After having missed the first couple, I finally made it to my first Taekwondo lesson last Wednesday. Instead of having Chinese and English instruction, this time it was only in Chinese. The exchange students at the lesson had to just watch and figure out what to do with a little translation from members of the Taekwondo Club. Just like Judo, it worked my body a lot harder than I had expected. In addition, my back was still sore from the Judo lesson. We started off stretching every portion of our body multiple times, which was probably for the best, but sure didn’t feel like it. After this, we got right into practicing simple kicks. Nothing too extreme, so my body didn’t protest too much.

Unlike the Judo lesson, I never actually sparred with one of the members of the Taekwondo Club. I paired up with Kalle (pronounced Culle) , a friend from Sweden whom I had previously met. After the simple kicks, we practiced a sort of jumping kick where we kicked into and pushed our opponent. This part was a little harder and stretched my legs a little more than they wanted to. After this, we did a drill where we sidestepped around our opponent while kicking at N, S, E and W. A little difficult, as the only thing to go off of was what the instructor demonstrated, without knowing any of what he actually said. Pretty fun though, and at least Kalle and I could laught at ourselves.

Next, we did high kicks which for some reason almost destroyed my left leg. With these, you sort of jump forward at the exact same time as throwing your knee as high into the air as you can. Then, you just extend your leg and kick, hopefully somewhere near the opponent’s head. Definitely cool if you can do it right. Next, we did leg lifts to 90 degrees. I completed about 13 of the 20 before my legs gave out and wouldn’t do any more. Kalle mastered them in no time flat. Finally, we did a weird sideways leapfrog thing. Your partner bends over and touches his/her toes and you use their back to jump over them from the side. Twenty of these were a lot more fun and actually doable for me.

For the grand finale, some of people new to Taekwondo sparred with members of the Taekwondo Club. I decided to sit this part out, as I was sore enough from my attempts at kicking. However, it was fun to watch the sparring from the sidelines. After the sparring was over, we went back onto the mat to bow to complete the Taekwondo lesson. Even with my lack of flexibility, it was still a very good experience.