Clear Channel Communications Family Activity Day
Latham Circle Mall
Saturday, February 11, 2006
This was well worth doing... the students got VERY excited about being in the demo. (It's been so long since we've done one, I think we had forgotten how much they enjoy them sometimes!) We had 18 students participating, as well as 5 instructors, and there was a decent-sized crowd watching (so maybe we'll get some new students to boot...)
After Master Hillicoss did a brief intro to the school, the students ran through some stretching, punches, kicks, and blocks. Then came katas - lots of katas, including two black belt forms.
And then came my moment of "fun" - being Master Hillicoss' partner as he demonstrated a variety of self defense techniques. I'm VERY glad the organizers insisted that we bring along a mat! It did seem like some of the parents took far too much pleasure in seeing me get beat up!
Then we had breaks, breaks, and more breaks. Two of my students (a green belt and a purple belt) did their first board breaks. The big finale was meditation breaks - first Miss Moller relaxed on a bed of nails and had two patio blocks smashed on her chest with a sledgehammer, and then Master Hillicoss walked across a tray of broken glass, smashing 6 patio blocks at once along the way.
After that we wrapped everything up and manned the booth we'd rented... Master Hillicoss said they talked to lots of folks all afternoon, so we may indeed get some new students from this. Regardless, the students got excited and had a great time - and that's the most important point by far!
JMH
