One beautiful afternoon last summer, the little ninja and I (or more correctly, the little Messi at that particular moment), stopped by the Park on the Lid to work on our soccer skills before heading down the hill for TKD. We were going through our usual drills a little pass & run, some fancy footwork and shooting. There was a goal set up and we were taking advantage of it. Call me optimistic but I am reasonably certain that even casual observer would have been able to tell we were taking practice seriously and anybody who is familiar with the sport, say somebody who coaches a kids team, definitely would have known because the Iz was wearing her cleats and shin guards.
As we’re going through the drills I noticed a group of boys (10-12 yrs old) gathering on the edge of the field with one adult in tow. I didn’t really pay too much attention to them because it’s a pretty big park and though we were using the goal, there was an unused one at the other end of the pitch. So we’re going about our business when the aforementioned group of boys swarms the area we’re playing without as much as an ‘excuse us’ or any other such courtesy.
Switching immediately from soccer to martial arts mode, the little ninja took a defensive stance and in a move that would have made The Bride proud, delivered a spinning roundhouse kick to the head of the kid out front, dropping h
im like bad habit. Without pausing to watch the kid crumple to ground, she nailed the 2nd kid with a right jab to the nose. Blood flew everywhere as his shrieks of pain alerted the rest of the little savages to the beat down that awaited them if they kept moving forward. As they turned tail & ran she chased down the slowest of the pack and without hesitation delivered a flying kick to the mid back, surfing his torso as he fell forward then using the back of his head as a stepping stone for her opposite foot, driving his face into the mud as she kicked off to continue the chase.
Then I snapped out of my daydream as this cast of rejects from YTNw’s production of Lord of the Flies moved in and took over the field while we were playing without even acknowledging our presence. It took only a moment for disbelief to turn to anger. It must have shown because the coach walked over and made some pithy comment. Nothing rude to be sure but nothing that even came close to acknowledging what just happened.
Contrary to popular belief we Italians can control our anger, its just we often choose not to. I was pissed to be sure but I somehow concluded that going Chris Montisanti on this guy wasn’t gonna do either one of us any good, so I said just low enough so none of the kids could hear:
“Your kids just ran us off the field without the courtesy an excuse me or a piss-off and you let it happen. This would never happen with the kids from her tae kwon do class. You’re the adult here, do your job and lead by example”. He had a ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ moment as he feebly tried to process what I said. Clueless….
hm,If you’ve read this far congratulations! You have made to our 3rd post in what has become an alliterative series of topics: coordination, confidence and
Common Courtesy
The little ninja, (linja? Kind of like a liger) started TKD when she was 3 and half years old and for the longest time that was our only interaction with other families. If you spent anytime around the MIMA dojang and if you’re reading this you probably have, you’ve noticed no matter how energetic and boisterous things get, common courtesy rules the day. Well least amongst the students though the parent ain’t bad either….generally speaking.
After a couple of years it was time to expand the little one’s horizons and signed up for another activity. I don’t remember if we were expecting the same level of civility from the kids or not, but wow what an eye opener. Not only were the kids rude and dismissive to each other, the parents’ behavior wasn’t much better. This wasn’t the instructor’s fault; she is a tough ol’ bird that does not take crap from anybody in her studio. (True story, she banned mothers and grandmothers from rehearsals for the recitals). This pattern has been repeated other activities though usually not directly. The Girl Scout troop is pretty well behaved and soccer team too (as well as a gang of giggling 8 year old girls can be anyways). I can’t say the same for all the other troops and teams we’ve encountered.
But at MIMA you can trust that your child will be treated in courteous manner but more importantly they will behave the same way. Not just in the dojang either. Whenever we’ve run into other TKD families outside the studio, the kids invariably behave the same way they would in the studio. And if they aren’t, just threaten to tell one of the Masters they’re acting up, that will get their attention.
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