HP #27 - Brain processing capacity at 100%
Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See my first HP post for the full notes on these.
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"So you see, it's more like this," the Tammasaurus proceeded to execute the step sequence that she'd been trying to teach me. When I say "step sequence" then I don't want you to imagine a complex intertwining of wondrous and challenging skating finesse, so I'll confess it was just alternating mohawks with crossovers we were doing as an exercise. As usual though, I was utterly incapable of stringing them together - coordination has never been my strong point.
My mohawks were scrappy and bad most of the time, we'd been using them as the entry for my consecutive backward edge practise and I always imagined the Tammasaurus cringing as I scraped my way through the mohawk entry. Now she was expecting me to do the mohawk nicely and add a crossover on the end, which shouldn't even be that complicated but my uncoordinated self just couldn't put it together. Where even were my arms meant to be in all this? My shoulders were all wrong (this I knew) and I was meant to change their facing at some point, but who knew... right?!
She tried to make it easier and we just did the alternating mohawks to get used to the shoulder rotation and that felt a little better, so we returned to stringing it all together again. I still wasn't getting it so she launched into another demonstration to give me a better idea of what my shoulders were meant to be doing.
Then it happened: my brain sent me a popup message.
ERROR: BRAIN PROCESSING CAPACITY NOW AT 100%. PLEASE ALLOW TIME FOR BRAIN TO WRITE CURRENT LEARNING TO MEMORY.
I instantly clicked through the error message like it was nothing - when you have a brain as corrupted as mine then it's a constant battle to keep error messages under control - and tried to focus on the Tammasaurus as she twirled and stepped in front of me. Her blades flashed as she weaved the steps seamlessly in front of me; her vibrant, neon pink snow pants winked at me with each turn. She added words to her art:
"See how I'm always facing the instep on the third beat of the reversed transitional shoulder edge that rotates into the counter push? This helps hold your body in the checked forward-reverse layback position that brings the rocker-3s into the Kilian hold through the medium of the 5-step mohawk."
What? I was certain I was meant to understand what I'd heard, but I was also pretty sure what I had heard was total rubbish, so I sent a memo up to my brain to get on with processing what was going on. The reply came back surprisingly fast under the circumstances.
ERROR: BRAIN BUSY. NO TIME FOR TRANSLATING AND LEARNING RIGHT NOW. CHECK BACK LATER. VITAL LIFE PROCESSES ARE BEING PRIORITISED.
So the Tammasaurus was making total sense but my full-up brain had stopped interpreting and translating what was going on into something I would understand. I was still seeing the actions, something was definitely unfolding before me, but I could no longer even assign names to the moves. I had absolutely no concrete idea of what in particular I was meant to be looking at or focusing on. I wasn't even entirely sure which foot was she on. Which leg was pushing? Which foot was mohawking? Is that even a word? Where did the crossover start and end? Where were her shoulders exactly?
This doesn't happen a lot, but I definitely exhaust my capacity for learning in some of my lessons and just have to stagger through until my brain unclogs (typically when we change exercise). It's such a bizarre sensation though, I can perceive everything that's going on but my brain has given up trying to actually learn anything and I'm just left appreciating the fine footwork like a layman observer when I know I should really know better!
Hey-ho! I just shelve those moments for a later practice session in my own time in order to decrypt what I was meant to be doing!
-------------------------
"So you see, it's more like this," the Tammasaurus proceeded to execute the step sequence that she'd been trying to teach me. When I say "step sequence" then I don't want you to imagine a complex intertwining of wondrous and challenging skating finesse, so I'll confess it was just alternating mohawks with crossovers we were doing as an exercise. As usual though, I was utterly incapable of stringing them together - coordination has never been my strong point.
My mohawks were scrappy and bad most of the time, we'd been using them as the entry for my consecutive backward edge practise and I always imagined the Tammasaurus cringing as I scraped my way through the mohawk entry. Now she was expecting me to do the mohawk nicely and add a crossover on the end, which shouldn't even be that complicated but my uncoordinated self just couldn't put it together. Where even were my arms meant to be in all this? My shoulders were all wrong (this I knew) and I was meant to change their facing at some point, but who knew... right?!
She tried to make it easier and we just did the alternating mohawks to get used to the shoulder rotation and that felt a little better, so we returned to stringing it all together again. I still wasn't getting it so she launched into another demonstration to give me a better idea of what my shoulders were meant to be doing.
Then it happened: my brain sent me a popup message.
ERROR: BRAIN PROCESSING CAPACITY NOW AT 100%. PLEASE ALLOW TIME FOR BRAIN TO WRITE CURRENT LEARNING TO MEMORY.
I instantly clicked through the error message like it was nothing - when you have a brain as corrupted as mine then it's a constant battle to keep error messages under control - and tried to focus on the Tammasaurus as she twirled and stepped in front of me. Her blades flashed as she weaved the steps seamlessly in front of me; her vibrant, neon pink snow pants winked at me with each turn. She added words to her art:
"See how I'm always facing the instep on the third beat of the reversed transitional shoulder edge that rotates into the counter push? This helps hold your body in the checked forward-reverse layback position that brings the rocker-3s into the Kilian hold through the medium of the 5-step mohawk."
What? I was certain I was meant to understand what I'd heard, but I was also pretty sure what I had heard was total rubbish, so I sent a memo up to my brain to get on with processing what was going on. The reply came back surprisingly fast under the circumstances.
ERROR: BRAIN BUSY. NO TIME FOR TRANSLATING AND LEARNING RIGHT NOW. CHECK BACK LATER. VITAL LIFE PROCESSES ARE BEING PRIORITISED.
So the Tammasaurus was making total sense but my full-up brain had stopped interpreting and translating what was going on into something I would understand. I was still seeing the actions, something was definitely unfolding before me, but I could no longer even assign names to the moves. I had absolutely no concrete idea of what in particular I was meant to be looking at or focusing on. I wasn't even entirely sure which foot was she on. Which leg was pushing? Which foot was mohawking? Is that even a word? Where did the crossover start and end? Where were her shoulders exactly?
This doesn't happen a lot, but I definitely exhaust my capacity for learning in some of my lessons and just have to stagger through until my brain unclogs (typically when we change exercise). It's such a bizarre sensation though, I can perceive everything that's going on but my brain has given up trying to actually learn anything and I'm just left appreciating the fine footwork like a layman observer when I know I should really know better!
Hey-ho! I just shelve those moments for a later practice session in my own time in order to decrypt what I was meant to be doing!
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