it’s better that I don’t come to karate because I don’t want to see this kind of crap going on. The teacher lays out a mat, foam log and another mat for the children to do a somersault and then a running front or side kick over. Owen does the somersault, you’d think his spine was fused but it looks like the somersault is tough for most of the kids, he runs to the foam log and then suddenly stops like a spooked horse he looks at me then lifts his legs up to hop over the log. Parents start laughing and I don’t know what to do. It’s funny but I don’t want to make him feel bad, so when he runs back I just shake my head and chuckle. They go through three more passes like this and his stops at the log every time. The teacher tries to talk to him and help him make the running kick over the log but when he holds onto the back of Owen’s uniform he winds up lifting him up over the log like Mary Poppins. The parents keep laughing and I’m trying to give Owen encouraging looks and nods of the head, it isn’t the end all be all but now I’m wondering why he’s insisting on not jumping over the log. Poor Owen. During class he makes very fierce faces and does a wonderful kiai with every move but he can’t do the kicks all that well, his feet barely get off the floor. The teacher says there will be a big difference once he’s five, his coordination will improve, it surely couldn’t get worse. But he’s enjoying himself and that’s all I want. The girls in the class kick ass! They’re all so focused and do such perfect little kicks, I want to cheer for them. As class winds down with the teacher saying ‘What type of martial arts do we do?’ to which the children reply ‘Tang Soo Do.’ The teacher asks ‘What does Tang Soo Do mean?’ to which they say ‘Way of the Chinese ant.’ Or at least that’s what I thought they said. It seemed so cute, I mean wasn’t David Carradine called Grasshopper in Kung Fu and I figured maybe the martial arts are trying to practice humility and quiet strength so ‘way of the Chinese ant’ made sense to me and I start thinking how Owen’s sort of like Flick in A Bug’s Life, kind hearted and enthusiastic but bumbling at times, yet it will all come together and gel in the end for him. It was only when I looked up the spelling of Tang Soo Do on wikipedia that I saw the children were either saying ‘way of the china hand’ or ‘way of the empty hand’ - whoops.