Nyan’s still hard at work at taekwondo. Let’s take a look.
Getting some one-on-one training with his teacher, Mr Lee. He’s getting better!
Stretching before class:
They still do the ball-picking-up thing:
Practice makes perfect:
In February he did a ‘grading’ exercise, where Nyan (and lots of other students) went to the central studio on a Sunday morning to show his moves to the leaders. If he performs well, he moves on to the next training level. He did it!
Here he is getting official recognition from his teacher, Mr Lee, for passing the grading.
And finally, a few random shots, these from January and February:
Nyan takes part in a pretty good variety of individual sports — taekwondo and swimming especially — but he didn’t have any team sports, and we noticed that he was perhaps a little lacking in the teamwork department. Happily, we found a group that teaches soccer* to kids around Nyan’s age, at a school field just around the corner from our place every Saturday in the late afternoon. Perfect. He’s been going for a couple months now and, well, he’s not showing a whole lot of natural talent, let’s be honest. But he works at it, and it’s great exercise, and he’s showing some signs of improvement we think, and it’s good to interact with a different group of kids…and best of all, he has a blast.
*We are aware that the game is called “soccer” pretty much only in America. We are using the term “soccer” here not because we are being chest-thumping, flag-waving #MAGA types. Rather, it seems to be called either soccer or football here in Singapore. The word “soccer” is even in the formal name of the group he’s in. So, we call it soccer.
Some pictures and video: He loves to hang out in front of the net:
Some videos from his very first session, in early January. (The hope is that we look back in months or even years to come and marvel at how far he’s come!)
Kicking:
Various drills:
A little one on one with a smaller kid:
And a scrimmage that first week:
Let’s fast forward to February and see if he’s made any progress.
Some warmups:
Dribbling practice:
Here’s a one-on-one drill against his pal Neeil:
And let’s look at some game action. Here’s our hero, celebrating a goal, of sorts:
More live action, with Nyan protecting the net:
And a bit more. This is the most recent game of this current batch. See any improvement?
Well, whatever; it’s not about skills. It’s about fun, and teamwork. And it doesn’t hurt that it’s a pretty nice little field. We’ll keep it up; check back for more videos – and perhaps even more skills – later.
About a mile or so from where Daddy grew up is a place called Kinnick Stadium, where the local university football team plays. Daddy spent a lot of time there as a kid; it’s sort of the beating heart of his hometown, to some degree, so it holds a lot of sentimental meaning.
It so happens that a neighbor of Grandma and Grandpa works at the stadium, and offered to give Nyan a tour one day when there was no game. Grandma, Grandpa and Daddy were probably more excited about it than Nyan, to be truthful, but Nyan still managed to enjoy himself.
We started off with a tour of the press box, where we could see the whole stadium from high above.
Then it was down into the bowels of the old building, where the locker rooms are. The visitors’ locker room is well-known for being painted a sort of salmon pink – supposedly to make the visiting team a bit more mellow. There’s no great evidence that it works though.
Then the home team’s locker room, where our boy went a little crazy.
Some words of advice that the players see inside their locker room:
Then finally, it was down the concrete hallway they call the Tunnel, and out onto the field itself. Daddy had been on the field several times before – rushing the field after a particularly exciting victory, mostly – but it’s a totally different feel to have the whole field – the whole stadium, in fact – pretty much to yourself.
Nyan got his exercise in as well. And took a tumble, like all good football players.
PS – little-known fact that “Kinnick” was on the short list for names for our boy before he was born. (Okay, “Kinnick” was on Daddy’s short list. And not entirely seriously, frankly.) Kinnick Stadium is a great place – but we do think Nyan fits our boy much better.
We signed Nyan up for some taekwondo classes. We did this with a little trepidation; long-time readers may recall how we signed on for some kung fu classes two years ago; after some initial interest, Nyan quickly grew bored with listening to the instructor. He became a bit of a distraction to the class, and the whole thing was far more stress than fun, so we dropped it. (For a trip down memory lane, click here.)
But then, he was not yet three years old then – now he’s almost five. And he expressed interest himself in taekwondo. So we bit the bullet and signed up at a studio near our apartment – in the same building as his school, it so happens.
First up was a half hour trial session, one on one with one of the instructors to do a few basic moves and stretches. And Nyan was great! He was engaged, he listened and showed proper respect to the instructor; in short, he thoroughly enjoyed it. Some photos from that session:
And videos:
Clearly he was into it. So we signed up for a month’s worth of classes. The first one was this past Monday evening. Daddy picked him up early from school; teachers and fellow students wanted to see his uniform (yes, we know it’s about a dozen sizes too large), so we changed there at school. After Nyan got done vamping for the camera, he showed off to his friends and teachers; all were suitably impressed.
Then to the class. It was Nyan and four other little boys. It was an absolute success. Nyan had a blast; he listened to the instructor; he made pals with the other boys. He doesn’t have all the moves down pat just yet, of course, but that’ll come quickly.
Daddy peeked through the glass door from time to time and stole some little videos. He definitely doesn’t have the moves down yet, but he’s really into it. And notice how he’s always sneaking peeks at the other boys and mimicking what they do. He’s learning, and so long as his interest level stays high, he’ll get pretty good in short order, we think.
One of Grandpa’s favorite activities is going fishing. We’re pretty sure he’s been planning fishing expeditions with Nyan since the day, four and a half years ago, when we announced we were having a boy. This trip to Iowa, Grandpa finally put those plans into motion, and the pair went fishing on three separate occasions. Nyan caught a fish pretty much the first time he cast his line in the water, and they celebrated with a picnic lunch. (No fish was served at the lunch, however, as the fish was too small and had to be thrown back.)
A couple weeks later they were back at the same place (a small lake at Kent Park, just west of Iowa City) for yet more fishing. They caught bluegill, catfish, maybe a trout? Of course, Nyan informed Daddy that he also caught a salmon and a tuna. Who knew those kinds of ocean fish had found their way to an Iowa pond?
Down the road from Grandma and Grandpa’s house is a nice little neighborhood park called Willow Creek Park. Daddy spent a lot of time here growing up, and Nyan has as well. It’s maybe a 10 minute stroll from home, and it’s got lots of playground equipment, huge fields, forests, and of course a creek. Daddy took Nyan there one sunny afternoon back in June, and they worked on Nyan’s soccer (football) skills, which remain as comical and as work-in-progress as ever. But he has fun, and that’s what counts.
Maybe the best illustration of his skills comes from this pair of paired shots, showing our hero racing up to the ball and then… missing it altogether, bless him:
We also played with a balsa-wood airplane, and just vamped for the camera.
And we hit up the playground equipment too, including the swing:
No, young Nyan Thomas is not going to be confused with a soccer/football prodigy. Or any sort of sports prodigy, let’s face it. Need proof? Here’s our boy and his classmate, being roped into being goalies by an older boy at the playground who clearly could not find any kids his age to play with. The younger boys had one job: catch the ball before it goes into the decorative pool. How’d they do?
Yeah. ‘Nuff said.
And on another day, he was playing with a girl more his age (that is, she’s four to Nyan’s three-and-a-half). Same outcome, I’m afraid.
But hey, he’s fun to watch, and that’s half the battle, right?
One of the amenities at our apartment complex is an outdoor exercise area, with chin-up bars, an area for sit-ups, and the like. It’s a popular place for the kids to hang out and play; in fact, we’re not sure that we’ve ever seen anyone actually using the area for real exercise. Except for Nyan, that is. Here he is on a recent Sunday, getting his daily exercise in (with a little help from Uncle Oo, visiting from England):
And here he is later that same day. Just trying to tone up, or something.
(Sorry British readers, but your American blogger just can’t bring himself to call it ‘football.’)
Nevertheless, this past Monday was a public holiday here in the land of ‘football,’ and it was a lovely warm late summer day. We took the young man to the park a few times, trying (and succeeding!) to tire him out before bed. Here’s a trio of videos of Nyan, budding footie star. (The first two are rather short, as we were having minor technical difficulties, but worth a quick watch.)
Yes, he needs to work on some, or all, of his skills. But the kid’s got heart!
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