Karate Kid

Nate has been begging to take karate for awhile now. A year, to be exact. Mostly because a lot of his friends at school take it. (There is an after-school program at his school where they do karate every Wednesday. I had always told him no b/c he was doing another sport at the time (soccer or basketball), and I don't want to fall into that trap too early of doing too many sports/activities at a time.)

 

Well, I decided to let the kids pick a summer activity/camp, and Nate narrowed it down to Lego Engineering Camp or Karate lessons. But clearly, karate won. We found a great program through a friend that started mid-June and ends mid-August, with "unlimited lessons." So basically, he is allowed to come up to 6x/week! He is in the 6-10 year old age group, but most of them are beginners like Nate, and there is a designated time for his group to come each day. Mostly somewhere between 4 pm-6:30 pm.

 

Nate had his first class/orientation back on June 12th, where he got his training jersey, shorts, and belt. Then we left for the beach and Camp N&P, so he missed the first two weeks of class. Oops. (I had asked ahead of time if this was going to be a problem - especially since they would have tested for 2 stripes while Nate was away - but the instructors assured me he could catch up.)

 

Needless to say, we have been at karate the past 4 days in a row. And watching the program's YouTube videos to cram for the stripe tests. I am proud of Nate because he is really dedicated already and seems to be enjoying himself!

 

Check out that intensity on his first day:

 On Wednesday, he was allowed to test for his green stripe. He had to complete a series of 5 stances:

 He did great!!!!! Here he is receiving his first stripe:

 I asked him to make a tough guy face and this is what I got:

Then, yesterday, he volunteered to test for his silver stripe. He got up in front of the whole class, said the quote that he had memorized, and then had to answer some questions about Perseverance. Very proud of my boy!

So far, he is really loving karate. His favorite parts are the different obstacle courses they set up each day, and then the "PT Test" they do at the end where they time each kid on push-ups and sit-ups. It's good to see him get a little competitive!!

 

I'm looking forward to the next month and seeing how much he progresses. Go Ninja Nate!