A couple of months ago, we enrolled Zoe in karate classes. She needed something else to do over the summer and we hoped that she would develop some needed self-confidence through the practice of a martial art. She's been attending classes once a week since then, and last night she took her first belt test.
She passed the test and moved from a white belt to a white-yellow belt. We couldn't have been happier. No one else in her age group was ready to test this time around so Zoe tested with a bunch of kids who ranged from age 8 to probably 12 or 14. She didn't even notice the age difference during the test. When she didn't know how to do one of the moves they tested on, she simply told that to her instructor rather than getting rattled or worried.
The best part of the night came at the very end. To cap off the test, every student gets to break a board. Zoe's been worrying herself sick over this for the last couple of weeks. She couldn't believe that she would be capable of breaking a board. Each kid's parent got to hold his child's target board. I held Zoe's but she just wasn't putting enough power into it to break it after several attempts. Master Bailey, Zoe's chief instructor, took the board and had Zoe practice hitting him in the chest with a palm-heel strike as hard as she could. He basically psyched her into hitting harder and harder until he felt she was ready. He put the board in front of her and her hand went straight through it.
She smiled for a solid 45 minutes after the test. I think breaking that board will do more for her self-confidence than anything in the last 6 months has. She's even going to take the broken pieces to her kindergarten class next week for show-and-tell.
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