The Newest Karate Kid, Part II: Yellow Belt

When I learned that I was pregnant with a daughter, my mind immediately filled with girlie thoughts: butterflies and flowers.  Tea parties and princesses.  Pierced ears, painted toenails, and makeup (way down the road).  Tutus and ballet class.

My little girl is about to turn six (!?!), and I have yet to enroll her in a dance class (that’s my tutu she’s wearing… it’s ancient).  Toddler gymnastics?  Yes.  Swim lessons? Repeatedly.  Beginner’s soccer?  You bet.  Drawing lessons and an international doll making class?  Uh huh.  But karate?!  Yup, that too.

I never imagined that I would ever enroll Bear in a martial arts class.  Because I knew nothing of the discipline – other than what I “learned” from watching The Karate Kid and the three kickboxing classes I attended when I was 18 – I assumed it was really more of a guy thing.  Not something in which a little girl who loves princesses and Hannah Montana, who plays with My Little Ponies and Barbies, and wears dresses and pearls to school would ever take an interest.

I was wrong.

It started with an invitation from Heather: “The girls are playing together this afternoon, but Butterfly has a karate lesson.  Do you mind if we bring Bear with us to watch?”  I had no problem with that, and since she’d just finished preschool with a three-and-a-half month stretch in front of us before kindergarten began, I was hoping she might take an interest in something to help fill our days.  She came home with eyes sparkling and a plea in her voice.  “Can I try, Mommy?”

So two days later I followed my friend to the dojo, where I met the man that my daughter claimed tried to steal her hair because he had none of his own.   Because I hadn’t officially enrolled her in the class yet – I wanted to see if she’d like it first – she wore loose pants and a t-shirt.  Her moves were clumsy and all over the place; she was as completely uncoordinated as I expected her to be.  She moved her right hand when they asked her to move her left; she went up when they went down; she looked baffled by the very basic Japanese phrases and commands issued by Sensei Ron and his wife, Ms. Akemi.  But she loved it.  Every single sweaty, drenched-clothes minute (this was July, mind you).
And so I signed her up, bought her a gi of her own, and the next week I accompanied her to her very first lesson as a white belt.

In the 12 weeks since then she’s been getting stronger.  More coordinated.  More still.  My child – who has trouble keeping her limbs quiet long enough to let me read a bedtime story without saying “Stop wiggling!” has learned to be still.  To focus.  To harness her own strength and resolve into performing movements that require her to use her body and her mind in conjunction with each other.

(She also initially became more aggressive toward Bug, but when I asked her sensei for assistance he gave her a pointed talk about how karate is not to be used for beating up little brothers.  Or sisters.  Or friends. Or parents.  We’ve had no trouble since.)

The gymnastics helped her learn gross motor skills.  Swim lessons allowed her to be comfortable in the water.  Soccer taught her the value of teamwork.  Art lessons brought out her artistic side and ultimately assisted her in learning to write the letters of the alphabet.  But karate taught my daughter that she has an inner strength she never knew she had.   Karate taught my daughter that even at five years old, she is capable of learning a complex series of movements after hard work, practice, and sheer diligence.  That she is capable of spending two afternoons a week in practice, adding in a few more minutes here and there throughout the rest of the week at home, and then getting up on a stage to perform those movements in front of a sizable crowd.  That she is capable of earning her yellow belt.

Which she did.  On Saturday.

I really can’t say enough about Ron and Akemi as instructors.  They’re both just fantastic with children, and both Bear and Bug love going to practices.  Bear loves it for the actual karate instruction; Bug loves it because he sits to watch but also sometimes gets (imaginary) points from Sensei when he performs his own moves outside.  They love kids and I’ve seem them constantly making an effort to engage not just the students themselves, but also the parents and accompanying siblings.

Putting Bear in karate was one of the best decisions we’ve made for her, activity-wise.  I’m hoping that wherever it is we go next we’ll be able to find another karate school that’s just as good for her and our whole family.

I’ve got more pictures loaded here on my October 2009 photo album, which I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to post on the blog (I’ve also finally gotten the slideshow updated).  In addition I just realized that I haven’t yet posted our September Album, so here ya go.

Anywho, here are some more pictures from the yellow belt test.  I apologize for the fuzzy quality; we’re saving up to buy a newer, higher-quality camera at some point.  For now I just need to remind myself to use the zoom feature on my camera instead of in my photo editing software…