Last night, my son had a belt ceremony for the martial arts class he's in at school. Chuck Norris was there to hand out the belts to the kids. According to the program, one of the "dignitaries" who was supposed to attend was:
The force of Chuck Norris's stare can turn Sheila Jackson Lee into a Republican.
No, I didn't get to talk to him this time. He did a 10 minute rah-rah speech about focus and dedication and acheiving goals, and then handed out belts to about 300 kids. There was a photographer there, so I'll get a pic of Chuck handing my son his belt. He's really a nice guy. I met him at a book signing about 2 years ago. His wife is a smokin'!!!
Congratulations to your son. Martial arts was a big part of my early years and I appreciate what you've done for him by affording him the encouragement and opportunity. He'll enjoy the dividends for all his days.
The force of Chuck Norris's stare can turn Sheila Jackson Lee into a Republican.
scared stupid?
congrats to your boy. mine are playing basketball this offseason. ever see a 13 year old, who's gone from 5'5", size 9 shoes, to 5'9', size 12 shoes in 4 months,try to shoot hoops? Picture Big Bird driving the lane....
He really seems to enjoy it. His older brothers took martial arts lessons when he was 2 or 3, and he would watch from the side, and mimic the kicks, punches and blocks that the students were performing. I told him he could start when he was 6. When I went to sign him up for Tae Kwon Do lessons, one of his older brothers said he wanted to start again, and the instructor said that, if I was signing up two kids, I could get lessons for free. I figured I'd earn a belt or two, and that things would get too difficult, and I'd drop out so, I signed up too.
Eventually though,I decided turn try to turn it into a life lesson for the kids in goal setting, perseverance, and hard work. Everything was easy for them. Not so much for me. I was 40+ and never had been athletic, at all. But, I worked hard at it, and we all tested for black belts after about 4 years of lessons. My stepson and I passed. My son failed because he couldn't complete one of the board breaks. He took the test again 8 months later and passed, becoming the youngest student to have earned a black belt from our teacher in his 30+ years of teaching.
WhenDerek started middle school, he decided he wanted tojoin the Chuck Norris KickStart program (it used to be called "Kick Drugs Out of America"). He's one of two kids in the program at this school who had earned a black belt before entering the program, so he has been an unofficial teacher's aid for the 2 1/2 years he's been in KickStart. He's now 13, and should have a KickStart red belt by the end of this year. Hopefully he'll continue the program after he gets into high school. The instructor has after school lessons for the kids to work toward their black belts. He could potentially earn three additional black belts. The KickStart program issues a KickStart black belt, his instructor can issue a Tang Soo Do Black Belt and he can also earn a Chun Kuk Do black belt, which is the system developed by Chuck Norris. The three overlap so much that if you pass one of the tests, you don't have a lot of additional stuff to learn in order to pass the other two. And, he'd have black belt certificates signed by Master Norris, which would be really cool.
By the way, the other kid who had a black belt prior to entering KickStart won a national sparring championship for his school last year. When I told my son about it he said "What?!? I kick his a$$ every day in class."
I used to take Tang Soo Doo, and I liked sparring, and I was beating the crap out of one of my classmates, and I felt good, but as it turned out, he had a headache, and had to leave.
I felt bad after that, I had just beaten up a sick man.
I took karate lessons at the Chuck Norris studio in VA beach, VA when I was in the Marines. I got to meet Chuck Norris and he is a really standup guy. It was Tong Soo Do when I was taking lessons and it incorporated boxing within the training and sparring (unklike Tae Kwan Do). It was a fun experience and good training.
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