Thursday, January 17, 2013

Gymnastics

I've experienced, and will experience again, the ultimate thrill, which, for me, is parasailing.  because of my time spent para-sailing, sailing in the air off a gymnastics apparatus will never hold the same allure that it once did. still, It's pretty addictive.

Floor exercises and tumbling are just that, and anyone can do them at any time and at any place. There's a buzz associated with being able to complete a sequence of handsprings, round-offs, tucks, and other maneuvers that most other people cannot do, and I'm grateful for the buzz I get each time I complete such a sequence even if no one is watching, but the thrill is in the flying, and the greatest flying that occurs in gymnastics happens with the aid of an apparatus.

My personal favorite apparatus is the vault. It's the one that most closely simulates flying. You  start at the end of a runway, much as an aircraft would, get a bit of speed going, and use a combination of  a springboard and a vault to fly and flip  through the air in ways that the human body probably was not intended to do.  The time spent in the air is no more than two seconds, but it feels as though time is suspended and seems longer than the very brief couple of seconds that it is.

I'll continue to para-sail when I get the opportunity, but vaulting is much less expensive.

4 comments:

  1. It sounds like fun :) Glad you're back into it!!

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  2. Vaulting looks like fun... as long as you're light and in good shape, of which I am neither.

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  3. You're more of a daredevil then I am. In theory it sounds like fun, but then again I can only imagine landing wrong and breaking my neck.

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  4. i'm sort of a cat. If I break a bone, it will probably be my leg from landing on it incorrectly. Seriously, my only gymnastics injuries were very minor and were bruises from the balance beam. Track and field, by contrast, is supposed to be relatively safe, with only the occasional ankle sprain or overuse injury. I almost lost my leg in a freak hurdling accident.

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