1st training session with Master Jedut

It’s Thursday evening and Master Jedut has three classes to take. A class for 7-9 year old beginners goes from 5-6pm. The class is a bit of 20 pupils with mostly Mums watching from the front of the gym. There are a few new students today. New students come mostly from word of mouth amongst the community.

He keeps up a cracking pace with the youngsters for one hour. He keeps them very busy with changes in the exercises every couple of minutes so they have no time to get distracted. It is interesting to watch and to interpret how his training is preparing them for Taekwon-do movements, strength and flexibility.

At 6pm is a class consisting of young white and yellow belts plus a couple of teenage green belts. Again that runs for just over one hour and is quite intensive. I didn’t take any pictures of them – sorry.

At 7.15pm the senior class begins…

They start with a warm up game of soccer with a soft tennis ball and goals at each end of the gym. This gets the Kiwis teaming up with the others nicely. Mark knows
we’re in for a tough training so paces himself. Jeremy maybe not – he doesn’t know what’s coming next. Mark and Jeremy have promised to write about the training… as an observer I can’t do it justice. But for now they are asleep restoring energy for their second class tonight.

One problem we had was that we hadn’t had time to go to a supermarket and buy bottled water. Mark had warned us to play safe and not to drink from the taps as Carolina had got sick during a previous visit and thought it could have been from drinking the water. Anyway, by the time the training was over they were absolutely desperate for a drink.

One of his students who attended the World Cup, Mechin (spelling?), took us home last night via a chemist for my cold and the supermarket. At the supermarket and after paying for the goods they drank nearly a litre each. Even I was parched and I wasn’t even training!

Cheers
Doug