Tag Archives: sports

Nyan has been working hard at taekwondo for several years now, and in May he finally was awarded a poom belt – a.k.a. junior black belt! It’s quite an accomplishment.

Here he is ahead of the belt ceremony — including some of the older kids helping him make sure his old belt was properly in place.

Parents weren’t allowed at the ceremony itself due to pandemic restrictions, but here’s a great video of Nyan getting the next level – including splitting a piece of wood with a kick! 

He was rightfully proud of himself, and of having broken the wood. 

Well done, Nyan!

A quick look at some of Nyan’s sports activity in the month of January 2020. Here he is, enjoying a mid-winter swim:

And some taekwondo:

Some soccer, including some dance moves:

And this doesn’t really count as taekwondo, but at the end of his lesson, he likes to burn off some steam by running and jumping. He’s started to get his classmates to do it too.

Nyan goes to taekwondo class every Thursday evening. Every three months or so, they run a “grading” exercise where everyone shows off what they’ve learned and, if they do it well, they advance to the next level of training and get a new belt. 

The grading is on a Sunday morning in an old shopping mall, and usually attracts hundreds of kids, grouped by the dozens. We show up, Nyan gets his gear on, and the kids wait for the call to go in and do their routines, waiting outside the grading classroom, across an interior courtyard area from where the parents wait. The kids practice their moves and goof around a bit, as Daddy takes photos and videos from across the way.

Those pics and video are from the November 2019 grading exercise. A couple weeks later, we got the call from the studio: he passed! He gets a new belt! The new belt comes at a brief ceremony before his weekly class.

And here he is with all his classmates, in his new belt.

Most of the schools across Singapore were closed for a week or two in October 2019 — fall break — so there were plenty of day camps available to keep the kids occupied. We sent Nyan to one that was all about parkour — the urban sport where you basically run around and use city objects as part of a self-made obstacle course. He had a blast, and at the end of the week, parents were invited in to see a demonstration.

Not bad, eh? Here he is getting a certificate showing that he completed this particular level of parkour skills.

After that, they let the kids bounce and run around for a while. 

Not a bad way to spend a week!

Yep, Nyan’s still doing taekwondo. Yep, he still complains about it when it’s time to go to class — and then has a blast. And yep, he’s still extremely (and rightfully) proud of himself when he passes up to the next level. 

Here he is getting his blue belt in September 2019.

So yeah, we’ll keep at it.

Our neighborhood Decathlon, the sporting goods chain store, lets you try out pretty much all the equipment right there in the store. So whenever we stop by to pick up whatever, we always spend lots of time playing around, as we did in June. Check it out:

Messing around in the kayak:

Working on his dribbling:

Working on his free throws:

Bouncing: 

And finally, a little rock climbing!

Here’s a quick look at Nyan in his taekwondo and sparring classes in March and April 2019.

Lots of running:

And sparring too:

He complains a lot about going to class, but once he’s there, he always, always has the time of his life. So we keep at it.