As paragliding is only happening in my mind right now (and vicariously through you-tube videos), I've been concentrating more on my other pursuits. Last month I talked about trying to land a handspring in martial arts and yesterday...I finally did it!
After joining my martial arts school I watched some videos on their website and immediately set a goal of wanting to do handsprings like they were doing in their demonstrations. It's taken a year (minus all the classes I skipped to go flying) which is a long time to hold on to a goal, especially in today's instant gratification world. But in that year I've also learned to use nun-chuks & other weapons, break boards with my hands & feet and can do some pretty cool self-defense take-downs.
Yesterday's class was tough! With the holidays coming up our instructor has stepped up the training and is working us until we're exhausted. I came "THIS CLOSE" to landing the handspring a few times yesterday (but always fell over backwards on my butt) and with 5 minutes left in class I didn't think it was going to happen. We took a minute to catch our breath, go over last minute tips & then were told, "Ok, one last try each! You're going to get it this time!" And somehow I did.
When it hit me that I'd landed perfectly on my feet I noticed something funny. My body was reacting in the same way it does when I'm doing something big at a paragliding SIV/acro course! When I did my first asymmetric spiral and was flying over the top of my wing looking down at the lake, it was the same adrenaline rush I got when I stood up after flipping upside down in my handspring. A few minutes later my legs felt like jelly and I had the post-adrenaline energy crash, just like after I landed back at the beach after a string of maneuvers in the air.
Building confidence, reaching goals and finding new ways to get an adrenaline rush. Not a bad way to spend the paragliding off-season!
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