TKD in Isreal

Ross was missing soccer too, but getting into a boys' league was too much for us, but we did find him a Taekwondo studio to go to. Master Sinai is a 5^th Dan (like Tony Kook in Vancouver) and has coached Israeli and European champions. Another fabulous person, Sinai gave Ross a private lesson and then invited him to join a group of senior belts for a Sunday and Wednesday class.

Sparring

Ross was a little apprehensive because he hasn’t been active for 6 months, has probably been a bit behind on his stretching and pushup regimen, and (I think) didn’t want to perform poorly and embarrass his coaches back in Vancouver. The first day was super intense. I wonder whether Sinai said to the group – “ we have a guy from Canada coming for a class …. Let’s show him how intense TKD is in Israel”. Watching the workouts – holy cow were they intense! Ross who normally can run all day, swim all day, bounce all day … was wiped. During the stretching, Sinai literally kicks their legs apart to get them to stretch further, and jumps on the backs of his guys as they are stretching their groins. Yikes. Thank goodness he did not do that to Ross.

Stretching...ouch!

After the next two sessions though, Ross’ athleticism and fitness started to kick in and he was just as intense as the rest of the group.

One big difference between the WVan club and the Ra’anana club is sparring. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z-Nb_ZF0Co The Israeli guys have contact all the time in their sessions – plus they’re 1.5 hours instead of 50 minutes … I think the sparring gives the guys a better sense for the moves, the need for balance, and the need for stretching. My guess is that Ross will end up moving to the North Van studio of Master Kook in order to take place in the sparring and contact TKD.

The class