Gymnastics #3
Oct. 30th, 2006 10:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flexagon2 minutes of jumping jacks = my calves are going to be nonfunctional tomorrow.
10 pushups, then 10 seconds in down dog, then 9 pushups, then 10 seconds in down dog, then 8 pushups... = OH MY GOD. I was still going, very slowly and on my knees, when they told everyone to stop, but my pecs may be nonfunctional tomorrow too.
Back handspring drills on the trampoline track just made me pissy. I wasn't ready for them, and anyway, I don't care about back handsprings. Why they're trying to teach them to me is a mystery... certainly not based on my saying I wanted to learn the stupid things. Also, I react badly to being told to hit the mat harder ("Harder! Harder!"). Ugh, shades of tae kwon do. I was beginning to think things like waste of a nice Monday night and maybe I'll just stop wasting my time here.
So, I wandered away to where the other teacher was working with our token dorky 13-year-old on handstands. There, where I could fall onto an air mattress if I went over, I worked on straddle-ups to handstand and... they clicked. It was not very dramatic. I did one and then another and then, was that five in a row? six? what's happening!? seven! I got too into counting and messed up the eighth. The other teacher (who is very tall, black and chill) noticed me after a while and we talked about them a bit. Also about tuck-ups (I did one) and pike-ups, and a drill involving alternating straddle-ups and forward rolls. Now that they have clicked, assuming the click sticks, I can work on that next time. :)
When they work, they feel more like "rock and press" than they do like jumping much.
10 pushups, then 10 seconds in down dog, then 9 pushups, then 10 seconds in down dog, then 8 pushups... = OH MY GOD. I was still going, very slowly and on my knees, when they told everyone to stop, but my pecs may be nonfunctional tomorrow too.
Back handspring drills on the trampoline track just made me pissy. I wasn't ready for them, and anyway, I don't care about back handsprings. Why they're trying to teach them to me is a mystery... certainly not based on my saying I wanted to learn the stupid things. Also, I react badly to being told to hit the mat harder ("Harder! Harder!"). Ugh, shades of tae kwon do. I was beginning to think things like waste of a nice Monday night and maybe I'll just stop wasting my time here.
So, I wandered away to where the other teacher was working with our token dorky 13-year-old on handstands. There, where I could fall onto an air mattress if I went over, I worked on straddle-ups to handstand and... they clicked. It was not very dramatic. I did one and then another and then, was that five in a row? six? what's happening!? seven! I got too into counting and messed up the eighth. The other teacher (who is very tall, black and chill) noticed me after a while and we talked about them a bit. Also about tuck-ups (I did one) and pike-ups, and a drill involving alternating straddle-ups and forward rolls. Now that they have clicked, assuming the click sticks, I can work on that next time. :)
When they work, they feel more like "rock and press" than they do like jumping much.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-31 03:10 am (UTC)back handsprings are easier to learn than roundoffs because they're much simpler (no twisting), which is probably why they're starting you on them. i'm surprised you don't think they seem like fun. i think being about to do a standing back handspring would be ace.
yay straddle-up click!!
are you still not comfortable cartwheeling/twisting out of an overbalanced hs? if not it would be good to get someone to work with you on them there.
i found out i can do kicking headstand-to-handstand pushups from my head on a mid-level yoga block (on its long, narrow side) but not from my head on a low-level yoga block (on its long, wide side). also, failed attempts when my head lands back on the yoga block? not so comfy.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-31 03:53 am (UTC)I am not finding words to explain why back handsprings don't seem fun. I mean, they seem all right, but also scary and weird and way too dynamic, considering that we could be doing walkovers. Possibly they don't motivate me that much because it seems so much less likely I would ever do them away from the springy floor.
Cartwheeling/twisting... alas, the best I ever felt about them was when I was with you! After that I tried to practice, but they seemed a little too likely to hurt my wrist -- and indeed, I met someone who hurt their wrist like that. How can you do it safely? However, I'm getting quite comfortable rolling out, so at least I can work away from the wall.
I'm with you on the failed attempts at headstand/handstand kickup. I did it again sunday out of obstinacy. Learned accidentally that it is possible to come down with the feet instead of landing back in headstand... that was a more comfortable way to fail. I do feel like I'm close.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-31 02:04 pm (UTC)there are some pretty advanced people who still prefer rolling out (so i hear from the internet... everybody i work with twists out and i can't imagine prefering to roll rather than to twist on a hard surface) so i guess you're ok.
before i started i thought i would just come down on my feet if i didn't make it all the way up into a hs... but it didn't work that way. i think my descent was too fast to bail out on. but i'm excited by this new route to working hspu muscles!
no subject
Date: 2006-11-01 12:27 pm (UTC)As for cartwheeling out, ok, assume there's no step taken with the hands, so you're just going over backwards. You twist 1/4 twist, now your body/foot are coming down sideways. But your hands are still pointing back in the direction that foot is coming down in.
That's not a position my forearms and wrists can get into if I just try to stand like that on the floor, and it's possible you never actually are in that position, if enough weight comes off the hands that they can twist/rotate somewhat on the floor as you're coming down. I mean, I can cartwheel, so if I did take a step with one hand, and used that step to turn the hand inward pointing at the other hand, then maybe I could come down okay.
Hope this concern is clear... I would like to be able to do this precisely so I can work on hard surfaces.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-01 02:01 pm (UTC)but i think either way, the majority of your weight is in the hand you are using as a fulcrum for the twist. as the weight comes off the other hand, you can lift the heel of your hand off the floor, so that hand can move with your body rather than getting tweaked.
and source video:
http://somethingsbegun.com/overbalance1.avi (sorry, 14.1 mg! i didn't want to compress it too much so you can see my hands). maybe watching the overbalance at the end in slow-mo will help you make sense of it? or maybe not.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-01 02:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-05 11:57 pm (UTC)I finally had a real chance today, and although it didn't bug my wrist it basically still scares me. When practicing I've been tending to come up (not quite to balance) and then cartwheel out sideways instead of managing to continue the motion backward. I guess that means I'm not twisting. I have a very twisty spine so I should be able to twist... if I had the nerve to wait until I'm actually falling over, I would be forced to, I guess.
I do want to keep working on this since I totally see the utility on hard floors. Luckily, tomorrow is gymnastics which (because of the not-hard floor) is good for experiments of all kinds. Another thing I think I should do is just hs on the wall and twist to bring the side of my feet against the wall, just to see what that feels like.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 12:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-01 12:34 pm (UTC)