Ryan’s First Martial Arts Class
Today I took my first martial arts class. If you don’t know what martial arts is, it’s what you learn when you want to know how to protect yourself. Martial arts shows you how to use your body to defend yourself against someone that is trying to hurt you. My mom wanted me to start martial arts because there has been this kid in my school that had been bullying me and she said that martial arts will help. Anyway, I couldn’t believe that I was actually going to do this! I’m a little nervous … well, I’m actually a lot nervous! I know I’m going to look dumb because I’ve never done anything like this before.
When we walked into the martial arts school, it looked pretty cool but very scary at the same time! There were punching bags and targets everywhere and the whole floor was covered with mats. I mean it was a big empty space except for the punching bags and targets. It was awesome! I’d never been somewhere so big with so little in it! I couldn’t wait to get started and see what we are going to do!
There were about fifteen kids on the mats against the wall on one knee. They all seemed to have karate training bags and gear that looked a little like boxing gloves. No one looked mean or even tough. They were all different sizes. Some were bigger than me, some smaller than me. There were several instructors on the floor and many of them didn’t look like I thought karate teachers would look. I mean they didn’t look like big tough superhero-like fighters. In fact, some of them looked like me except they were wearing black belts. One of the teachers came to me and bowed and introduced himself as, Danny. He showed me how to bow and asked me to take my shoes and socks off. I was then asked to go down on one knee against the wall with the other kids.
“Everyone on a dot!” yelled a teacher that was obviously a lot older than all the other teachers. Though he looked older, he seemed to have more energy and power than all the other teachers combined. Except for his grey hair, this teacher looked like he had enough energy for everyone in the whole school! He was not wearing a regular black belt but a black belt with a red stripe down the middle of it. The kid next to me said, “that’s Master Lopez, we better move fast!”
Everyone ran to a dot and I found myself running with everyone else to find a dot to stand on. He quickly turned to one of the instructors and instructed him to warm up the class.
I had on idea what I was doing and one of the instructors just told me to follow everyone else and to do my best and forget the rest. So I did.
We did about five minutes of running, jumping jacks, hops, arm circles, sit us, push ups and stretching. While everyone looked like they knew what they were doing, I felt like I was fumbling all over the place just trying to keep up. It was horrible! I can’t believe how much I stunk! I’m thinking that if I stink in the warm-up, I’m definitely going to look like a major mess in the martial arts part! What did my mom get me into? I wanted to go home but a part of me thought that if these kids can do this then I’m going to do it! I was not going to quit!
After the warm-up we said the student creed which was directly in front of us on a big sign, Master Lopez, told everyone to clap their hands and show him their energy! Everyone started clapping loud and enthusiastically. Master Lopez then welcomed everyone to the class and told us how happy was to see all of us and that he was looking forward to teaching some really cool martial arts moves. Then with a voice that makes you think you better listen, Master Lopez called out my name, “RYAN! Stand up at attention!” I was scared but I couldn’t help but react to his command. Master Lopez continued, “Everyone, this is Ryan. He is nine years old and this is his first official martial arts class! Give him a black belt strong welcome.” WOW! I couldn’t believe that he knew my name! He seemed to know all about me! Everyone started clapping their hands and shout enthusiastically! I couldn’t believe that they were doing this just for me! Very cool! All my fear about doing martial arts suddenly went away. I found myself smiling and really happy that my mom made me try martial arts.
I can’t wait to see what we do next…
