HP #31 - Valar Fallghulis
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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"Valar Fallghulis" or "all men must fall." (Or "all people" for the modern thinker, but those that don't get the reference need to pop to their nearest bookstore and look for the George R. R. Martin section!)
I have always embraced the spirit of falling in skating, indeed 'falling is learning' has become my personal motto. It will never stop happening, even the professionals are dropping here and there, so we might as well welcome it and use it as the learning experience that it is. However, even though I know everyone does it, it still came as something of a surprise when, one typical lesson, the Tammasaurus tumbled to the ground.
We were discussing the loop jump, which we'd only started a week or so ago (after I'd cheekily demonstrated that I'd secretly been practising it before we'd officially looked at it together) and she was trying to illustrate the kind of position I wanted my free leg in as I took off.
"So, kind of crossed like this, so when you work on the double loop you'll have the right position," she proceeded to illustrate the concept of multi rotation by spinning away a few times in the position she had indicated.
Woomf. Valar Fallghulis.
Suddenly she was on the floor. I looked down shocked as my mentor sat on her bum on the ice. All people must fall, but how could my precious mentor and titani-saur (not a word) of skating knowledge be the one rubbing her behind? Sure, I'd fallen plenty of times while learning, but that was to be expected, I'm the learner after all. She certainly knew what it was like to fall, I had no doubt, but she was my role model, she could do no wrong!
I was forced to leave my idolatry aside as more pressing social issues came to the fore: what was I supposed to do in this situation? The Tammasaurus laughed, which I took as my cue to laugh in return, then I approached a weird conundrum: do I offer her my hand up? Some chivalrous, young man part of me said "yes, godammit! Help up that maiden! Not even necessarily as a symbol of some bygone age you're too young to even know anyway, but because people are nice and help others in our world!" except the Tammasaurus isn't some damsel-in-distress, she's a strong, independent woman, she don't need no man. She's fallen plenty in her life and she hasn't once offered to help me up since I've worked with her - something I strongly suspected was rooted in some psychological motivation to reinforce to the skater that if they can get back up then they are capable of overcoming the challenges of the sport, or perhaps it's simply a convenient and simple way of checking the medical state of a faller: if they don't/can't get up then you know you've got problems! There's also the fact that helping people up on the ice is both challenging and probably more dangerous than just letting them get up by themselves - perhaps she simply didn't want to insult my masculinity? Regardless, if she wasn't helping me up (which I was more than fine with) then should I still not help her up?
Isn't it amazing all the things that can go through your head in such a short space of time? The concepts of all the above, but perhaps in not as much detail, had already flashed through my head, yet none of it was bringing me any closer to my conclusion as to what to do.
I stood paralysed, still mentally wrestling with the social conundrum, when I noticed that the Tammasaurus was already back on her feet and the lesson had resumed.
Oh well, it's the thought that counts, right?
-------------------------
"Valar Fallghulis" or "all men must fall." (Or "all people" for the modern thinker, but those that don't get the reference need to pop to their nearest bookstore and look for the George R. R. Martin section!)
I have always embraced the spirit of falling in skating, indeed 'falling is learning' has become my personal motto. It will never stop happening, even the professionals are dropping here and there, so we might as well welcome it and use it as the learning experience that it is. However, even though I know everyone does it, it still came as something of a surprise when, one typical lesson, the Tammasaurus tumbled to the ground.
We were discussing the loop jump, which we'd only started a week or so ago (after I'd cheekily demonstrated that I'd secretly been practising it before we'd officially looked at it together) and she was trying to illustrate the kind of position I wanted my free leg in as I took off.
"So, kind of crossed like this, so when you work on the double loop you'll have the right position," she proceeded to illustrate the concept of multi rotation by spinning away a few times in the position she had indicated.
Woomf. Valar Fallghulis.
Suddenly she was on the floor. I looked down shocked as my mentor sat on her bum on the ice. All people must fall, but how could my precious mentor and titani-saur (not a word) of skating knowledge be the one rubbing her behind? Sure, I'd fallen plenty of times while learning, but that was to be expected, I'm the learner after all. She certainly knew what it was like to fall, I had no doubt, but she was my role model, she could do no wrong!
I was forced to leave my idolatry aside as more pressing social issues came to the fore: what was I supposed to do in this situation? The Tammasaurus laughed, which I took as my cue to laugh in return, then I approached a weird conundrum: do I offer her my hand up? Some chivalrous, young man part of me said "yes, godammit! Help up that maiden! Not even necessarily as a symbol of some bygone age you're too young to even know anyway, but because people are nice and help others in our world!" except the Tammasaurus isn't some damsel-in-distress, she's a strong, independent woman, she don't need no man. She's fallen plenty in her life and she hasn't once offered to help me up since I've worked with her - something I strongly suspected was rooted in some psychological motivation to reinforce to the skater that if they can get back up then they are capable of overcoming the challenges of the sport, or perhaps it's simply a convenient and simple way of checking the medical state of a faller: if they don't/can't get up then you know you've got problems! There's also the fact that helping people up on the ice is both challenging and probably more dangerous than just letting them get up by themselves - perhaps she simply didn't want to insult my masculinity? Regardless, if she wasn't helping me up (which I was more than fine with) then should I still not help her up?
Isn't it amazing all the things that can go through your head in such a short space of time? The concepts of all the above, but perhaps in not as much detail, had already flashed through my head, yet none of it was bringing me any closer to my conclusion as to what to do.
I stood paralysed, still mentally wrestling with the social conundrum, when I noticed that the Tammasaurus was already back on her feet and the lesson had resumed.
Oh well, it's the thought that counts, right?
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