Some of the most impactful memories of my life with Finn has been related to his physical abilities and physical therapy. He two stints at Achieve physical therapy- one for the helmet and one because he was generally behind physically at around 2 years old- are permanently locked in my thoughts. I remember how much he loved that gym at the back of the building, or how much I loved being involved with the sessions. But it was more than the therapy, I can remember clearly taking Finn to the park to force him to walk on more difficult terrain, or when me him and Luna went to the park that is basically a drainage ditch and she stayed next to him as he attempted to scale the sloped side. Finn's physical development is a clear core part of my experience being his dad, just like the core experience of me taking him to Baskin Robbins for ice cream.
The Baskin Robbins here in town is right next to the movie theater and a Taekwondo place that has all glass on its storefront. One day when we were leaving from getting ice cream and he seemed very interested in what the kids were doing inside the dojo. Lindsey seemed excited by this interest, and by the end of the week she had done research and found a different Taekwondo place down in Cedar Park that had a great curriculum for younger children like Finn.
We went for what was an intro session, where they had him do a few routines and end it with breaking a roof shingle with a punch like any kid from the 90's associates with martial arts. Finn had a blast, and the video of him breaking the shingle probably will go down as my favorite video of him in a long time. In particular the young sensei for the class seemed to really connect with Finn, and we were happy that he would be challenged physically. We signed him up for the program, which meant he received a Gi and a white belt. They required him to show up at least two times a week, which seemed like a stretch but we quickly rallied around working out me aka leaving early and Lindsey taking off time from work to make it work.
The problems began during the first session. Finn didn't want to go, telling us "but I already learned Taekwondo!" The first session was kinda a disaster, too many kids were there and Finn felt overwhelmed and didn't want to participate. But I was motivated to make sure we gave it all the best try we could, so I took him back two days later and he had fun. In particular one of the women sensei's worked with him directly during the session, and he was pumped he learned kicks and moves with the other kids. I was ready to be a Taekwondo dad.
The next couple of weeks went ok. Some days I basically bribed him to go, but when he got into it he had fun. I enjoyed the time before, picking him up early and feeding him on the way. I felt like "yeah we can do this!" Between the woman sensei and the young sensei Finn was being accommodated to stay involved, even when he got overwhelmed by the sounds. The curriculum was great: they taught him Korean words, kids advancing were celebrated in front of the group, and they gave every kid opportunity to try whatever kick or punch that was the focus of that day. I really liked it.
But the entire experience was very eye opening. Obviously me and Lindsey lack experience with 4 and 5 year old children, so seeing the gap between where Finn was and the rest of the group was eye opening. There was a lot of the time when Finn basically needed one on one to contribute, and the other kids were much my physically capable than him. Some of it was that his Gi was poor fitting, but some of it made me wonder if ending his physical therapy years ago was a mistake. I think Finn noticed too, as each session it got harder and harder to convince him to go.
Eventually Finn went long enough that they gave him blue stripes for his white belt. This was the first step on the way to different colored belts, and represented the first "trophy" Finn has collected in his life. I was very proud that we stuck it all long enough for him to progress. We really tried.
The session after he got the white stripes was very bad, early on he just outright tried to leave. The owner of the place popped up for the first time and convinced Finn to participate. I greatly appreciated him taking the time to do that, and I tried to take pictures of the moment. But the session after he quit and would not take any convincing to go back. At that point it seemed clear our experiment was over. To their credit they refunded us some for the time not used, and Finn seemed positive about maybe going back one day. But the Taekwondo experience was proof of how far Finn has come, and how far he has to go.
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