questions from the treadmill
My 11 year old son and I signed up for 4 sessions at the hockey performance center. It's a training facility used to mainly work on your skating. There is a teflon treadmill where you wear your ice skates, video cameras to analyze your skating technique and a variety of other training tools.
Now, I've been a pretty good skater most of my life. I was skating since I could walk and have been on the ice every year since. So, I go to this facility with not much expectation for improvement. You know where this is going.
I lace them up with anticipation and now it's my turn to get on the treadmill. The cameras are all set and the thing starts moving. I can hardly keep my balance and I'm flapping all over the place. I've shifted from cocky to I'm exceptionally self conscious. I can hardly skate and keep my balance. The trainer, Terry (he rocks!), starts talking to me about stride and nose, knees and toes. He shows some video of my 40 year old stride and starts taking it apart. It takes awhile cause there is so much to point out that's wrong. He starts giving me pointers and of course next time I get on I'm over thinking and that makes it all that much worse. But Terry laughs with me and keeps showing me and working with me. After the 3rd session, I had some resemblance of a stride that I can tell works much better on the ice.
At one point he showed me that I was stickhandling to my backhand in a way that would put my whole body off balance. With some help and tweaking we got it much better. I am more balanced, faster and more firm on my feet, thanks to Terry and the hockey performance center.
But this experience raises some questions like why did my cockiness put me in a good mood and my humiliation put me in a bad mood? Why can't we be in a good mood when we are aware of our weakness? Why did I think I didn't have anything to learn prior going to the trainer? I mean NHL players use something similar and they learn, why did I think I didn't have anything to learn? What is with that?
I wish I went to the trainer 20 years ago. I wish someone humiliated me and worked with my stride years ago.
I keep thinking how this relates to life. Who do we have that will observe our lives and tell us brutally honest things about our lives so that we can become more whole? Why is this something that is so rare and why is it when someone is honest with us and has our best interest in mind, do we become defensive? Can you relate?
Now, I've been a pretty good skater most of my life. I was skating since I could walk and have been on the ice every year since. So, I go to this facility with not much expectation for improvement. You know where this is going.
I lace them up with anticipation and now it's my turn to get on the treadmill. The cameras are all set and the thing starts moving. I can hardly keep my balance and I'm flapping all over the place. I've shifted from cocky to I'm exceptionally self conscious. I can hardly skate and keep my balance. The trainer, Terry (he rocks!), starts talking to me about stride and nose, knees and toes. He shows some video of my 40 year old stride and starts taking it apart. It takes awhile cause there is so much to point out that's wrong. He starts giving me pointers and of course next time I get on I'm over thinking and that makes it all that much worse. But Terry laughs with me and keeps showing me and working with me. After the 3rd session, I had some resemblance of a stride that I can tell works much better on the ice.
At one point he showed me that I was stickhandling to my backhand in a way that would put my whole body off balance. With some help and tweaking we got it much better. I am more balanced, faster and more firm on my feet, thanks to Terry and the hockey performance center.
But this experience raises some questions like why did my cockiness put me in a good mood and my humiliation put me in a bad mood? Why can't we be in a good mood when we are aware of our weakness? Why did I think I didn't have anything to learn prior going to the trainer? I mean NHL players use something similar and they learn, why did I think I didn't have anything to learn? What is with that?
I wish I went to the trainer 20 years ago. I wish someone humiliated me and worked with my stride years ago.
I keep thinking how this relates to life. Who do we have that will observe our lives and tell us brutally honest things about our lives so that we can become more whole? Why is this something that is so rare and why is it when someone is honest with us and has our best interest in mind, do we become defensive? Can you relate?
posted by mike vanderkwaak at
2:17 PM
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