Dying young in midair

[flexagon]

A friend of TBC's died last weekend in a car accident, and invincible Steve Irwin too. It really makes me think how pissed I would be to die young and not see some of my longer-term plans play out.

Also, I realized lately that I might be bad at jumping into handstand because I'm bad at generating force when I jump, period. Once I was good at that, but all these years of slow-movement exercise might have taken their toll. Time for a few plyometric exercises maybe.

Comments

[nevers.livejournal.com]

the jumping thing definitely makes sense. we do a lot of jumps to warm up in handstand class, both to bring body temp up and also to get the legs nice and springy. can you do plyo on your own? (i mean mentally… i always wimp out without outside encouragement)

[flexagon]

I don't know. I'm sure I could do some plyo on my own, and right now I do none, so that'd be an improvement. :)

How much did you do -- or rather, any sets of exercises you would recommend? I was just going to do some jumps, basically. I had no real plan.

[nevers.livejournal.com]

i tried to do the plyo program outlined here, but it as way too ambitious for me:
http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0879.htm

so i just gave up on working on it on my own. what we do in class is things like tuck jumps, bringing your knees as high as possible; jumps with your legs straight, just bouncing off your toes, but not really bending and flexing your ankles much either (i don't really understand these...); and jumping forward and then back as far as possible.

[webrat.livejournal.com]

I was shocked when I heard Steve Irwin passed away. Of all the stupidest things that got him, it was that.

[webfaery.livejournal.com]

I think Steve Irwin's death, more than any other, brings home to me the importance of living life to the full and taking advantage of the opportunities that we are given. Here was a bloke who had such exuberence for life. He risked his life so often with truly dangerous animals, and then was killed by something so gentle and timid. Anyone who has snorkelled or dived has probably been close to rays. I've seen them in the shallows at the beach with kids swimming not far away.
Steve considered himself an ordinary bloke (even if we found him extraordinary) and suddenly he's gone. None of us should waste a moment, we might not be here tomorrow.

[flexagon]

I have similar thoughts, but I'm hesitant to voice them since I don't think most people would see my life as lived very much in the moment. (I think I probably live more in the moment / for the day / etc than it seems to people, but I question the balance too, even so).

I will be thinking about this more.