A Tenacious Return

With scans taking up much of the latter part of this week, last night became a very important practice at Tae Kwon Do. Due to Sydney's scanning schedule she will have an IV in her arm on Wednesday night. This means no team practice and no sparring. Given the fact that Friday is a Halloween party for the Tae Kwon Do team this means that Friday night will not include sparring either. With a tournament just around the corner (November 7th) and no sparring 3 days before a tournament, this means that this was one of Sydney's "last chance" workouts.

Last night's team practice was punishing. It was all about developing stamina and Master Adrian put them through a gruelling hour of practice. Keep in mind that this came after the kiddos normal Tae Kwon Do class so they were already a bit wasted. It was tiring just watching them. I have no way of explaining it (and frankly I am not aloud to as team practice is the closely held secret of Team GSX's national success) But, let me tell you. I have played football, soccer and basketball. I even swam competitively as a kiddo. I have watched both professional and collegiate teams practice. However, I have not seen a more intense workout at any level. It was the most jam packed hour I have ever seen. I was worn out just watching them.

I am utterly stunned that these kiddos can do it - some while barely breaking a sweat. My kiddos struggled but the fought through it. I was amazed at their endurance. I would not have thought they could do this, period - much less taking into consideration all that Sydney has been through. It was evidence that anything is possible.

Unfortunately, at some point during a drill which required 90 double kicks to a bag intermixed with a steady barrage of mountain climbers Sydney hurt herself. She claimed that the pain came from the back of her heal. At first we assumed she bruised her heal but upon further inspection that was not the case. Lynley said the pain sounded to her like when she strained one of her arches. The pain radiated to her heal. That never happened to me but I was willing to try anything. Of course, as usual, my wife was right on the money. We taped up her foot to provide her support and gave her the option to continue or to sit out. Let me make that clear. We gave her the option, no strings attached, to stop.

She didn't.

It was a bit like the story from Karate Kid. Here she was injured and limping but she continued fighting. For obvious reasons, her sparring was no where near as good as it usually is. I think she was too afraid of being injured again. I would have been. None the less, she continued through several bouts before the practice was brought to a close.

Truly amazing isn't it.

Purpii are powerful things.