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."
Wow, I thought this was a very insightful final post. Adaption is such a large component of life, and without it life can certainly lose it flavor. Not only that, but adaptation is often necessary to overcome many of the struggles life will throw our way. I really liked this post; the practical example of adaptation related to gymnastics was a very good illustration. Also, as a distance runner, I can really appreciate the second part of your final quote!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Matt; this is a great final post that manages to tie together many of the themes you've touched on in your blog. Its funny to see ping pong pop up into your post, though I think its appearance in your post is probably a little jarring for those unaware that you've been playing a lot for fun since you've got here. At least you didn't go with Smash Bros. Ultimately, though your posts had some mechanical flaws, they were some of the most personal in this class. It never felt that platitudes outweighed your own feelings and experiences. Good job.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great way to wrap up your blog! I loved the analogy that you drew to playing ping pong, which I can definitely relate to. And i loved the quote you ended your blog with even more. Great job! I can't wait to see what you write about next semester.
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