This week was really busy! It was the start of Blackburn’s TKD summer camp. I took a 90 minute bus ride every morning to get there for 8:30 am. I was one of the instructors for the training portion of the camp. I had a lot of fun with the kids. It can be hard for them to concentrate for a long time so we broke the camp into three sections: patterns, fitness and then sparring. Then in the afternoons everyone went swimming, went to the park and watched movies. Sometimes when you work with younger kids you aren’t sure if anything is sinking in or if they are liking what you are teaching them and then all of a sudden someone who you least expect will come up and give you a big hug. Wow, what a way to melt my heart 🙂 It’s amazing how a little hug makes it all worthwhile. On Friday, I gave them each a medal for their hard work and all their faces were priceless. For most of them, it was their first medal ever. Working at camps makes me realize just how tough being a parent is going to be. It’s such a challenge to try figure out how to motivate each person.
I left at lunch every day day since I had soccer in the evenings and I really needed to be ready and rested for the practices and games. With my knee injury since the beginning of June I feel like I’ve let my team down not being able to play.
I was so happy to play in an exhibition game on Tuesday. It was against another team in our club so it was a good way for me to ease back into playing. I had the struggle of getting over my fear of actually kicking the ball again without over-extending it. I’ve never been afraid to play before but I have to admit I was this week. After getting the doctor’s go-ahead I knew the only way to get over my fear was to get right back in the game.
Today was a huge success! We played against one of the strongest teams in the league. Last time we played against them we lost 5-0. I didn’t get to play in that game because of my knee. Today was a much better day…we tied 1-1. I was really nervous to play at game speed, so I really had my game face on. The game went well and when push came to shove, we all worked our butts off for each other and were a real team. When they got their first goal, we really needed to make sure we kept our heads in the game and not give up. I was so happy that my knee didn’t give me any trouble especially since I played the whole game. We had a really short bench with injured players. All the extra leg strengthening and stabilizing exercises paid off.
