Get Your Beast On at Norfolk Karate Academy
0 CommentsBy Lostcheerio on Wednesday, May 07, 2008 at 3:35 PM.
Benny has been a student at Norfolk Karate Academy for years. Almost since the month the school opened. Benny is a long term project for the patient teachers at NKA. I have already written at this blog about how much I respect and admire Mr. Odom and his amazing teaching of karate for kids. Now I want to sell you, the mom or dad reading this blog, on the idea of karate for yourself.
When I first started sitting through children's karate classes at NKA, watching Benny do this punch and that kick and that form and this self-defense move, I often sat next to one particular mom with kids in the program, and we'd talk. We talked about our kids, our lives, and about karate and how fun it looked. One day she turned to me and said, "We should do this. We're sitting here anyway. Why don't we do this!?" I said, "I will if you will." The idea was hatched. We went to Mr. Odom and asked if we could join the class. Not the adults class -- the kids class. He, being a reasonable sort of person, with an open mind and a willing spirit, welcomed us enthusiastically. I trained in the kid class until Benny and I both got our yellow belts, at which point I switched over to the adult class.
In fall of 2006 I started getting serious about my kicks and punches, and eventually I had my green belt. Since then I've had a problem with aggravating my herniated disk, and I've had to stop training. It makes me very sad. There are more karate moms than you may realize, and it's for a good reason. Karate is a *great* way to get exercise, have fun, learn something, and work out your aggression and irritation with life and traffic. If I could start up again, I'd do it in a heartbeat. At the Norfolk Karate Academy, you can learn Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Tang Soo Do, self defense, and you can have a lot of fun doing it. Not just your kids, but YOU. Put on a gi, stretch out your muscles, and kick the crap out of something!
Norfolk Karate Academy has sponsored one winner at the GUESS Homeschool Science Fair, with a free gi, t-shirt, start-up kit and one month's free training at their huge and airy Norfolk studio. The winner of the Isaac Newton Award for Hard-hitting Research is Shannon, who will be enjoying her new karate skill soon! Congratulations Shannon, and thank you to the Norfolk Karate Academy.
When I first started sitting through children's karate classes at NKA, watching Benny do this punch and that kick and that form and this self-defense move, I often sat next to one particular mom with kids in the program, and we'd talk. We talked about our kids, our lives, and about karate and how fun it looked. One day she turned to me and said, "We should do this. We're sitting here anyway. Why don't we do this!?" I said, "I will if you will." The idea was hatched. We went to Mr. Odom and asked if we could join the class. Not the adults class -- the kids class. He, being a reasonable sort of person, with an open mind and a willing spirit, welcomed us enthusiastically. I trained in the kid class until Benny and I both got our yellow belts, at which point I switched over to the adult class.
In fall of 2006 I started getting serious about my kicks and punches, and eventually I had my green belt. Since then I've had a problem with aggravating my herniated disk, and I've had to stop training. It makes me very sad. There are more karate moms than you may realize, and it's for a good reason. Karate is a *great* way to get exercise, have fun, learn something, and work out your aggression and irritation with life and traffic. If I could start up again, I'd do it in a heartbeat. At the Norfolk Karate Academy, you can learn Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Tang Soo Do, self defense, and you can have a lot of fun doing it. Not just your kids, but YOU. Put on a gi, stretch out your muscles, and kick the crap out of something!
Norfolk Karate Academy has sponsored one winner at the GUESS Homeschool Science Fair, with a free gi, t-shirt, start-up kit and one month's free training at their huge and airy Norfolk studio. The winner of the Isaac Newton Award for Hard-hitting Research is Shannon, who will be enjoying her new karate skill soon! Congratulations Shannon, and thank you to the Norfolk Karate Academy.
Labels: guess sponsors, jiu jitsu, karate, norfolk karate academy
Benny called in to the Tony Macrini show this morning to share his martial arts experiences.
Benny's karate teacher, Mr. Odom, of the Norfolk Karate Academy, was a guest on the morning show over at WNIS this morning.
I am an avid listener to talk radio when I'm in the car and the kids will allow me to change over from "They Might Be Giants: Here Come the ABCs" which is currently in our DVD player. (Benny is committed to getting Sadie educated on those ABCs, and I'm just letting him do it!) I even enjoy listening to the right wing bozos that come on in the afternoon. I get a kick out of hearing their ridiculous analogies and bizarre applications of "logic" and then ranting and raving about them to whoever will listen to me for the rest of the day.
Uh oh, here I go. Just one example, because I cannot help myself: The other day, in response to someone referencing all the military people who have died in Iraq, Rush Limbaugh pooh-poohed the distress over the deaths by saying that Iraq was safer than Philadelphia. Why? Because 400 people were killed in Philadelphia in a city of 1.5 million, whereas only 3000 people were killed in Iraq, in a country of over 25 million. Okay, I know, I know, you're jumping in your seat and raising your hand to say, "Wait! Wait! In order for that to work you would have to count the *Iraqi deaths too* you belligerently idiotic asshat! Let's do a recount with those numbers added in, since they are, in fact, people too, and do count when they are murdered or blown up, and then we'll see if Baghdad is still a lot safer than Philadelphia!" Of course, no one pointed this out to the Great One, who brags that he has half his brain tied behind his back, just to make it fair. Which half, Rush? The half that had a grasp of basic math?
ANYWAY!
I actually like listening to Tony Macrini, and used to listen often when I had Benny in preschool and was doing the trek over to Rosemont. Tony Macrini would never try to pass off some silly garbage like the "Iraq is Safe!" theory. So, this morning we switched on the radio on the way to the YMCA and there was Mr. Odom, our favorite karate dude, getting interviewed by Mr. Macrini himself. It was a good thing!
Benny wanted to call in and offer his insight into martial arts, so after waiting through a news break or two, he got on the air. Here's what he said, as far as I can remember:
"Hey, there. How's everybody doing today!? Well, we have lots of great stuff at the Norfolk Karate Academy. We have self defense techniques, well, for example, there's bear hug from behind, and headlock on the ground, and hip lift defense..." and then he kept on enthusiastically listing as many self defense techniques as he could think of, until he got cut off. It was pretty funny. I didn't get to hear it on the radio, because of the seven second delay thingy. But, Benny *really* enjoyed himself.
Another day, another entertaining moment in the lives of my children. It is never, ever dull.
Benny's karate teacher, Mr. Odom, of the Norfolk Karate Academy, was a guest on the morning show over at WNIS this morning.
I am an avid listener to talk radio when I'm in the car and the kids will allow me to change over from "They Might Be Giants: Here Come the ABCs" which is currently in our DVD player. (Benny is committed to getting Sadie educated on those ABCs, and I'm just letting him do it!) I even enjoy listening to the right wing bozos that come on in the afternoon. I get a kick out of hearing their ridiculous analogies and bizarre applications of "logic" and then ranting and raving about them to whoever will listen to me for the rest of the day.
Uh oh, here I go. Just one example, because I cannot help myself: The other day, in response to someone referencing all the military people who have died in Iraq, Rush Limbaugh pooh-poohed the distress over the deaths by saying that Iraq was safer than Philadelphia. Why? Because 400 people were killed in Philadelphia in a city of 1.5 million, whereas only 3000 people were killed in Iraq, in a country of over 25 million. Okay, I know, I know, you're jumping in your seat and raising your hand to say, "Wait! Wait! In order for that to work you would have to count the *Iraqi deaths too* you belligerently idiotic asshat! Let's do a recount with those numbers added in, since they are, in fact, people too, and do count when they are murdered or blown up, and then we'll see if Baghdad is still a lot safer than Philadelphia!" Of course, no one pointed this out to the Great One, who brags that he has half his brain tied behind his back, just to make it fair. Which half, Rush? The half that had a grasp of basic math?
ANYWAY!
I actually like listening to Tony Macrini, and used to listen often when I had Benny in preschool and was doing the trek over to Rosemont. Tony Macrini would never try to pass off some silly garbage like the "Iraq is Safe!" theory. So, this morning we switched on the radio on the way to the YMCA and there was Mr. Odom, our favorite karate dude, getting interviewed by Mr. Macrini himself. It was a good thing!
Benny wanted to call in and offer his insight into martial arts, so after waiting through a news break or two, he got on the air. Here's what he said, as far as I can remember:
"Hey, there. How's everybody doing today!? Well, we have lots of great stuff at the Norfolk Karate Academy. We have self defense techniques, well, for example, there's bear hug from behind, and headlock on the ground, and hip lift defense..." and then he kept on enthusiastically listing as many self defense techniques as he could think of, until he got cut off. It was pretty funny. I didn't get to hear it on the radio, because of the seven second delay thingy. But, Benny *really* enjoyed himself.
Another day, another entertaining moment in the lives of my children. It is never, ever dull.
Labels: benny, karate, new experiences
My son got his green belt in karate last week. It took him more than two years to do it. I firmly believe that no other teacher would have gotten him to this point. Fortunately, his teacher is a saint.
When Benny started karate, in the fall of 2004, he was four and a half. I wanted to start him in martial arts because I thought it would help him to focus on the real world around him, to come out of his brain a little bit, and to engage with other people. This is a child who was constantly humming entire movements to concertos (in the right key too), had four or five imaginary friends, and wouldn't answer a direct question without having it repeated ten times. It wasn't that he was being naughty. He just really wasn't paying attention. To anything. Except what was between his ears.
Violin study was helping him, and we had/have a wonderful teacher, willing to patiently work on drawing him out of his insular world, while not making excuses for him based on his eccentricities. But I knew in my mind that Karate would be great for him.
I tried him at another martial arts studio in Virginia Beach, which had been recommended to me by a friend. They rejected him outright, because he was too spacey. Then the Norfolk Karate Academy opened up, just down the street, and I had new hope. I was looking for a happy medium between the lame-o McKarate franchises and the too-too-serious dojos with black walls and swords hanging from the ceiling. NKA seemed like just the thing. And Mr. Odom agreed to take him on.
Benny was any karate teacher's worst nightmare. Distracted, singing, picking his nose, rolling around on the floor, bugging the other kids -- it was pretty horrifying. Every week I expected to be told that we had to leave. But Mr. Odom did not give up. He repeated himself so many times that a weaker teacher would have been driven insane. He was kindly and brutally consistent in the face of Benny's completely erratic behavior. We saw the children who started at the same time get their yellow belts, their green belts, and on and on. More kids started, and passed Benny.
Benny never got discouraged, and neither did Mr. Odom.
Two years and several months later, the child has a green belt. And he's acting like a green belt (for the most part) in class. Who can say what exactly brought about this change? Was it Benny's intense and almost irrational love for karate? Was it Mr. Odom's persistence and the quality of instruction? Was it just that he got older and more mature? I can't say precisely what the formula was, but I know that it worked. This little space cadet, who used to be about as serious as a school mascot, has now started to show us some real progress, some real performance.
It means a lot that Mr. Odom didn't just promote him automatically, when the other kids got new belts. It means a lot that he never let Benny feel humiliated that he wasn't advancing. He always made it clear what was expected, and he accepted nothing less. This means that the green belt means something real for Benny. He knows he earned it. And now he can't wait to get to karate and learn what's next.
Here's Benny's last class as a yellow belt. They're doing the second form in the kibon (basic) series:
Here's Benny getting his green belt and also a little motivational speech from Mr. Odom:
And here's Benny with his new belt, and Mr. Odom with his little orange project. The face you see here is an example of Benny's newfound ferocity in the karate uniform:
You can visit the Norfolk Karate Academy right here.
When Benny started karate, in the fall of 2004, he was four and a half. I wanted to start him in martial arts because I thought it would help him to focus on the real world around him, to come out of his brain a little bit, and to engage with other people. This is a child who was constantly humming entire movements to concertos (in the right key too), had four or five imaginary friends, and wouldn't answer a direct question without having it repeated ten times. It wasn't that he was being naughty. He just really wasn't paying attention. To anything. Except what was between his ears.
Violin study was helping him, and we had/have a wonderful teacher, willing to patiently work on drawing him out of his insular world, while not making excuses for him based on his eccentricities. But I knew in my mind that Karate would be great for him.
I tried him at another martial arts studio in Virginia Beach, which had been recommended to me by a friend. They rejected him outright, because he was too spacey. Then the Norfolk Karate Academy opened up, just down the street, and I had new hope. I was looking for a happy medium between the lame-o McKarate franchises and the too-too-serious dojos with black walls and swords hanging from the ceiling. NKA seemed like just the thing. And Mr. Odom agreed to take him on.
Benny was any karate teacher's worst nightmare. Distracted, singing, picking his nose, rolling around on the floor, bugging the other kids -- it was pretty horrifying. Every week I expected to be told that we had to leave. But Mr. Odom did not give up. He repeated himself so many times that a weaker teacher would have been driven insane. He was kindly and brutally consistent in the face of Benny's completely erratic behavior. We saw the children who started at the same time get their yellow belts, their green belts, and on and on. More kids started, and passed Benny.
Benny never got discouraged, and neither did Mr. Odom.
Two years and several months later, the child has a green belt. And he's acting like a green belt (for the most part) in class. Who can say what exactly brought about this change? Was it Benny's intense and almost irrational love for karate? Was it Mr. Odom's persistence and the quality of instruction? Was it just that he got older and more mature? I can't say precisely what the formula was, but I know that it worked. This little space cadet, who used to be about as serious as a school mascot, has now started to show us some real progress, some real performance.
It means a lot that Mr. Odom didn't just promote him automatically, when the other kids got new belts. It means a lot that he never let Benny feel humiliated that he wasn't advancing. He always made it clear what was expected, and he accepted nothing less. This means that the green belt means something real for Benny. He knows he earned it. And now he can't wait to get to karate and learn what's next.
Here's Benny's last class as a yellow belt. They're doing the second form in the kibon (basic) series:
Here's Benny getting his green belt and also a little motivational speech from Mr. Odom:
And here's Benny with his new belt, and Mr. Odom with his little orange project. The face you see here is an example of Benny's newfound ferocity in the karate uniform:
You can visit the Norfolk Karate Academy right here.
