Well, I hate to use PG-13 language, but if I had to give this iFly session a nickname, I’d call it iSucked. I’m not sure what my deal was, but I just couldn’t get my act together, and I left frustrated.
After I tried the 10-pack of flights for the first time a few weeks ago, and then getting a few of my level 1 skills signed off on just last night, I was excited to come back again to keep banging away on my skills. But they banged on me. Big time.
I felt like a wobbly bathtub during most of my flights. The more I tried to steady myself into a solid belly fly position, the more I teeter-tottered back and forward, making my turns wide and sloppy.
I was also excited to do more tube entrances and exits. The exits went ok, but wow, the entrances were…rough. For at least two of the entrances, my legs kicked out from under me and I had to be helped into a neutral position. My instructor showed me another way to enter the tube by crouching with one leg in front of another, and then kind of tipping/falling forward. It looked straightforward, but I only half-entered the tube and kind of had to be pushed the rest of the way.
I was getting really pooped by the end. Because I had signed up for 10 minutes of flight time and there were only two other flyers in my group, I flew every other turn – for two minutes a piece. It might not sound like a lot, but boy were my arms jello by the last flight!
My instructor gave me some good tips for next time:
- Relax. I am realizing that I really struggle with this. It’s supposed to be fun, and I’m too concerned with doing things “right” – like it’s some sort of graded test or something. I guess I’m also pooping myself out by tensing my body so much. I need to let the air do more of the work.
- Push the hips down. Apparently some of my wobble is from sticking my butt up in the air when going in and out of turns. I need to push my hips toward the floor to establish a more balanced base.
- Look up! My instructor showed me my tube entrance videos, and I could see that although I thought I was looking to the sky during my “trust fall,” I started looking a bit forward and also bending my body a bit straight, which was working against me.
- T-rex arms might provide more endurance. One exercise I did was to take one hand at a time and slap my helmet. Then I was prompted to tuck my hands under my chin like that one scene from Wayne’s World (pic below). My instructor suggested I change my arm position to be about halfway between the pseudo-Superman arm pose I use now and the Wayne’s World pose (T-rex arms?). Apparently that will help my arms not get fatigued so quickly.
Oh, and because I was so frustrated with my work today, I didn’t bother grabbing the videos. Nobody wants to see those. Even my mom. But, like Schwarzenegger, I’ll be back.