Footprints on the Moon

Question: what is the best weight loss pill?

Answer: Jumping over a cardboard box while wearing roller skates.

Huh? Okay, so maybe jumping over a box didn’t actually help me lose weight (though it certainly couldn’t hurt), it DID succeed in making me feel a bit weightless! At the very least, it raised a huge weight off of my shoulders.

Have I stretched that analogy too far yet?

Let me back up and explain. I am, of course, talking about roller derby, as the comment about roller skates may have tipped you off. Because our league is trying for membership to the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), we abide by the rules that they have set. The very first rule is that teams are formed with up to 20 skaters who have passed the minimum skills requirements. As you may have gathered, one of those requirements involves jumping. It is also the requirement that has probably given me the most trouble. (There is also the 25 laps in 5 minutes that I’m still .5 or less of a lap short on, but that’s a story for another time.)

I am required to be able to jump over an obstacle, three inches in height, with both feet, landing with both feet at the same time, without losing my balance or falling. To say that I have had trouble with this would be a gross understatement. My very first attempt with jumping ended up with me on my rear end, jamming my shoulder. Before I could work myself up to trying again, I got called away to do something else, so I kind of missed that “getting back on the horse” opportunity, and this 3″ cardboard box grew into an obstacle of mythical proportions in my head.

I had gotten myself so worked up about jumping over this box, that when our coach placed the 3″ box down on the floor, I started crying. Immediately and basically involuntarily, despite the fact that I’d just successfully jumped over both the 1.5″ and 2″ boxes. But I’m bound and determined to pass my WFTDA minimum skills so that I can scrimmage with my team, so I wiped my eyes the best I could and skated towards that cardboard box with tears still leaking out of the corner of my eyes. I was terrified. But lo and behold, I jumped over that box, landed on the other side and skated away with both my fists up in the air. And then I turned around and did it again. And again. And again.

I still need to jump over that box at least one more time, when we do testing at practice on Halloween, but now that I’ve done it, I’m hoping it won’t be as big of a deal. I know I can jump over that box, land on the other side, and skate away without hurting myself because I just did it. It was a huge victory, not just physically, but mentally.

(Sorry, I don’t have a picture of me jumping, so you get this one of me jamming in a no-contact scrimmage a good month or two ago lol)

This entry was posted on Friday, October 22nd, 2010 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.