I took Ashton to her second Karate Taekwondo lesson tonight. Her first one was last Thursday, and she will be going twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’ve always used the term Karate for any kind of martial arts, and I still use the term because I know it irks Suzanne. Suzanne used to do Karate Taekwondo and I’ve pictures of her in her Karate Taekwondo gear striking fearsome poses. I did a bit of Karate Taekwondo when I was young, and I also did a bit of Karate Ju Jitsu, but no more than the free introductory lessons.

I’ve always thought that Ashton would benefit from Karate lessons in a number of ways: so she can learn more about her body and how it works, to learn a bit of discipline, and to help her confidence grow. And also, to a smaller degree, so she can defend herself. It was a couple years ago that Suzanne and I talked about it. Karate would be good for Ashton because, hey, Suzanne did Karate Taekwondo right? And Karate Taekwondo was fun and Karate Taekwondo was healthy and Karate Taekwondo was cool.

I think Ashton might have been a bit overwhelmed by the stuff she saw on TV because she shied away and swore never to try it. That was a couple years ago, but now she is older and a bit more adventurous. Suzanne talked her into going to a Karate Taekwondo lesson last week, and now she can’t get enough! Tonight she got her uniform and her first belt. We plan on maybe buying some pads or maybe a punching bag so she can kick and punch away. Suzanne is delving deep into her motor memory to remember all the Karate Taekwondo moves you need to perform to advance from one belt to the next, and she’s been in the kitchen sharing the finer points on how to turn and stand etc.

I think it’ll do a world of good for Ashton. Master Kim, her teacher, is a 7 Dan black belt, and works very well with the kids. He has various nicknames for the kids: one kid has a surname of “Young” so Kim calls him “AC/DC” after Angus Young. Another girl is called “Jonesy” because her first name is “Indiana”. There’s also a “Jackie Chan” and a few others I missed. Kim was thinking of calling Ashton “Vacuum” but I hope he puts some more thought into that one.

Karate!