When Rylie turned four, we asked her friends / family to gift her money so we would put towards martial arts classes. She was really into Avatar, The Last Airbender and we thought she would enjoy giving martial arts a try. Sure enough, she fell in love with it and has been going multiple times a week since December 2020.
In April 2021, Rylie had her first testing experience.
Every quarter, the students have an opportunity to showcase their skills and receive the next level belt color, showing that they’ve mastered certain skills.
In addition to a series of challenges and an obstacle course, Rylie had to break a wooden board with her foot. Where I was extremely nervous this would keep her from ranking up (breaking boards practice in class didn’t go super well for her), she did phenomena and got her first color – YELLOW!
Her excitement level was past 100 when she was reliving breaking the board. “MOMMY! I DID IT! I BROKE THE BAORD!!!!” was on repeat all evening 🙂
Her next testing was in June 2021, and this time she had to break a wooden board with her hand. It took several attempts, but she eventually broke it and received her next belt – GREEN!
This last week, Rylie had her third testing experience (August 2021). This time, the stakes were raised as she had to break two boards – one with her foot and one with her hand – to receive her next belt color.
Although they didn’t break on the first hit, Rylie was persistent and eventually broke both of them. Earning her next belt – BLUE!
Martial Arts has become something our whole family is invested in, and we absolutely love watching our girl succeed and grow. She loves her instructors, her friends / fellow students and the art itself.
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You can watch each of Rylie’s testing videos on this week’s episode.