I love the smell of fresh broken wood…
Did I say “Broken”? Yes.. Yes I did…
Today was a long day for me… We got up early, took the girls to Tiger Cub Class, went shopping for all of our Memorial Day BBQ needs, and made it home with enough time to quickly invite our neighbors over and run inside to change, fill up a water bottle, and attempt to put my hair up, then get back on the road… this time to Tiger Rock TaeKwonDo Academy….
Today was a board breaking clinic… I really hadn’t prepared for this… but I was told that I should go… and so I did. LOL. I started TaeKwonDo just a couple of months ago, and have been steadily getting my confidence back, and my techniques in check… I have a lot of work to go, and of course, my loss of being able to remember anything just about makes memorizing all of the forms a super long process, but I’m getting it… slowly. I knew that it was going to take time… I’m ready for that… 
Now, back to the board breaking… The last time I broke boards was back in 1996… Senior year in High School.. .Yes… I’m admitting my age here. I remember breaking for my testing to 2nd degree black belt. I had to break 2 boards.. one with a hand technique and one with my foot. Don’t ask which techniques I broke with.. because I’m not sure I can remember that far back… The other day, I was online, and I saw a facebook post from my Instructor come across my tweetdeck, mentioning this board breaking clinic. I had planned on doing a yard sale this weekend, so I replied with ‘Oh sure, do a clinic on my yard sale day!’ After a little conversation, I found out that the clinic went at 3pm, so I’d be able to attend anyway. At first, I was super excited, and then he told me that I had to break 2 boards… at one time… Yeah.. I never had to do that when I was younger… All I could think was that I’m not as in shape, I’m not as in practice, and I’m so going to break or really hurt something… I was psyching myself out… Go figure…
Well, the week went by, and here came Saturday. We got the girls to class, did some shopping and I made it back for the clinic. I got there, and alllllll these kids were there. I felt old… really out of place… Then I thought.. I was in their place before. It was kinda neat… and a little scary. We got in there, started warming up, and then practiced our techniques on some focus pads. After a few minutes, we were able to decide which techniques we wanted to use for our breaks and we were given our boards… I got to help out holding boards for some of the younger students. It was really neat to see the smiles on their faces when they broke their boards. One of the students really reminded me of me when I was younger. She had a hard time with one of the board breaks. It really got to her too. I felt horrible for her when she started crying because she hadn’t broken the board… I just wanted to give her a huge hug….. Heck I got teary eyed right along with her… I don’t know if it was because I’m a mom, and now I hate seeing kids crying, or if it’s because I remembered how much it hurt me when I didn’t break my boards for my first black belt testing years ago… I’m sure it had to be a combination of the two… along with the fact that I was scared to even try today. She did finally break her front kick board… which was great, but I know that it was already in her mind that she was really discouraged. Naturally… it was my turn next…
I decided I was going to do an elbow strike and a side kick… I figured they were my strongest techniques at this point, and I really did not want to not break the boards. I set up my boards, and away I went. I started with my elbow… Amazingly… I smashed right through it. I went for the side kick. I smashed that one too. I could not believe I did it…. I grabbed my boards and could not stop smiling.. Actually… I couldn’t stop shaking either. I was so ramped up on adrenaline it was kinda crazy. But I did it… I did something that I didn’t think I could. It was just one more step in my TaeKwonDo .. ummm.. career.. I guess I could say. Sure.. I just started, but I guess it’s kinda a career. Anyhow… It was fun, I made it… I showed that wood who is boss… Oh.. and that photo over there… those are the boards I broke…. Two boards at once.. equaling 2″… Left boards were my side kick and Right boards were my elbow… Yaay!
Oh! I was just sent a video from another student that was there with her son… who was in the clinic with me… She got my board break on her iPhone… Now you can see me smashing the boards LOL… Click the link below and it should open up for you! if not, let me know and I’ll try a different way…
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Great job Monica…I knew you could do it…loved the video!