One goal, once the contagion slows and courses begin again, is to restart tai chi. Terrifically meditative with the added bonus of improving balance. Loved doing it way back when. Look forward to restarting.
One trick my movement instructor taught back in grad school was an aikido roll. Go with the energy of the momentum, think of yourself round versus angular, and roll through the fall diagonally across the back, leg tucked allowing the momentum to bring you upright. If heading backward, bend one leg with the foot toward the center of your body and roll along one side of the spine toward your shoulders.
Wonder if I can still do that? Use it getting off the floor when exercising, but reversed? Hmmm.
In my fantasies, this is the kind of falling I can do. In reality, I can't imagine being able to be so deliberate about my body in a moment of surprise interrupted action. It makes sense to me that this would be something to practice. Because then I guess it would in fact become instinctive. I'm now going to google for videos of this roll!
This topic comes up often among those aging who don’t want to be sidelined by injury. A balancing act between comfort level and pushing beyond comfort level works for me. I never want to limit myself, but I may start out conservatively and build from that while building confidence. A recent example is skating, I needed a few times around the rink to build my confidence before I was ready to work on technique and speed. I couldn’t help think that ice is hard and could take me out for a while if I fell hard or flatten one of the kids skating circles around me. It always inspires me to read of people’s adventures at any age and makes me want to do more. Thanks for the inspiration!
I agree, Cheryl, that it's a balancing act, and it's often about exactly what you describing: building confidence. I've also found that my need to build confidence varies depending on the sport. I need this in mountain biking, where my risk tolerance is on the lower end of the scale. But I don't need it in skiing, where I will tolerate greater risk for sure. I guess, though, it's because I'm more confident already in skiing as opposed to mountain biking, though. I guess the fact is we're always going to fall. We want to balance how hard we might fall against the rewards of pursuing the activity in question.
That's one of the struggles, isn't it? To not let a fall--or setback in other realms of life--make us tentative. Safe, sure, but tentative not so much. Being tentative can actually cause more trouble, too, since it makes you tense up (again, literally but also figuratively) and possibly get hurt again!
One goal, once the contagion slows and courses begin again, is to restart tai chi. Terrifically meditative with the added bonus of improving balance. Loved doing it way back when. Look forward to restarting.
One trick my movement instructor taught back in grad school was an aikido roll. Go with the energy of the momentum, think of yourself round versus angular, and roll through the fall diagonally across the back, leg tucked allowing the momentum to bring you upright. If heading backward, bend one leg with the foot toward the center of your body and roll along one side of the spine toward your shoulders.
Wonder if I can still do that? Use it getting off the floor when exercising, but reversed? Hmmm.
In my fantasies, this is the kind of falling I can do. In reality, I can't imagine being able to be so deliberate about my body in a moment of surprise interrupted action. It makes sense to me that this would be something to practice. Because then I guess it would in fact become instinctive. I'm now going to google for videos of this roll!
This topic comes up often among those aging who don’t want to be sidelined by injury. A balancing act between comfort level and pushing beyond comfort level works for me. I never want to limit myself, but I may start out conservatively and build from that while building confidence. A recent example is skating, I needed a few times around the rink to build my confidence before I was ready to work on technique and speed. I couldn’t help think that ice is hard and could take me out for a while if I fell hard or flatten one of the kids skating circles around me. It always inspires me to read of people’s adventures at any age and makes me want to do more. Thanks for the inspiration!
I agree, Cheryl, that it's a balancing act, and it's often about exactly what you describing: building confidence. I've also found that my need to build confidence varies depending on the sport. I need this in mountain biking, where my risk tolerance is on the lower end of the scale. But I don't need it in skiing, where I will tolerate greater risk for sure. I guess, though, it's because I'm more confident already in skiing as opposed to mountain biking, though. I guess the fact is we're always going to fall. We want to balance how hard we might fall against the rewards of pursuing the activity in question.
That's one of the struggles, isn't it? To not let a fall--or setback in other realms of life--make us tentative. Safe, sure, but tentative not so much. Being tentative can actually cause more trouble, too, since it makes you tense up (again, literally but also figuratively) and possibly get hurt again!