rosebee

My dad's a black belt in karate (I can't remember the specific branch he got his black belt in, or how many degrees he is... if he has any).

His emphasis has always been on self-defense. A few years ago, after going to classes & practicing the opportunity came up for him to take over as instructor for a karate class that our local parks and recreation department offers. He's had a few steady students, but he'd love to have more so he & my mom came up with this idea to offer a free self-defense workshop, aimed at women but open to everyone. The goal is to drum up interest so dad can get some more students in his class, but it's also a really good thing to do for the community.

Dad wasn't sure how much interest there'd be in the class though. He said that if he gets 20 people to show up that it'd be a success. A few days ago he called the parks & rec dept to see how many people were signed up. Evidently, the class maxed out at 35 people and there are 25 more people on a waiting list! So, dad's decided to do another class next month.

The first class my mom & I are going to (along with a long-time family friend & 32 other people) is this Saturday for 3 & a half hours. It should be interesting.

Years ago, when we were living in an apartment complex up in the Seattle suburbs, dad taught a karate/self-defense class at the complex's gym. That lasted for a few years and I eventually worked my way up to a green belt before deciding that continuing was just a whole lot more work than I wanted to put into it. I'll be really curious to see how much (if anything) I've remembered from those classes way back then.