Adult African-American figure skater getting back onto the ice while facing the trials and tribulations of injury, illness, odd looks and being a lefty in a righty world.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Practice Without Prejudice
When I began skating, I made two rules for myself:
1. If I was well enough to go skating, I was well enough to go to school or work. If I skipped either school or work, I had to skip skating.
2. If I don't have the funds to skate, I wouldn't borrow it from anyone, nor would I accept it from anyone. I've only broken that rule once, when I borrowed money from my Mom. I paid her back ASAP; she charged interest.
With both of those rules in mind, I am off the ice this week. Mostly because of rule #2, but I'll be back next week. Also, I began working out again like a crazy woman and well, I'm much more sore than I expected.
Stumbling across a series of workout videos on Youtube, I discovered something called: FitnessBlender. If you decide to try it, I'll give you fair warning: it will kick your buttocks worse than when Forest Gump got shot in the buttocks during his time in the army with Bubba and Lt. Dan. I started on Tuesday (I have so much trouble starting things on Mondays), it's Thursday and I still have pain from things I did on Tuesday. Thus far, I haven't repeated any of the workouts (we're only talking 3 workouts here) but, this morning I was able to fit into a dress I couldn't zipper up just last month. Part of this transformation could be attributed to my lack of real appetite and lack of funds to buy food.
Eating is overrated sometimes. Besides, I really want to stop taking hypertension medicine.
Since I'm not on the ice, I've been watching other adult skaters on Youtube. I mean absolutely no disrespect whatsoever, because I think my skills are sorely lacking 99% of the time, but, some of the people I've been watching are no better than I am and yet, they are fearless. Watching someone throw themselves into an axel when they have the shakiest back outside edge makes me feel as though I've been way too critical of my own skills. Add to the fire the fact that my coach has another adult student who is working on harder skills than I am and I can actually land more jumps and spin better than she does, really makes me feel as though I need to cut myself a bit more slack.
Sometimes I wonder if there is a prejudice of sorts when one adult is heavier than the other. In my case, I also have a series of injuries to deal with, but it has to be really bad for me to complain about it. Thus far, I've been quiet about my back, shoulder, cough and head; they've all been behaving themselves anyway. Just no gluten; figure out that's a trigger for migraines for me.
Back on the ice on Tuesday or Wednesday. I think I'll pull myself up by my bootstraps and try 1000% harder and stop judging myself so harshly.
Let's make this our credo from now on: Practice without prejudice.
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