Rollin' rollin' rollin'

So seeing as my grand plan kind of went kablooie this year, and I have to wait until next year to give it another shot, I am trying to find ways to fill my time. I have always loved stage combat kinds of things, so I thought I should try to find a place in Chicago where I could study (as opposed to those three-week intensive courses taught in July in Seattle. Not that those don't sound like fun, but they would require waiting until July and somehow being able to finagle three weeks off of work). And I found one.

There is a group that trains about five blocks from my apartment, twice a week. For twenty bucks a pop, I can go train with them. So I did. On Saturday. I was nervous as hell walking in there, but they were very nice and very supportive. And they had me jump right in doing forward rolls and backward rolls and jumping over someone who was rolling at me and rolling under someone who was jumping over me and rolling over mats and practicing a simple fight sequence and learning how to do (essentially) a belly flop and a backward fall and some punches and kicks and spins. And some of it, I sucked at. Horribly. I need to work on my flexibility so I can get a decent crescent kick. But some of it, I was pretty decent at. I've never considered myself a gymnast, but I was able to do fairly well on the jumping and rolling stuff. For a first-timer, anyway. And the rest of the group was very encouraging, which helped a lot. Though they do say that if you are uncomfortable trying something, don't do it.

There was something really fun, though, about jumping in and trying everything. I'm not the sort who flips. Ever. I look at people who can do flips and am astounded. But there I was, taking a running start to dive and roll over someone who was coming at me, and I did it. Not perfectly, but I did it. I flew through the air, tucked my head, and rolled through on my back to a (sloppy) landing. How often do adults get to do that kind of thing?

I'd like to get good at this. There is a woman in the group who is absolutely fearless and I hope to someday be like her. I know it will take practice, if for no other reason because I will need to get familiar with my own body and it's limitations and I need to get comfortable working on a bouncy floor that isn't going to hurt when I fall on it. Right now, I still have the "Oh my god the floor is rushing at me really fast and I'm going to hurt myself!" reflex. Which is not what happens here. You learn how to throw yourself at the ground in such a way that you won't get hurt, and you practice on a soft floor so even if you screw up, you're okay until you're comfortable enough to know you're not going to screw up and then you can go do the same thing on concrete.

I think this could be good for me. Something physically active that challenges me to do things I didn't think I could do. That's bound to build up some confidence, right?

Though I will say, I took one landing a little hard on my left ankle. I don't think there was any serious damage, but it's a little tender. And I don't know if it was the stunt training or the strength training I did earlier that morning, but just about every muscle in my body is screaming at me. My favorite soreness is in my butt - if my butt hurts like that, it means it got a good workout, right?