Sleepover

This Friday night, we held our annual Children’s Kung Fu Sleepover. The kids get to come sleep in the kwoon, play games, eat pizza and watch a movie. It’s a great way for them to socialize, and it adds an element of fun to their training.

For me as in instructor, this was my first to run. I had attended one in the past as simply a parent who trained, so this one was exciting for me. A little stressful, but exciting at the same time. And I have to admit when,Thursday night, Sifu Brinker told me that there would be around 30 kids, I was a little bit worried. But that dissolved completely when Friday night we realized that there would only be about 20. That made everything feel like a piece of cake from that point on.

It worked out better than I thought. And I am glad that I have learned to go with the flow, rather than try to strictly impose a schedule. I had a list of things we could do, but you have to read the kids, and their moods and simply work with that. I work well with the other children’s instructors, so it went just swimmingly.

All the kids were great - they ranged from 4 years to 12 years of age, and the one 4 year old, was in with the older kids like a dirty sock. It was a great experience. I did learn one thing though (although I had a sneaking suspicion of it beforehand). I learned that I am too old to be sleeping on the mats without a mattress of some sort. So next year, maybe I will actually get some sleep. Ha ha.

Teaching kids has really impacted my training in a positive way. It helps keep me young at heart, and keeps the fun in Kung Fu. It inspires me to be a better role model, and to be more creative with drills.