Saturday, April 24, 2010

Lacking motivation

Well, things have been kinda down lately, training-wise. It's kinda hard to keep motivated the whole time, which is understandable... but right now it's crunch time. Do or die. Now or never.

I've been saving money for quite a while for this try-out, with the original intention of having around $1400 for the whole deal. Last trip, I had it all figured out: $50 a day for food ($350 total), $150 for the hotel, $50 for the share of gas and $250 for the plane. $800 seemed perfect... until I returned home with only change in my pocket. I figured $50 a day was *far* more than enough, since I'm used to only spending $10 a day here.

So, I've tried to save a lot more this time around, since I'm leaving for two weeks. The first week for more basic, last-minute training, and the second week that I *hopefully* this time make the semi's and finals.

Believe me... Nothing hurt more last time, than being eliminated early, only to sit out the rest of the week on the bench. The worst part was that I felt as if I was wasting my vacation time doing it. Well, most of it. Still a lot of great memories non-ANW related with my friends all over the USA, but that's getting off subject.

So this time I was hoping to have around $1,200 saved, after the plane ticket was purchased. From there, I was going to purchase some new FiveFingers about a month before I flew out, to have only a little time to break them in, yet retain the sticky rubber on the bottom.

Yet... expenses always seem to arise, and unless I figure out a plan, I'll only have $1,000 to use for two weeks. Cutting it a bit closer than I would have liked to... So we'll see.

Next up was the shoes themselves. Ever since I fell last year... which mind you was partly the shoes, partly lack of leg strength and form/technique... I've been driven to clean up all of the small mistakes I was afraid of making last year. Things such as the climb through of the Spider Walk (Shoes, technique AND leg strength combined), ensure I don't fail the Rope Swing (Although I passed it last time) by getting the perfect form and foot position and strengthening my hands for the Pipe Slider/Warped Wall/Rope Swing/Jumping Bars.

I've also been trying to eliminate fears. The Salmon Ladder still spooks me... The thought of using all of your body momentum to hurl yourself upwards, holding onto nothing but a free pole... scares me. Not a horizontal, sideways or downward jump of any means, just a leap upwards.

So, I've been working on it. At the climbing center, I've been practicing jumping upward from one piece to another, using both hands. It's pretty scary, not gonna lie.

At Aerials, Ruselis has been helping me with a few different things. One is learning how to do muscleups, as I feel that will help the process of getting over the Warped Wall quickly. I learned that at Ninjafest... I was quite slow pulling myself over the top. Now I may be faster now than I was then... but this is Sasuke. Every second counts.

He's taught me a little bit of bar-work, such as the jumping bars, as well as how to swing myself higher. To teach me this, he's places a large, 6'x6'x6' (or so) box about 7 or 8 feet away from a parallel bar of also about 8 feet. I'm pretty tall, so I can just reach up and grab the bar without jumping to it, but due to that height, it's hard to get momentum going, and keep it through a jump. The point is to get myself on top of the box, and once comfortable, move it back. It's taken me a while, but I'm starting to get it.

The next part is backflips. He's just started teaching me the basics, and it has no relevance to Sasuke (Nor will I be using it... Arsenette :P), but it's to teach me to conquer fear, and believe me... it freaks me out. Which is the only true reason I'm learning it. Front flips are more fun anyway :P

There is one side effect to going to Aerials, and I talked about this last blog, was the girl I met last week. Well... she didn't show this week, which dissapointed me a little. But... new possibilities may arise. Who knows... Only God :)

In the end, well... just feeling the training is stacked against me currently. Low money flow, strugging through defeating fears, and other things. But that's the whole thing... No-one said this would be easy, did they?
-Chris

1 comment:

  1. Funny, I was having a "bad day" yesterday too. Knee was hurting, doubting my ability to master the Spider Wall. If this were easy, as you say, than regular citizens would be doing it!

    Just added you to the Blogroll on my site. Keep the faith!

    ReplyDelete