A Demonstration

Sunday afternoon Parma Family Martial Arts Center gave a stage demonstration at the Parma Rib n Rock. What a great presentation! It was very exciting and featured about 25 students of all ages (5 to upper 50s) and levels (white belts through black).

The stage could have been a little sturdier. Actually, most of the demos were done on the dance floor for fear the stage would collapse with some of the moves. In fact, the dance group that performed after the martial arts demo had to wait for some pins to be replaced in the stage before they could go on! Thankfully one of the dancers heard a pin fall out of place and alerted the stage crew.

Here our group is preparing to take the stage. They usually line up in belt rank order, but this time some changes are made so the shorter students are in front. The performance began with some sparring matches.
Next some punching and kicking technique drills were conducted.
What about those shoes? Some of the children-- those who were going to perform on the top stage at any point in the demo--did have to wear shoes. The top stage was constructed of pieces of plywood with great potential for slivers. It had also had a carpet stapled to it at one point, and lots of bearded staples were protruding from the wood. The ones that were not bearded were broken into sharp little spikes. Ouch!

For lots of the kids this was the first time they had ever kicked, turned and otherwise performed their art form with shoes on. It was a bit of an adjustment.

Next students were paired off to do One-Step demonstrations, in which the martial artist has one step to subdue or elude an attacker. While our Artist is not vanquishing her fake foe, she likes hanging out with his big sister.
Following the one steps, students of many ranks performed some forms. Here the Artist is listening for the signal to begin. Her friend is on the top stage behind her about to do the same form. Somewhere along the line the two girls' timing was not the same, so they are facing different directions in this photo. The Artist is in the lower left of the picture.
As the demo went on it got more exciting. This was the first time one of the young black belt men broke a brick. He did a great job. I have no photo or video clip to share so you are left with my word for it and the somewhat unsatisfactory you had to be there feeling. My apologies.

Many other students then demonstrated board breaking. The loud sound of boards snapping and flying to the wood floor and the fast pace made for a good show. Once again, having to wear shoes threw some folks off. I saw kids who usually have no trouble having to use two or more tries. At first I thought wearing shoes might make breaks easier. Ahem. I was wrong. The Artist breaks some boards.
Advanced belts did some showy jumping, spinning breaks.
The best part was saved for last. One of the young teen black belts demonstrated several ways to overpower an attacker. I had not seen her throw her instructor (the man holding the board in the above photo) to the ground before. It was amazing. I was so proud of her. I can just imagine how proud her mother, seated a short distance from me, was feeling.

For the grand finally, the instructor had four helpers. Two students stood on either side of him, facing him. They had the flat of the blade of a sword balanced on each of their heads. The other two students were holding the swords steady. An apple was wedged onto the tip of each sword. Then the instructor did two wheel kicks, kicking the apples from the swords and smashing them into the audience, which erupted in gasps and applause (and some applesauce).