Chopping Kindling

Friday, Mark tested two of his students for black belt.  These were his first students to test, so Mark was pretty nervous to bring them up to our old friend and Taekwondo master.  They tested wonderfully and passed.  And at the end of the test, all the boards that the black belt testing students broke came down to be kindling for our wood stove.  Most need to be split into smaller pieces and our little Downen dojang was happy to oblige.

Breaking the boards was Ian's idea

Bam!

Evie's turn!

Bounce.

Okay, we'll try this again. Shane!

Ahh! My face!

Ian. Your turn again.

Bam!

Good job. For a quitter.

Genevieve. Try again!

Ahh! My fingers!

Ahh! My other fingers!

Try again. You can do it!

Ahh! My heel!

Again!

Ahh! My fingers again! Shane's turn.

Up and down kick!

Bam!

Tutu cute!

Fiona! Ha-YAH!

Ouch.

Ian! Two boards. Punch!

Oh, that had to hurt!

That too.

Oh yes, yes it did. Mark is done holding boards.

Now he is ready to PUNCH! (he is left handed, so he is drawn back and ready)

Wow, these boards really are hard (and they had already been broken by black belts)

Knuckle marks. Ouch.

The boards were really hard to break.  They had already been broken once and the smaller the board, the harder it is to break.  I think we'll use the little ax for the rest of the boards...