Hello everyone, I'm Ken, and I'm currently a 40+ year old full-time grad student at UT-Dallas. I have just started back up into the martial arts for my third go-round, and I'm hoping this time will stick longer than the last 2. When I was in my late teens, I studied Shorinji Kempo and Aiki-jujutsu in southern Illinois, earning a Gokyu in Kempo and Black Sash in Aiki-jujutsu. I then did what many college students do -- got really drunk, and (unlike most college students) ended up falling down a steep hill and severely broke my ankle. Given that I was a full-time college student and finding other interests, I didn't end up going back into the martial arts until after I graduated. A few years later in my early 20's, I found an awesome school in Peoria, IL and studied Shuri-Ryu karate, some weapons, and Judo. I earned my Gokyu in both shuri-ryu and judo, but then I ended up losing my job, I had to move to Atlanta, and then I never really found a school where I fit in. Now I'm in my early 40's and I have a 4 year old son. My son's daycare had a guy coming in to teach a mix of shotokan karate and taekwondo. He loved it, but the daycare eventually ran out of room for him to teach so un-invited him. I have since enrolled my son in a local TKD school here. The head instructor is really good with young children, and my son's attitude and self-control has improved by leaps and bounds. Well, the instructor also talked me into trying out a class and I found it to be a lot of fun. The old muscle memory is still there to a certain extent (my hand techniques are still pretty good, my right side front/side/roundhouse kicks are great, but the left kicks and anything past that are atrocious). I went ahead and signed up last week as well. The head instructor is great with kids, and he has several assistant instructors (one in particular is a 3rd-degree) are really good with pointing out the fundamentals, like how to generate power, etc. The important thing is that this is something I can do together with my son. He's enjoying watching daddy do martial arts with him, and I'm already feeling like I'm in better shape. Since I'm in the final year of my degree (PhD, Computer Science), the family is considering moving to somewhere with better job prospects than Dallas, so if I do that I'll try to find an Okinawan and/or Japanese style school there. However, for where I'm living and with available time, TKD is the only style available within a 30 minute drive.
