flexagon | Trapeze lesson #2

To begin with, I got nothing done at work today because I was so excited about getting a trapeze lesson (and somewhat anxious too, having watched some videos on trapezeschool.com that make the platform look about 1000 feet above the ground). I didn't figure it would warrant a giant operatic writeup like I did after my first lesson last year, but still... I was excited.

As soon as we got back behind the nets where we could watch the water/light show and the jellybeans and the little kids who were flying, I relaxed and was happy in the crazy carnival environment. I was nervous before my first jump, but nothing like last year. I did three knee hangs (I know now that this is the name of the basic trick I described last time) just to be sure I still could do them. They were pretty much fine except that my back somersault kept sucking and landing me on my nose, so they moved on to teaching me a set split.

1) Swing out.
2) At far end, assume "position 1" -- upside down, right leg pointing straight up, left knee tucked into chest, left foot on bar.
3) Back near the platform, straighten front leg, keeping the bar pressing against the back leg, arching chest. This sort of felt like doing a shrug.
4) At the far end again, wait for the farthest point of the swing (or when they say hup), let go and bring arms forward.

I did 5 or 6 of those, making various mistakes, and then they sent a catcher up and I got caught 3 times, still doing the split! I was more than prepared for failure on this, and quite prepared to go back to a knee hang just in order to be caught, but no need! Actually, the first catch we only got with one hand, and at the far end of the swing we got the other side. After class the catcher said he'd never have done that out of lines, but if you're in lines, why not go for it? But I also found out that he had a bad grip on the hand he had -- I, on the other hand, had a killer grip on his wrist with my dominant hand. So as for him and his not going for it... if he hadn't decided to keep me, could he have shaken me off anyway? :)

Except for the moment of anxiety where he always seemed too far away and I was waiting forever for the "hup", it was great. Unlike the knee hang where you briefly have two plausible means of support, with this trick you are truly snatched out of the air, and that makes me happy.

What was really interesting about this time: well,

heisenbug was along, and he successfully got caught twice from the knee hang, so yay. Also, I had much more awareness of when they were pulling on the ropes this time, especially when I was falling and physically impossible things kept happening. I mean, a falling body does NOT rotate once backwards, reverse direction and rotate forward, I'm sorry! I know that the people on the lines helped me a lot, and I appreciate that, and probably I'd never have gotten caught without them, but every time I was falling the belt seemed to do weird things to me. The last time the catcher dropped me I was getting used to the net and was quite happy to just fall down on my butt/back, but no, I got tilted forward again in midair. Sigh. Maybe if I got better they'd let me fall more.

The other interesting thing was going with someone who just did NOT have the upper body strength, and barely enough nerve, for trapeze. I remember

apfelsingail last year having a little trouble getting her knees up and through when on the little static trapeze, but she didn't have trouble on the flying one... or trouble holding herself up. I'm afraid that for this girl, after she finally got up the nerve to swing, it was really a lot of work just to hold on. So she never got to hang by her knees, and didn't do the flippy dismount although she did practice the leg swinging. I felt sort of bad because in the end she only went 3 times. But she said she's glad she went, and maybe now she'll be inspired to do more upper body stuff. Well, either that or she won't be friends with me anymore.