The Tyler Family: Tae Kwon Do and Orange Belt!

This past week was a very exciting week for Jake, he tested for his orange belt in Taekwondo! As I went to make a post about that, I realized I had never done one about him starting taekwondo, woops! So, let's rewind to the middle of August. Some of our friends at church own a "Karate for Kids" gym in Murphy. They are wonderful people and have blessed our family and several others from church by offering classes at a discounted rate, like hugely discounted. There is no way we would be able to afford this for Jake right now without this amazing blessing and we are so grateful to them.

So in mid-August, Jake and Stephen went to watch a class to check it out. Jake thought it was awesome and they signed him up for the trial period. He came home with his own gee, which he thought was super awesome.

We went for his first class. He is in the 'Tiny Tigers' group, which is ages 4-6. He was super excited in the car, but in typical Jake fashion, he was super shy and unsure when it came time for class to start. He didn't want to join the group and was just sitting on the side watching. Then our amazing friend, Jack, aka Master Hornbuckle came over to him and got him up doing some things one on one.

So thankful for his patience and for working with Jake. After that first lesson, he was hooked!

So there are classes for his age group every day, but we go Mondays and Wednesdays after school right now. It's a little hectic those days, but fun too. So in taekwondo, they measure your progress by putting stripes on your belt. Once you have three stripes, you are ready to test for you next color belt. After about a week and a half, Jake got his first stripe, yay! Sorry the pic is blurry, it's hard to take a good picture and hold Cody.

One stripe!

Jack had told the boys that the second stripe was one of the hardest to get and it took almost another month, but he finally got it!

Here is video of him working on his second stripe

and then a few weeks later came stripe number 3! He was ready to test for his orange belt!

I really wasn't sure what to expect as far as how testing worked. Pretty much everyone in Jake's class was testing up to the next belt. I was picturing each child being tested individually, that's what they did when he got his stripes, they would pull the students off to the side and 'test' them. Belt testing was different, each belt level tests together, going through the required blocks, combinations, etc. Then, they tested them individually on their self defense moves. One thing we love is that this gym goes beyond just tkd moves and teaches the kids self defense techniques, anti-bullying training and leadership skills. It's incredible!

So here are pictures from belt testing, it was crazy crowded and I didn't always have the best angle for pictures, but in some you can see Jake clearly by looking in the mirror.

warming up with Mr. Linkletter

listening position

practicing their '9-man sequence' Jake is pretty much in the middle of this shot.

Jake is the second kid's head from the left...you can see his face in the mirror

Jake on the far left, they are doing sparring combinations

you can see Jake in the mirror

sparring combinations...Jake is the third child from the front of the row

Self-defense work with Ms Martin (she's a world champion!)

listening position while the other colors test

white belts lined up to receive their orange belts!

I was so bummed, because I could not get a clear shot of Jake receiving his belt :( It was really cool, the instructors remove their old belts and tie their new ones on them. So the instructor in the middle is giving Jake his orange belt, you just can't see him.

The belts have stickers with their names on them and other labels. It was too funny because they put the stickers on all the kids faces. They were all looking around to see how silly everyone looked.

Jake getting his new DVD that goes along with orange belt techniques

Mr Linkletter addressing the class

Congratulations speech from Mr Linkletter

Our new orange belt!

So the big bummer in this was that belt testing was on a JV game night and Stephen missed it. It was rough, but we know that this is part of the life of a coaching family. We are super proud of you Jake and can't wait for more belt testings!