Eye on the yellow belts

Hunter recieved an award at testing for most improved. Sports dont come so easily to him, so it was no suprise when Tai kwon do was not any different. His mind constantly wonders off in a thousand directions and staying focused or your keeping his attentionon focused on you only seems to occur when you happen to be the words on a book, cereal box,shampoo bottle,sign post, instruction manual, magazine, detergent box(do you see where I am going here ANY WRITTEN WORD...ANYWHERE) other than that it appears as if he doesnt actually know you exist much less that you are attemting to teach him something! Luckily for his school teachers they dont atually have to TEACH him anything, he pretty much just gets it. Physical actions, however, elude his capability often enough to frustrate the poor kid to death. Anyway...
We got the testing letter in the mail and I couldny help but say out loud that i wonder if it was a mistake thet both there names were on it. But when they ha sent two forms to fill in. Hunter and I both new we were in alot of trouble. They went to there Dads that weekend so we lost that time to practice and when they got there homework done on Monday afternoon and I got out the book to see what they had to know and what they could do I realized that neither one of them knew their pattern. So we started out the 19 steps of "Chon 'Ji" 2 at a time. We went threw the first two steps and then repeated them 10 times before adding the next two , then repeating from the beginning 10 times and adding 2 and repeating 10 times etc. to say the lest it was time consuming and bu the time we got to about step 8 it was time for dinner. After dinner I started working with Tyler by himself, he was growing increasingly frustrated at that pace as he seemed to know each move by the 4th repition pretty well. So we went threw all 19 steps repeating each a few times as we went and learned 4 at a time instead of two. He worked really hard and by about 8: oo he knew them but was really exhausted so we didnt practice anymore. At that point I made Hunter start again and we really still worked another hour on just steps one threw 8 then started working on his stances becouse they were totally incorrect and even I knew it and I am no Karate master! Tyler had fell asleep on the couch almost instntly and Hunter was yawning more than listening by 9 so I sent them to bed and asured Hunter that we would learn the rest the next day. The next afternoon after they finished their homework, and we began practicing again I asked how theyfelt about the previous nights grueling session and Hunter said " I did go to sleep alot faster than normal" I thought it ws funny, I have never seen Hunter work so hard at anything. Poor babys were exhausted! To make a very long story short we practiced every oportunity they had. In the morning before school, after school, before class, after class. Tyler did about 5 repititions of everything each time and Hunter did 20. He had to have done hte complete Chon Ji well over 100 times and I ws beginning to think that he was just not going to go easily from one move to the next, and they were gonna think he didnt know it becouse he took so long on each transition as everything about what he was siuposed to do and how his feet were supposed to go and ho his hands were supposed to be positioned went threw his head each time he moved. When he did it with the class on Thursday agternoon he was so behind everyone elses movements. So when we went home we worked on speed and focusing on where the target or oponent was next and faster transitions. We were both getting frustrated and so we talked about the pattern a while and what you were doing in it and tried again and that helped, he began to mov faster and with more confidence. FINALLY. Then we got to looking at all the kicks they had to know and the step sparring, so we practiced those as well as we could. He really needed another weeks time with them or maybe a month. But Tyler helped him a best he could ( I couldnt help him with those they arent laid out step by step in the manual like the pattern is) Then I spent all of Friday trying to prepare him mentally that the world wouldnt fall in on him if he didnt pass his yellow belt testing and went over with him at least 10 times not to get ypset and go rnning out of the room, but to know that he worked as hard as he could and if he didnt make it we would work hard untill the next testing and do it again and he could get his belt then. Hunter is extremely emotional and he wanted that yellow belt pretty bad. I just knew it would kill him, the thought of it was killing me, I just kept remembering Mr. Khapour saying he would rather them learn disapointment in he dojo with him than somewhere else. Thankfully he had printed his book that tells you the patterns step by step so I could help him at home and he could read them or Hunter would have been outa luck. Well testing came and I was a nervous wreck, I just kept telling people to pray! The white belts went first and I was relieved to get it over with. Tyler did excellent, he worked hard and really nailed his moves and his forms and got good marks and a great review. I saw Mr. Khapour switch judjing forms and wondered if he had taken Hunters himslf ( I was right the reason I let them join this DoJO after they hated the last one is this guy seemed to not be bothered by Hunter, I know that sounds strange but Tyler is a coaches dream , I have to have heard it a hundred times in football, not the greatest talent on the field but he does exactly what he's told and really works hard to get it right, coaches love his attitude and his love of the game.he always puts 100 percent into it. Ill have to say I love that part about him to. Tyler you always make me proud of you! But Hunter is viewed a little diferently most of the time and my insinct is to keep him from sports, but Mr. Khapour seemed to think it was no problem like he had seen this kind of kid a hundred times before so it put me at ease, well... a little bit anyway. Hunter ended up almost eeping up exactly with the rest of the kids and doing his moves really quite well. Then they did the kicks and he struggled with them pretty badly,couldnt keep his balance with repeat kicks. He even fell over a few times but got right back up and kept trying. Anyway... He got an award for most improved at the beginning of the ceremony and in the photo you can see him counting the yellow belts on the table behind Mr. Khapour to see if he was going to get one! I thought it ws really cute that Mr. Khapour was trying to give him recognition for his efforts and the vast improvements he had made and he is lookin behind him trying to figre out if there is a yellow belt for all the white belts that tested sitting on the table! Thats my Hunter!