Trapeze

A few weeks ago, while talking with Hanh, she mentioned that she goes to trapeze class on Sundays. “That sounds really cool,” I said. “You should come,” she replied. The next day, I received an email with details about trapeze class.

That email sat in my inbox for days. I opened the link, looked at the site, looked at the site again. I’m not usually this indecisive about things. Why was I hesitating?

On the 6th day, I realized I was scared. Upon realizing this, I decided to do it. Besides, this was an opportunity to learn in the company of my friend. If not now, when? I signed up.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. I thought I’d do some swinging, learn to drop on the net, and come back another day for more. Instead, they taught me to do a knee hang on the practice bar, taught me how to leave the platform, and sent me up. Already?!

People have asked whether the experience was scary. Quite honestly, there was enough to remember that I didn’t have enough spare brain cycles to be scared. My first go at it was “Whoa!” followed by a few swings back and forth before I could process what the instructor on the ground was yelling for me to do. I managed a sloppy knee hang and came back down to learn that she had been yelling, “Can you hear me?” Hah, no! That’s why I didn’t respond.

Swing #2 went a lot better. Then the instructors rotated. Swing #3 was a mess again, mostly because I couldn’t tune in to the new instructor’s voice. Fortunately, he then explained to me what I needed to do in each part of the swing. Having that in place, instead of just following directions when I heard them without understanding why, helped a lot. Swing #4 went just fine.

On swing #5, I learned why they had been teaching me to knee hang, arch my back, and reach for the empty swing on the far side of the net. This time, one of the instructors was up there to grab my arms and catch me. Cool! We did this twice, and then it was time to go. Here I am on my final swing of the day:

Fun! But wow, the back of my calves hurt from hanging on the bar. I have bruises to prove it! So while I didn’t injure myself, I did need bubble wrap. ImaginaryWarehouseOfBubbleWrapRolls–

Will I do this again? I think yes! Come join me if you’re interested. And thanks Hanh for the invite and video!