I returned home Thursday afternoon from Atlanta. I caught a short nap before walking down to DMW Martial Arts to teach classes. The school owners and lead instructors, Dan and Marcia, left for a training seminar and Leni and I agreed to cover the classes for the rest of the week. This means Instructor Leni and I alternate teaching the six classes for the evening.

The first afternoon class is targeted at the newest four-year-old students. Man, this is a tough crowd. One boy who just started classes was having a hard time stepping away from his mother for the class. He would tear up and get say, "I don’t wanna play." So I tried to see if a joke would work.

"Do you want to hear a joke?" I asked.

"Uh huh." He sniffed.

"You know, I just flew in from Atlanta this afternoon," I said. "Boy, my arms are tired."

He looked at me, sniffing, and said, "That’s not funny!"

I admit I am not a good comedian. The parents laughed, however, which is a small consolation. While I was having this discussion with him, I slowly guided him into line with the rest of the class. He was all smiles until the last part of class. We sometimes play a game of Tae Kwon Do tag, where the kid who is 'it' runs about and kicks everyone to tag them. (Everyone is in sparring gear.) My young friend just did not want to play, so he would stand there and the other kids would play around him. Oh, well.

I finished the evening teaching the leadership class. This week was a mat-work class on self defense. I did a quick review of several different techniques. We had a short group discussion on the purpose of the techniques; namely how the same techniques can be used for evasion, escape, destruction or to subdue. We finished class by working refining techniques. Boy, my arms are tired.