The beginning of this school year presented me with a very interesting situation; a situation I'm relatively familiar with thanks to my military background. I moved into an area where I knew nobody, the closest I am to anyone I knew before being a part of Penn State is a three and a half hour drive south to Winchester VA. So what do you do when you're in a situation you don't know? You adapt!
However, the prospect of adaption is incredibly hard to realize sometimes. In science adaption let's species survive, in sports it leads to victory, in life it leads to success. Overall good adaptions lead to good results. But what makes adaption so difficult? I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I can be extremely stubborn sometimes and it's not good most of the time. I know I've explained this before but perseverance is good to a point. Once it hinders you or results in injury it's no longer a good thing. So that's when you adapt to the situation and make do with what is available.
In a lot of sports you face other teams, compete against different styles, and the match-ups can make a huge difference between people. Take ping pong for example. Now I know most of us out there take ping pong lightly and see it as a recreational activity, but there is a lot that may go into it at a time. Certain people also have different play styles. There is a few different grip types but the two popular ones are shake-hands (the one most of you probably use naturally) and pencil (you hold the paddle like a pencil -- a lot of eastern players use this style). Each one has a different advantage in power, spin, and ease. As you play you may find yourself against someone who spins the ball more or likes to play extremely fast, in any case you want to be able to adapt and learn new tricks to win in any case, because, let's face it, we all like to win.
In gymnastics the story is a little more self determined. We adjust our routines, or what skills we are going to do according to how we are feeling that day. When you're sick or injured or the equipment is shady you do less. When you find yourself half way through a meet and your on your butt and you just threw the competition out the window, you tend to be a little more stupid and throw skills you don't have consistent or haven't done in say a month or so. If you pull off those tricks your stupidity doesn't feel nearly as stupid. It's really an adaption of the mind at that point, because you want to keep your head screwed on.
You rarely adjust to the competition because your competition is mainly yourself. If scoring is top priority, watered down sets, simplification, and consistency are your best friends. Otherwise we just go, avoiding the pesky little things like broken toes and whatever. Either way you look at it if you find yourself somewhere where you can't adapt, you can find yourself in trouble.
Being able to adapt makes life much more fun. It opens new roads, leads to success, and can keep your toes straight and sturdy!
Being as this is my final post on life lessons brought to you by the sport of Gymnastics I'll leave with my favorite quote attached to this sport.
"I do this sport for two reasons. One) I love it, and Two) So I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want."
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Rolling Madness
As you walk through the dining halls looking for a table to fit more than six people, your life can suddenly become a rather frustrating one. Especially when you find an eight person table, but one person has chosen to sit in the middle of the table...
Now I'm going to say something rather cliche, but the goal in these situations is to not get mad.
Last week I wrote on the idea that you should find the small things in life that are enjoyable and cherish them. This idea kind of goes the same way. You can't enjoy the little things, or the big things for that matter, if you're drowning in anger.
In gymnastics this becomes increasingly important as you get better and better. The better you get the more you have to focus on. The little details add up and if something is off someone is bound to notice... and point it out... every time... That's the madness of this sport. You might begin to lose focus on your success and soon enough you're a hell of a lot better than you were the year before, but you feel like you've gone backwards. It's a weird feeling, but it happens.
It happens a lot when you are coming off an injury. Will you ever get back to where you were? Can you do some of the stuff you used to be able to do? These questions run through your brain like the roadrunner. Pretend you're Wylie Coyote. You can't ever catch them to get an answer, though in most cases the answer is yes and you're worrying for nothing. For myself I always got angry when I couldn't fix a small problem in an hour. I'd just keep doing the same thing for hours, until my coach had to force me to stop. I'm just stubborn. I'd also get mad every time I hurt myself which was a lot. I'm honestly not sure why I didn't stop the sport, I guess I just enjoy it too much!
Originally I started taking the injuries as a test of devotion. It kept me motivated for a while, but eventually enough is enough. Sophomore year of high school I had to get three screws put in my knee, and I wasn't a happy camper. It took me out for an entire season and on top of that I wasn't sure if my tumbling would bounce back. When you're hurt you can still be productive though. Once I accepted the break forced on me, I realized this was a time to relax, get stronger, and just enjoy myself at the gym. After that I came back faster than was thought. It was supposed to take me between nine and twelve months to bounce back, but it would only take around five or six. Something weird happens when you stay positive, your ability to heal can spike, and a lot can fall into place, that you wouldn't have recognized if you had been struggling in the quicksand that is anger.
Even though gymnastics is extremely dangerous and you're prone to injury, a whole bunch of people still do it. You have to be a little crazy I guess to keep walking into the building where you can knock yourself out or break anything in your body. We do learn useful things though. Being able to let something, whether a comment or a missed turn, roll off your shoulder can let you focus on the little pockets of joy during practice, or the dining hall for that matter. Every day is a new day, the past has past, there's no point in worrying about it after the fact.
Background: Gymnastics is an indoor sport for reasons regarding equipment and minimizing distractions for the athletes. I can't imagine swinging on high bar when a bug flys right into my ear. That'd be so weird. However there are a few meets held outside. One hosted by the Chicago Park District, is held on the beach. It's designed as a fun meet with competitors from age 7-30 and plenty of sun!
Question of the Day: "How many bones have you broken/fractured?" Ok this one is weird because in one way I don't know. Documented in hospitals I've had around seven I believe. Counting the undocumented and repeats, it's roughly 20. I've broken every toe except my big toes atleast once (mainly due to those evilly designed things called stairs) and I stress fractured both forearms twice each. I can know move on crutches faster than I normally walk.
Skill of the Day: Cassina. I'm sure plenty of you have seen this in the Olympics. It's one of the hardest skills to do on high bar, but anyone you talk to insists that it's easier with the twist than without it
.
Now I'm going to say something rather cliche, but the goal in these situations is to not get mad.
Last week I wrote on the idea that you should find the small things in life that are enjoyable and cherish them. This idea kind of goes the same way. You can't enjoy the little things, or the big things for that matter, if you're drowning in anger.
In gymnastics this becomes increasingly important as you get better and better. The better you get the more you have to focus on. The little details add up and if something is off someone is bound to notice... and point it out... every time... That's the madness of this sport. You might begin to lose focus on your success and soon enough you're a hell of a lot better than you were the year before, but you feel like you've gone backwards. It's a weird feeling, but it happens.
It happens a lot when you are coming off an injury. Will you ever get back to where you were? Can you do some of the stuff you used to be able to do? These questions run through your brain like the roadrunner. Pretend you're Wylie Coyote. You can't ever catch them to get an answer, though in most cases the answer is yes and you're worrying for nothing. For myself I always got angry when I couldn't fix a small problem in an hour. I'd just keep doing the same thing for hours, until my coach had to force me to stop. I'm just stubborn. I'd also get mad every time I hurt myself which was a lot. I'm honestly not sure why I didn't stop the sport, I guess I just enjoy it too much!
Originally I started taking the injuries as a test of devotion. It kept me motivated for a while, but eventually enough is enough. Sophomore year of high school I had to get three screws put in my knee, and I wasn't a happy camper. It took me out for an entire season and on top of that I wasn't sure if my tumbling would bounce back. When you're hurt you can still be productive though. Once I accepted the break forced on me, I realized this was a time to relax, get stronger, and just enjoy myself at the gym. After that I came back faster than was thought. It was supposed to take me between nine and twelve months to bounce back, but it would only take around five or six. Something weird happens when you stay positive, your ability to heal can spike, and a lot can fall into place, that you wouldn't have recognized if you had been struggling in the quicksand that is anger.
Even though gymnastics is extremely dangerous and you're prone to injury, a whole bunch of people still do it. You have to be a little crazy I guess to keep walking into the building where you can knock yourself out or break anything in your body. We do learn useful things though. Being able to let something, whether a comment or a missed turn, roll off your shoulder can let you focus on the little pockets of joy during practice, or the dining hall for that matter. Every day is a new day, the past has past, there's no point in worrying about it after the fact.
Background: Gymnastics is an indoor sport for reasons regarding equipment and minimizing distractions for the athletes. I can't imagine swinging on high bar when a bug flys right into my ear. That'd be so weird. However there are a few meets held outside. One hosted by the Chicago Park District, is held on the beach. It's designed as a fun meet with competitors from age 7-30 and plenty of sun!
Question of the Day: "How many bones have you broken/fractured?" Ok this one is weird because in one way I don't know. Documented in hospitals I've had around seven I believe. Counting the undocumented and repeats, it's roughly 20. I've broken every toe except my big toes atleast once (mainly due to those evilly designed things called stairs) and I stress fractured both forearms twice each. I can know move on crutches faster than I normally walk.
Skill of the Day: Cassina. I'm sure plenty of you have seen this in the Olympics. It's one of the hardest skills to do on high bar, but anyone you talk to insists that it's easier with the twist than without it
.
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