My Daughter's Acclimation To The Dojo

Our family outing started with a short detour to our daughters’ favorite eating establishment, McDonalds. We wanted to make sure that they were fed and reasonably happy prior to getting to the dojo. I was very apprehensive about bringing them but also wanted them to see where I went every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning.

I must say the whole eating in the car as we drive is waaaaaaaaay over rated. I had an orange soda between my feet, to my left (I wasn’t driving, I was shotgun this time) was an opened box of nuggets with fries put into the lid for easy access, a soda in the cup holder for Rob, another soda for myself in the dashboard cup holder, the glove box was open so it held both Rob’s and my fries, and in my hand was my deluxe Angus burger. Yep nothing can go wrong here. I must say, this should be one of the life lessons that should be a college course, for every wannabe parent. After getting situated, we started to move, the soda between my feet rolled over on its side, I was scrambling to put the burger down and to make sure the soda in the dashboard cup holder didn’t spill plus trying to unbuckle my seat belt to retrieve the rolling soda between my legs. I was seeing this wasn’t going at all like I expected it.

Well after the little mishap, onward we went, making our trek to Appleton to acclimate my children to dojo life. Upon arrival, I scanned the parking lot and noticed only Sensei’s vehicle in the parking lot. That’s a good sign, we were a bit early so the girls would be able to go into the dojo and get accustomed to it at their own pace. Getting the girls out of the Tahoe and into the dojo with my gear, their gear and not enough hands was a challenge but once in the door, there was a bit of relief, everyone was safe and sound.

First thing I did was bowed, hoping that the girls would notice this but knowing they would be too busy soaking up the atmosphere. I said hi to Sensei, Kira followed suit as well, she piped up saying, “Hello Sensei, I Kira!” Sensei looked like he melted, I saw the tenderness come into his eyes, Sensei said, “Hi Kira, how are you?” Kira was too busy already wanting to soak in and explore as much as she could, Sensei turned and looked at Nicole, saying, “and who are you?” since Nicole was a bit shy and not ready to answer yet, I spoke for her, “and that’s little Nicole”, Sensei said hi to both of my girls. Kira, like myself on first introduction to this dojo, even before I became a student, wanted to get out onto that mat. She still had her shoes on, so I had to tell her to get her shoes off first. After that, she headed over to Sensei to talk to him, of course, little Nicole followed suit. After about 15 minutes of playing with Sensei, kicking the soccer balls and running around, it was time for my class to start.

I must say that I was very proud of my little 2 year old and 3 year old. When Sensei said to put the balls away and sit down they listened with some coaching from both myself and Rob. I bowed in to start the class with both Tom and Sensei, Karla was still sick so she wasn’t in class. The girls and Rob were sitting in the observation area, my back was towards them so I couldn’t see them, just heard them. Rob was having fun getting them situated, I had packed some crayons and their coloring books and regular reading books should they become antsy. I was hoping it wasn’t going to be too much of a distraction for the class. We started warm ups, all the while, I was focusing my listening on them, doing the exercises to loosen up my muscles but always listening to see if they were behaving themselves.

After warm ups, we practiced Ippon, Kihon, and then Sensei said to review Wansu kata. At this point I believe we heard a crash, and little Kira’s voice saying, “I think I have a problem here.” Turning around I saw she had run into the Shoji screen outside the men’s change room. I looked quickly over at Rob, and he had this look of disappointment on his face, but a look of concern quickly replaced the disappointed look. Rob went and lifted the screen from my daughter and got her back to the observation area. I looked at Sensei, and quickly he said, “It’s okay, it’s okay” The screen was put back up, both my little energetic child nor the screen were damaged.

At this point Rob thought it was best to remove the girls for a bit. They left the dojo to watch a cartoon in the truck outside and also to finish the rest of their snacks. Sensei continued working the Bunkai to Wunsu with me and made me go over and over the techniques. I was exhausted, emotionally and physically. Putting a bit more effort into my techniques, concentrating on the application portions, and wanting Rob to see that “old me”. Over and over I practiced, both with Sensei being the attacker and me doing the defending. Sensei then left me alone to work on things myself as he went to teach Tom his new kata, Dan En Sho.

While I was working the kata by myself I had a revelation on one of the techniques, a part in Wunsu where I’m in cat stance, executing a knife hand thrust , brushing the imaginary punch away and stepping into the punch reinforcement, and then downward strike to the groan part. I had let out an “aaaayyy” in reaction to my revelation. Sensei came over and he said, what did you figure out. I told him what I found out, and how the technique just naturally flowed and he said, “What you have learned is far more advanced than what we teach white belts, good, good, continue… “ I saw the smile of satisfaction on his face, then he stopped me in the next moves to correct my stance and position and explained why I should do it that way. After I completed the kata for the 10th time in this class. I heard my babies come back into the dojo… Sensei looked at me, and said we have time to do the Bunkai one more time, I’m thinking he wanted my girls and my husband to see the progression since they had left. We went through the bunkai, him attacking and me defending as my family watched me. At the end when both Sensei and I bowed and finished the kata and bunkai. My whole body crumbled, the class was over.

We bowed out and everything became informal again, the girls took off their shoes and got back out on the mat and continued their play time with Sensei. After about 10 minutes, I told the girls it was time for our drive home. The girls said their goodbyes to Sensei and we started our way out of the door. Sensei had stopped Rob and was able to talk to him a bit about my progress. It was all good, the exchange left both the special people in my life happy that their meeting and my girls introduction went over well.

When we got back outside, Kira wanted to go back in because she forgot to give Sensei a kiss goodbye. I told her, “You can give him a kiss next time sweety, the next time you come to visit. “