I've had a good weekend Taekwondo wise so far. We had a demo on the Fiday night in front of a small but very local crowd, we were the first group off the blocks for the weekend's entertainment.
The usual pre demo slips that you get like forgetting the 'get in free' tickets and having to do some fast talking at the front gate with a pack of micro ninjas behind me as back up was interesting and then one little guy realising he'd left his belt behind about 1 minute before it was time (strap off carry bag was enlisted).
Took the crowd through the aspects of a grading with bits plucked out of all the belts from white to black. The higher belts did the knifework and a couple of quick red belt youngesters did the sparring.
Had disasters with the wood, it was out of stock when I ordered it about 10 days earlier, got ordered but the truck didn't come Tuesday and was due on the Friday truck that was late. About 2 hours before we were due to start the hardware fella pulled out a bit of 12mm MDF and asked what I reckoned. He had an old bit that had been lying around for a while so we cut up and I broke a senior and junior sized piece in the workshop and it didn't feel too bad so said yes in desperation. He then got to work cutting up a new sheet.
The Demo went well untill we got to the wood, worked our way though a few bits of pine I had from last time and pulled out the MDF for a flying side kick from a young fella all of about 25kgs. He hit the wood and stopped dead in his tracks, tried again and same the same result. Next kid comes out, a bit bigger but goes back limping. A quick explanation to the crowd (as you can do in small towns) and they get cheered off for their efforts, no harm to egos done.
Then the higher belts struggle with the senoir sized wood, my turn came up knowing something was awry, give it a kick and it felt double the strength I was expecting. The thought that the old stuff may have absorbed some moiture over the wet and was a lot softer dawned on me about then.
We struggled through and it ended up all good with the crowd knowing it was not a put on and the kids got cheered for taking it on.
On the Saturday we had a fund raiser, I got sponsership to break as many pumpkin and watermelon in a minute each. Ended up with 22 watermelon and 5 pumpkin smashed. The fruit was harder to break then I thought as it couldn't be held firmly, the kick had to be strong enough to propel the fruit (10 -15kg watermelon) well into the air for them to break. Crowd loved it and we ended up with about $500 and another go next year to try and beat this year's tally.
Plenty of pics but on other peoples camera, will get some and post them soon.
A couple of lessons learnt, the volunteer holders inadverently sqeezed me in from 4 sides a bit too much a lot of the kickes ended up been done on the ankle rather then the flat of the foot and spinning kicks were out for the lack of room. Also now going to keep a stock of boards on hand just in case we get short again. 
