I stopped by my old Tae Kwon Do school for a bit this morning, with Phoebe in tow. They were having an open house and demo. (I haven’t been training there regularly for at least a couple of years, but I still keep in touch with some folks. In case you’re wondering, I was, and I guess technically still am, a blue belt…And in case you’re wondering, I wasn’t particularly good. Totally not athletic. Also not terribly coordinated. But I enjoyed it.) Anyhow, the demo was very cool, and Phoebe got to see some real-live martial arts action. Several of the instructors demonstrated some impressive breaking techniques. Mostly breaking boards. The chief instructor even broke a stack of 5 or 6 concrete slabs. Very impressive.
But I have to say that the high point of the demonstration for me was when one of the instructors called up some of the students to show some advanced kicks. He asked for a couple of young red belts to come up (those are students that are a couple of tests away from being black belts). He had them show some jumping and “flying” kicks. So they did a few flying side kicks and jumping crescent kicks, and it looked very cool. And then the instructor called up another red belt to join to the two in the demonstration. And he made the comment: “just so that everyone can see that boys can do these, too.” Because the first two students were girls. I hadn’t even thought about that fact until the instructor’s comment.
My TKD school is very supportive of women and girls who train in martial arts. In fact, it’s never even particularly been an issue there. And it was nice to be reminded of this. While most of the kids who train there are boys, four out of the maybe eight people who have become blackbelts training at the school are women. I never felt like my gender held me back. (Other things did. See aforementioned lack of athleticism and coordination. Also overcommitment to other things. While I’m not the only woman that’s trained there, I may possibly be the only grad student…) Anyhow, I’m hoping to try to get back into the training there soon. In my copious spare time.
collecting tokens 
Alejna, something else we have in common: we’ve both had some martial arts training in the past! Also, funnily enough, have been thinking of blogging on my martial arts experiences. Maybe reading this will give me a push to do so in the near future! :)
YTSL-
Cool! I look forward to reading about it. What style, by the way? I explored several options. I’d been most interested in Kung Fu, actually, mostly due to the Hong Kong movies. And I considered Karate or another Japanese style, since I had a Japanese connection. (I studied Japanese as an undergrad). But I ended up trying out my school because the Chief Instructor was very encouraging (also a great salesman), and then sticking around because all (or mostly all) of the people at the school were so great. So that’s how I ended up with TKD.
Hi again Alejna —
I eventually plummed for Budokan Karate (as I understand it, a Malaysian-ized style/branch of the Japanese martial arts). But the exploration of several options will probably form the bulk of my planned post on the subject… ;)
As for your Tae Kwon Do school: I took a look at the site that you linked to and it does look pretty cool. :)
YTSL-
Hmm. A Malaysian-ized karate. I guess my school is of the type Canadian-ized Tae Kwon Do. (The founder of the branch to which my school belongs in Canadian.) And I look forward to reading your post about exploring your martial arts options!
Hi Alejna —
Here it is:-
http://webs-of-significance.blogspot.com/2007/02/my-childhood-martial-arts-experiences.html
Hope you enjoy…despite my having gotten carried away and ending up writing my longest blog entry to date! ;D
YTSL-
Thanks for sharing that!