Sports: April 2006 Archives

The photo above is of me flipping to dismount. The rest of the photos are of members of my group. You can click them to enlarge, but there is no visible fear on our faces :)

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Normally, precocious seven year olds don't calm my nerves, but the three impatiently waiting for my morning trapeze class to begin did have a soothing effect. After all, if children half my size and with only a quarter of my life experience could do it, then so could I, I confidently thought to myself.

I was the first of our group to climb the ladder. I do not like heights. I am not deathly afraid of heights, but I am afraid, and I do not seek them out--I respect them. And so, I followed my rule of thumb on the way up: Do not look down. Of course, one does have to look down when standing with all 10 toes hanging off the platform, hands outstretched on a metal bar, body tilted at a 65 degree angle over empty space. An instructor grasps everyone's belt as they  hold this position and then commands "hep," which means "jump!"

And I was off, and it did feel a bit like flying, but there's little time to comprehend. Someone on the ground is yelling commands, and I moved through knees on the bar, hands off the bar, reaching for an invisible catch, hands back on the bar, knees off the bar, and then a quick leg thrust ending (if I did it right) with a flip dismount onto the bouncy net below. You'll notice that I did not scream or pee my pants, but I could see how either of those two reactions would be possible.

Once on the ground? Exhilaration. My muscles quivered a bit, my head spun, but I had done it, conquered some fear, managed to keep my wits while sailing through space, and landed in one piece. And so I repeated the experience, in turn, perhaps five more times before the test: the catch.

For the catch from an instructor on an opposing swinging bar, all the moves must be precise. You must jump when "hep" is called, you must move to knees around the bar quickly, and you must reach with all your might when you arc for the third time. On my first try, we missed (I'm sure I missed, but, hey, there were two of us). On the second, the instructor's grasp met my outstretched arms and he pulled me off the bar as we both swung off his bar and strength. Quite a feeling and definitely worth it.

For more info: Go to Trapeze School of New York. Classes range from $47-$65, with a one-time registration fee of $22. You only have to pay one registration fee if you pay for multiple people, however. When we went, they still had the tent around the rig, but when it gets warmer, you get to fly through the sky with the city as a backdrop.

So, I'm going trapezing this morning at the Trapeze School of New York. Not something I get to say often--actually this is the first time I've ever said that. Did I mention I'm not a big fan of heights? And yet, there's something exhilarating about the idea of swinging through the air on a bar. Will I have to ask someone to push me off that 23-foot platform for the first time (they say they won't on the website)? Will I scream the first time I fly through the air? Yesterday someone asked me if they made you wear helmets. I said no and mumbled something about a safety harness. Wish me luck!