Flip!

I did a flip today!

Actually, I did a sort of flip day before yesterday. This sentence is a garden path sentence. For what its worth.

Day before, I watched a video clip of myself and it looked like a killer whale breaching the ocean, and slowly turning back into the sea. I was moving way too slow. I was also staring at my feet. I didn't look too great, but it was a flip, of sorts.

That was basically where I conquered my fear of doing flips. I have been doing them on the diving board, and its been bellyflop city. The lifeguards don't let you flip off the edge of the pool, where I really wanted to practice - so I'm up four feet off the water... and wham! Exfoliation! Bone shuddering collision with surface tensions took their toll. I was afraid of doing them. But I really want to do one. So, I finally decided the only way to do it, is to go for it. A few weekends ago, my son and his sleepover pals helped me along the path.

They told me to focus on doing a few simple things. And then his little friend taught me one big trick. He said close your eyes and lock your hands down to your legs. The first time I did it, I tore up my elbows on the landing. And believe me, not being able to see can freak you out.

I was sort of half-doing them at that point. Our trampoline rests at a slight 10 degree angle with the fall of my backyard. So I would get up on the high side, and it seemed as though if I closed my eyes and locked my arms I'd make the turn mid-air then land somehow 3/4 turn into the back of the springs on the far side of the trampoline. It's enough to make you nervous but it doesn't blow you out of the pool like a back-flop. I still didn't actually count myself as doing one, I was sketchy on the landing.

Thebreakthrough came when I realized, that, jumping as an adult - I will land hard, and so it's better to stand on the low side and aim for the high side so that when I land I hit and basically bounce back to the center. At that point, day before yesterday, I started doing them and thats when I attained 'killer whale' status. No points for style. But the core of the trick, where you think you can keep pressing forward and getting it right - wasn't there. I didn't have leverage on it. I was still kind of half-doing them.

But today, I jumped high in the air, fully rotated and landed basically on my butt. I closed my eyes and visualized doing it in the pool, off the diving board, and then pulled it off.

Rock on.