OMG! I never would have guessed how difficult it is to skate! I went for my first time today. It reminded me of when I was a kid skating on the ice rink. All those years of lessons and how much I hated them (and sucked at it) all came back to me.
Wow... this. is. difficult.
What. a. challenge!
I think I was right to order that book (that didn't arrive yet), but I wanted to try something new (as Darrell suggested) so I put the skates on anyway and went out for a bit.
A bazillion thoughts ran through my mind:
"How do you stop? How do you go? How do you turn? How do you turn the other way? How do you stay standing? How do you sit down? How do you do this? Will I die if I get run over by a car? What should I make for dinner tonight? Is that dried dog poop I'm heading straight toward? Help!!"
I made sure there were lots of "things" around me to grab on to because for the life of me, I have no idea how pushing that rubber stopper on the right heel into the ground is supposed to stop me.
I bet my ankles are going to be stiff tomorrow, because they sure were burning as I was trying to simply stay upright. I sure was wobbly. (That will be a fun memory).
Twenty minutes. That's the best I could do today. Good thing I bought lots of protection, too. I just wish they had a bum protector that works as well as the hands, elbows and knee protectors. Ouch!
Think of a staircase, for a moment. We FEEL that we are progressing when we move up the staircase. But while we are horizontal, it doesn't feel like we are getting anywhere. This is the PERCEIVED Learning Curve. This horizontal period is also when many students decide to quit whatever it is they are learning, because they feel they are not progressing.
However, the actual learning curve is a little bit different. Think of those stairs again, and draw a line through the tops of each step. Can you see now there is a graph that is continually moving upward over time? This is the ACTUAL Learning Curve. Even though we don't perceive we are learning, actually we are. We just don't realize it.
Last weekend I made a teeny step forward and up: I bought my skates. Today I took another step forward: I used my skates. If I continue to use them, I know I will get better; I know I will learn. Even if it doesn't FEEL like I'm getting better, as long as I keep doing it, I am pretty confident that one day I may suddenly realize, "hey! I'm doing it!"
This IS going to be a challenge! I got a snicker out of a couple of 9 or 10 year old girls as I was holding onto a stop sign to keep myself from falling down... At least I was able to make somebody happy from my adventure. Can't complain about that.
I love you!
Cam
They have tailbone pads - lots of derby folks use 'em. You can also look up plow stops and t-stops, which don't rely on the scary heel thing to stop, though not sure how safe the t-stop would be for inlines?
ReplyDeleteGlad you're learning something new and training your muscles in new ways! Have fun with it!
Here's an idea - though I hafta say the girl's derby padded shorts are easier to find *grins Guess more boys need to play derby again so they become more popular ;o)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.xsportsprotective.com/mcdavid-thudd-padded-shorts.html
Thanks, Jaime! The model in those shorts has a really sexy butt! So THAT'S how those derby gurlz can slam each other and clothesline each other into the floor so they slam hard on their butts!
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing what the book says on stops and stuff. But for now, the basic thing for me is: stay standing.
it's not your Head that learns...it's your Body
ReplyDeletemost of those reflexes come straight from the spinal cord
brain says~go there~body says F&%#...on skates?
errr..ok...if you say so :|
btw how's the weather over there
ReplyDeleteseems we got your snow from earlier here in ohio
i can try and stall it a couple of days if it's good there ;)
Tokyo is going to be quite nice for the next few days. They'll be having fairly nice weather over in Tohoku as well. But if you get tired of it, feel free to send it this way. I'm sure we'll live.
ReplyDeletegood..just thinking of giving the temporary construction workers a boost for a bit
ReplyDelete*was out tasting the air and having a smoke*
ReplyDeletemay get 5 days out of it
get those radiation leaks sealed~can't stall the seaward wind too long :|
easy does it
ReplyDelete