Pondering Movement

Sometimes I have a breakthrough discovering how to get my body to do a particular movement or hold a particular position. At those times I get shocked as to how much of a disconnect there is between what I think I should do, what I actually should do and what I actually end up doing. Sometimes the first two are in line with each other, but getting the third part to agree seems to be a major challenge. I frequently think I need Physical Special Ed. Maybe that's why I've never been able to hit the volleyball. Who knows.


Last night was a classic example of my disconnect & that's what got me thinking about it again. I use gymnastics rings sometimes and ever since I was a little kid, I have flipped myself upside down, hung from the rings & put my legs straight up in the air. More or less, it's a handstand without the hands. I have NEVER been able to do a handstand. Theoretically, they should be the same as long as you have the strength in your arms. I take that back, the center of mass relative to the pivot point is different, so you have slightly different torques and control issues. Anyway, I tried to do a handstand in an Acro class last night & I could support myself upside down. The arm strength was not, apparently, the problem, but I couldn't stay upright without people holding my legs. Then someone came by & said "tighten up your stomach & squeeze your glutes." That piece added up to being a heck of a lot more stable. Apparently, I was letting my mid-section be all loosey goosey. No wonder I couldn't balance. You'd have just as much luck balancing two things that were connected by jello. I must be used to keeping that form because otherwise I'd have the same problem with the rings. I think the mitigating factor is that with the rings you hang and my arms do that pretty well, so I can kinda ignore them. Here, pushing, supporting myself, that's "new", so I subconsciously focus on my arms & forget about everything else. fail.

Also, I have problems if I have to move one bit at the same time as the other... hands and feet, or even right-hand, left-hand. When learning piano I preferred syncopated rhythms which are "harder" because it was easier for me - at any given moment, you're usually only using one or the other. Ballroom dance (social, not competitive) works well because you kinda "lock in" your arms (bad way to describe it) and focus on moving your feet in particular ways. With Rock Climbing, you typically only move one foot or one hand at a time. (I avoid dynamic moves). In parkour, most of the vaults are hard for me to process because it requires both hands and feet in synchronicity. Ponder, ponder....

Sorry. Might not be interesting to anyone else, but it's just something I'm pondering. Hope the disconnect starts to go away the more different things I do.