Mad Hatter sets it all on fire. Slowly. Part I.

[Captain Gilly]

7 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Yesterday felt like having a lazy ass Sunday so that’s exactly what I did.

 

Those are well deserved days, I am glad that you were able to have one. 

[Mad Hatter]

1 hour ago, LostValkyrie19 said:

Those are well deserved days, I am glad that you were able to have one. 

I have no problems taking those days!  The joys of having near zero responsibilities.  

[lucky fire dragon]

sounds like a very wonderful day! Hanging out with friends and good books are also part of mental health aren't they? Yay sketching!

[Mad Hatter]

We totally derailed tumbling class today, by making the coach teach us ninja kip ups instead of what we were supposed to be doing.  Didn't quite get it, but I got hang of the mechanics. I also did dive cartwheels, round offs and a sequence on the trampoline, which was super fun. One girl (of the two girls besides me) was jokingly wondering why this back handspring class was so much fun compared to normal. When I told her this was acro 1 and not BHS class so was like "Oooh it's fun because I didn't have to do scary shit all day" (paraphrasing). She made an excellent point.

 

To my disappointment, my regular handstand class got cancelled because it's winter break for schools here. Buuut then my teacher spontaneously decided to teach a two and a half hour workshop in the same time slot - for free! WIN! Pretty stoked.

 

I also managed to reach an all new level of stupid injuries. I was changing bedsheets, and somehow crushed my pinky with the tip in hyper extension, with my own hand. IMMA GENIUS!

[starsapart]

1 hour ago, Mad Hatter said:

I also managed to reach an all new level of stupid injuries. I was changing bedsheets, and somehow crushed my pinky with the tip in hyper extension, with my own hand. IMMA GENIUS!

 

YEOWCH

[Scaly Freak]

6 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I also managed to reach an all new level of stupid injuries. I was changing bedsheets, and somehow crushed my pinky with the tip in hyper extension, with my own hand. IMMA GENIUS!

 

That sounds beyond painful. OUCH.

[Tobbe]

9 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I also managed to reach an all new level of stupid injuries. I was changing bedsheets, and somehow crushed my pinky with the tip in hyper extension, with my own hand. IMMA GENIUS!

 

 

Could have been worse  

[raptron]

22 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

To my disappointment, my regular handstand class got cancelled because it's winter break for schools here. Buuut then my teacher spontaneously decided to teach a two and a half hour workshop in the same time slot - for free! WIN! Pretty stoked.

Ahhh, sweet! 

 

I love that you shared how you're feeling about where you're at in your intro post this challenge. I'm happy to supply s'mores for the fire. 😁

[KB Girl]

Those drawings are great! Way to take inspiration from Harriet too, sounds like a really good day

Isn't it lovely how things sometimes work out? you left your shoes at another gym, got to chat and hang out with friends instead, and now your shoulders will be able to handle the impromptu free 2,5 hour handstand workshop

 

[karinajean]

On 2/16/2020 at 2:38 PM, Mad Hatter said:

Because pants are evil.

 

 

here for pants are evil!

 

oh and for you too. especially for you.

[Mad Hatter]

Haha the finger really isn't too bad, I mostly found it amusing that my level of stupid injuries has reached an all new high.

 

On 2/18/2020 at 6:41 PM, raptron said:

I love that you shared how you're feeling about where you're at in your intro post this challenge. I'm happy to supply s'mores for the fire. 😁

Excellent, how could I possibly say no to any sweets you make?  

 

19 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Those drawings are great! Way to take inspiration from Harriet too, sounds like a really good day

Isn't it lovely how things sometimes work out? you left your shoes at another gym, got to chat and hang out with friends instead, and now your shoulders will be able to handle the impromptu free 2,5 hour handstand workshop

Thanks!

 

It ended up ok.  My climbing is very light these days though so my shoulders would've been just fine. Unless I did something stupid again. Which admittedly is very likely these days. And not worth the tradeoff - right now I'm just way more into flips and handstands than climbing and my shoulders are precious.

 

18 hours ago, karinajean said:

 

here for pants are evil!

 

oh and for you too. especially for you.

KJ!! So happy to see your face around here. ❤️

[Mad Hatter]

The bonus handstand class was excellent, super fun! It turned out that this bonus class was the same as the workshop they've been advertising, one that I decided not to go to as it seemed like it was too advanced to get my money's worth - it was quite pricey. But now I got it for free, win!

 

We worked on side bends (ok with a spot), handstand hops (kinda got the hang of it), air babies (nope) and prep for lifting up from elbow lever/croc into HS (hah!). And my new favourite thing - flags! We did it with a heavy spot, and on two hands obviously, but typically it's done on one arm and looks like the photo. Or rather, this is the variation that was the closest to what we were doing, there are many beautiful variations.

 

I loved it, as the torso and hip opened up it felt like I was going, ummm... upside down. While upside down 🤔It's very confusing and very interesting and I'd love to learn it freestanding one day.

 

My body feels surprisingly fine after almost three hours of training, but I didn't sleep quite long enough to recover mentally and I was rather cranky at work all day. My boss annoyed the shit out of me by singing the same stupid song all day, and by being overly cautious and making me change a thing I implemented. It could also be me not caring, but I'm pretty sure he was being unreasonable. 😉

[starsapart]

That sounds like a really neat class! Would love to see pics of you doing the amazing things as well!

[raptron]

2 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

The bonus handstand class was excellent, super fun! It turned out that this bonus class was the same as the workshop they've been advertising, one that I decided not to go to as it seemed like it was too advanced to get my money's worth - it was quite pricey. But now I got it for free, win!

SCORE.

That shape looks so gorgeous. I attempted a couple partner acro/elbow balance of similar shapes at the last open gym I went to -- with two arms of course. It's so tricky! And so cool! (Unfortunately, the acro workshops are now almost twice as expensive as they were last year, but they start doing free outdoor jams again when it is warm out, so I might try again in the summer.) 

 

[Charlie_Quinn]

Late to the party, but here to watch you burn it all down

[Mad Hatter]

21 hours ago, starsapart said:

That sounds like a really neat class! Would love to see pics of you doing the amazing things as well!

I'll try! I don't tend to have my phone in class, and my skills are quite low at the moment, but I've received enough complaints about my lack of social media posting that I'm planning on making an effort.  

 

21 hours ago, raptron said:

SCORE.

That shape looks so gorgeous. I attempted a couple partner acro/elbow balance of similar shapes at the last open gym I went to -- with two arms of course. It's so tricky! And so cool! (Unfortunately, the acro workshops are now almost twice as expensive as they were last year, but they start doing free outdoor jams again when it is warm out, so I might try again in the summer.) 

It is! There's a one arm HS variety where you grab the bent leg that I absolutely adore. 

Neat that you played with it in acro class. Honestly I wouldn't even be able to reproduce it now even if I had the balance, there was so much bending and twisting and extending going on.  

Boo for expensive classes. When you stick to one thing it's kinda ok, but as soon as you want to play with different things it can get real expensive real fast...

 

5 hours ago, Charlie_Quinn said:

Late to the party, but here to watch you burn it all down

There's plenty of shit to burn left.  

[Mad Hatter]

Back handspring class today was good - I even got a high five from my teacher! He's very keen on me drilling basics, so I spent a large portion of my time doing handsprings over the rolly thingy. Uncharacteristically, I'm ok with taking it slow. I must be getting old.  But I feel like building confidence might be even more important than the technical skills, and drilling helps. Also, I can see his complaint that some of the kids always want to skip ahead, and even if they can do a skill, it's lacking when the basics are lacking. Seeing as I'll probably stay at a basic level forever, I might as well make them decent! Anyways, my attempts were much better and cleaner today, I still find them a bit slow, but my teacher said it's fine for now because the important thing is that they're clean. And most importantly, the Fear is nowhere to be seen!

[Mike Wazowski]

37 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

Back handspring class today was good - I even got a high five from my teacher! He's very keen on me drilling basics, so I spent a large portion of my time doing handsprings over the rolly thingy. Uncharacteristically, I'm ok with taking it slow. I must be getting old.  But I feel like building confidence might be even more important than the technical skills, and drilling helps. Also, I can see his complaint that some of the kids always want to skip ahead, and even if they can do a skill, it's lacking when the basics are lacking. Seeing as I'll probably stay at a basic level forever, I might as well make them decent! Anyways, my attempts were much better and cleaner today, I still find them a bit slow, but my teacher said it's fine for now because the important thing is that they're clean. And most importantly, the Fear is nowhere to be seen!

Your crotchety teacher is my spirit animal - I get so annoyed with some of my kiddos who want to skip ahead to stuff that's going to be a hot ole mess because they're missing some pre-reqs. Sounds like you're getting some great progress under him!!

 

Also, HIIIIIII!!!!!! Here for the fire. Assuming that's still the path you're going down and all that jazz.

[lucky fire dragon]

What an amazing class, squeeeeeee and to get it for free on top  you are a genius indeed for being at the right place at the right time  

 

Love the attitude about taking it slow and ensuring confidence and a solid foundation. It takes patience and all, but I believe it makes everything feel better, which is kind of the point isn't it.
You seem to progress very neatly in your classes anyhow.

[Mad Hatter]

21 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

Your crotchety teacher is my spirit animal - I get so annoyed with some of my kiddos who want to skip ahead to stuff that's going to be a hot ole mess because they're missing some pre-reqs. Sounds like you're getting some great progress under him!!

 

Also, HIIIIIII!!!!!! Here for the fire. Assuming that's still the path you're going down and all that jazz.

Hah crotchety is a nice descriptor. 😂It's great, except when you think you can do something and have to relearn things like a basic cartwheel from scratch because it's all garbage. 😒(But I still kinda like it.) 

 

So far the path involves fire. But it's going to be a slow burner for a while, it's still early in the year, and I have things to do, money to save etc...

 

3 hours ago, lucky fire dragon said:

What an amazing class, squeeeeeee and to get it for free on top  you are a genius indeed for being at the right place at the right time  

 

Love the attitude about taking it slow and ensuring confidence and a solid foundation. It takes patience and all, but I believe it makes everything feel better, which is kind of the point isn't it.
You seem to progress very neatly in your classes anyhow.

I wouldn't call it genius, it's just my teacher being very generous lately! 99% of the time it's me throwing cash into the wind.

 

It feels better, but sometimes it's less fun.

Yeah, I think so!

[Mad Hatter]

I snuck out early from work today to get a bit of extra training in. Hey it's Friday and I need to make use of my unlimited monthly pass!  

 

I had two classes back to back (they're only an hour each) and the first one was awesome. It was just me and one other girl I like that I've seen quite often in class. It was a level 2 class, so one level up for me, and at least one level down for her but that's not a problem because everyone gets their own things to do anyway. We started off with mixed stations doing basic everythings, and then I worked a lot of round offs. They started off atrocious, but once I started seeing them more as a handstand kick up than a cartwheel bringing legs together they started clicking. I only did them slowly from standing to drill it into my body, but it was nice to feel that I'm starting to understand the movement. I find round offs very interesting in that you can really tell if a gymnast has solid technique and coordination and timing, like a lot of people can power their way through for example a back tuck, but if you see them doing something suuuper basic as a round off everything immediately breaks down. As a muggle I might not be able to tell exactly why it looks good when a well trained gymnast does it, but it's very obvious that there is a difference in the movement quality and power and feel.

 

The second class was honestly a bit disappointing. Ok here's me being a SPOILED BRAT,  but there were three new beginners that I had to share with. And I didn't like it.  For one thing it made the rotations much slower, I'm usually on my own doing the beginner drills which means I can get a looot of reps in. Now I had to take turns, and I also didn't like being watched as I felt extra scrutinized, plus one of the guys was a total HOG which annoyed me. He also seemed to be giving directions and cues to his GF, which I don't think you should do as a beginner. It's fine to discuss, but IMO the teaching should be left to the teacher, especially for this highly technical work. The second thing was that I know my teacher wanted me to start doing the next set of progressions into the foam pit, but since he had to help the new people and couldn't give me the extra attention, he'd rather I worked with them. Principally I don't mind, but with three people and one hog doing the same drills it significantly cut into my training time, be it basics or new stuff. I did say that I'm a spoiled brat, right?  

[Mad Hatter]

Sketches by request! I just vented in @Harriet's thread about really struggling with drawing this week, so I'll spare you the additional whinging. I've done enough for today.  

 

Spoiler

Super buff lady that I didn't do justice - though I LOVE that they had a buff lady model!

 

Mostly really quick sketches <1 minute, 5 minutes for the last.

Why is everything so wrong? 😭

 

[Harriet]

6 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Sketches by request! I just vented in @Harriet's thread about really struggling with drawing this week, so I'll spare you the additional whinging. I've done enough for today.  

 

Whee! Sketches! Just gonna say some of the good stuff I see happening here.

Fig 1: you’ve used a single line for the spine, the hamstring, and the quad, and they’re nice lines. So your “vocabulary” as Kenzo would call it, is expanding.

Fi2 2: the simple line of the calf and those for the feet are looking good—you’ve suggested them without going overboard on detail.

Fig 5: I think the proportions are basically right and so is the posture.

Fig 6: same! She’s basically the same shape as the model was, and without lots of correcting lines.

Fig 7: you used just a few lines for the legs and the side of the face. More gesture vocab wins!

Fig 10: love the curve of the torso—it’s simple and suggestive, and you kept the distinctive asymmetry that characterises the pose.
Figs 11 & 12 Just gonna say that I struggled with these. 12 is the only pose in all of Figuary so far that I scribbled out in frustration and horror.

Fig 13: looks like you lost confidence here, because she’s hairy with lots of little lines. That sometimes happens to me in the longer sketches, too.

Fig 14 & 15: brush pen can be unforgiving, but I can see where you used single lines to suggest certain shapes like on the chest, so that’s good work.

Fig 16: Look at how you got the suggestion of a face with just a few lines. The collarbones, neck muscle and twist at the waist give me the information I need to understand her pose. You used little suggestions for the feet - vocab wins again!

[KB Girl]

The sketches look really good to me- especially the 1 min sketches are amazing for being done in that time. It looks to me like you're really making progress! and from that 1min batch I really like the one in the upper right corner. Purple sass. 

 

On 2/20/2020 at 7:22 PM, Mad Hatter said:

And most importantly, the Fear is nowhere to be seen!

Awesome! 

Sounds like a good teacher.

 

On 2/21/2020 at 6:18 PM, Mad Hatter said:

The second class was honestly a bit disappointing. Ok here's me being a SPOILED BRAT,  but there were three new beginners that I had to share with. And I didn't like it.  For one thing it made the rotations much slower, I'm usually on my own doing the beginner drills which means I can get a looot of reps in. Now I had to take turns, and I also didn't like being watched as I felt extra scrutinized, plus one of the guys was a total HOG which annoyed me. He also seemed to be giving directions and cues to his GF, which I don't think you should do as a beginner. It's fine to discuss, but IMO the teaching should be left to the teacher, especially for this highly technical work. The second thing was that I know my teacher wanted me to start doing the next set of progressions into the foam pit, but since he had to help the new people and couldn't give me the extra attention, he'd rather I worked with them. Principally I don't mind, but with three people and one hog doing the same drills it significantly cut into my training time, be it basics or new stuff. I did say that I'm a spoiled brat, right?  

Hah I get it! you're allowed  especially when you knew you were due for the next progressions! 

and the bolded stuff is just not okay, blah. HOGs are annoying enough without trying to play coach! 

[@mu]

Really enjoying the sketches too, I see a lot more assertiveness and precision in your lines. It's great!

 

On 2/21/2020 at 6:18 PM, Mad Hatter said:

He also seemed to be giving directions and cues to his GF, which I don't think you should do as a beginner.

 

Was he giving directions to other people as well, or just his GF (if so, that makes want to  🤮 ...)

 

I started working on flags a little because there are in Room 21 programme. So far I only managed a very very small ROM free standing (on 2 arms obviously). And it feels HEAVY. On Room 21 videos, they do them very deep. I felt like I was going super deep too. But on my video, it looked like I moved about 2 cm Super deceptive!