Mad Hatter celebrates it!

[Mad Hatter]

Given the impending doom and all this might seem like an odd challenge title. 😊

 

It comes from a lovely article by my pole crush Marlo Fisken that I won't try to paraphrase, but it made me go "Yes! This is how I want to approach movement." I want to celebrate it and flow and enjoy it. And it doesn't just apply to movement, but to everything. It's not very easy to do when you're under lockdown, but it makes it even more important to try and make those moments of celebration happen.

 

At the same time I watched this amazing, completely unrelated, video which to me embodies that article. Even if you're not into free running you might still see that it oozes joy and creativity. Yes there's high level tricks, but it's not about that. It made me realize that, if I had to choose, I'd rather flow badly than do single tricks well and that it's not worth waiting for until I'm good enough to do so.

 

 

My thoroughly unsmart goals:

 

Keep drawing

Keep moving

Have a dance party

Don't make it a chore, celebrate it!

No politics.

[Mad Hatter]

Oh and I wanted to add that if anyone needs help or a chat or whatever feel free to reach out. I'm mostly doing ok, but I know many of you are not. ❤️

[@mu]

To LIFE!

[WhiteGhost]

22 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

dance party

I presume we are all invited?

 

[Lara]

Here to celebrate!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Dance Party!

[starsapart]

Love it! I am going to try to reflect some of this positivity by hanging out here and supporting you.

 

[SymphonicDan]

Following! (Just... very slowly because I can't leave my house)

 

Is your dance party going to be in Finland? Or have you moved?

[Mad Hatter]

Of course everyone's invited! 😄

 

1 hour ago, SymphonicDan said:

Following! (Just... very slowly because I can't leave my house)

 

Is your dance party going to be in Finland? Or have you moved?

Hiii welcome back!!!

 

I'm starting the party in Finland, but it's global. 😉Still plodding along for now, but I've been having a minor meltdown about that lately so we'll see for how long. 😛

[Mad Hatter]

Yesterday I had a blast learning low flow pole moves. It looks deceptively easy in the videos, but this is much closer to reality. 😅

 

So I've decided to start posting on IG again, mainly to shut people up. And also since I can't use my "I don't wanna film in class" excuse anymore haha. With this crappy attempt to get rid of any subconscious pressure. 😛

 

I also did backbends which was nice, but still hard. One day I'll get back to my old level!

 

In the evening I fell into the rabbit hole of reading news and deeply regretted it. Right now there's nothing I can do besides avoiding people so there's no point in making myself upset. Hence the no politics goal. 

 

Today I did handstands and worked for too long. Again. But at least I finished the new thing that I tore apart! Again.

[Tobbe]

Dance party!

 

 

[Mike Wazowski]

No politics / news solidarity! I think at this point, I really need to just cut all that out of my life except for the bare bones of staying informed on city / state / country orders changing actions, and that's about it. Nothing else I can do but keep myself healthy to help this effort.

[Scaly Freak]

Here for the dance party. Obviously.  

 

 

 

[Harriet]

Here for art, joyous flipping, and to dance. 

[Love_Of_Snuggles]

16 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Given the impending doom and all this might seem like an odd challenge title. 😊

 

It comes from a lovely article by my pole crush Marlo Fisken that I won't try to paraphrase, but it made me go "Yes! This is how I want to approach movement." I want to celebrate it and flow and enjoy it. And it doesn't just apply to movement, but to everything. It's not very easy to do when you're under lockdown, but it makes it even more important to try and make those moments of celebration happen.

 

At the same time I watched this amazing, completely unrelated, video which to me embodies that article. Even if you're not into free running you might still see that it oozes joy and creativity. Yes there's high level tricks, but it's not about that. It made me realize that, if I had to choose, I'd rather flow badly than do single tricks well and that it's not worth waiting for until I'm good enough to do so.

 

 

My thoroughly unsmart goals:

 

Keep drawing

Keep moving

Have a dance party

Don't make it a chore, celebrate it!

No politics.

 

 

[Suzaqu]

New challenge dance party! 

 

[Elastigirl]

I love this all so much! The article, the video, n mostly you saying that you've discovered you'd rather flow badly than do single tricks well. I think we see people doping those huge tricks, and are of course impressed, but what we fail to see if that part of what impresses us is just their sheer joy in movement. 

[Mad Hatter]

Yaaaaay glad you're all joining in!

 

8 hours ago, Mike Wazowski said:

No politics / news solidarity! I think at this point, I really need to just cut all that out of my life except for the bare bones of staying informed on city / state / country orders changing actions, and that's about it. Nothing else I can do but keep myself healthy to help this effort.

Exactly.

 

2 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

I love this all so much! The article, the video, n mostly you saying that you've discovered you'd rather flow badly than do single tricks well. I think we see people doping those huge tricks, and are of course impressed, but what we fail to see if that part of what impresses us is just their sheer joy in movement. 

Yay I'm glad you see it too! Of course you also need to build up the skills to be able to flow, and to have more options, but you can enjoy the flow without having a high skill repertoire.

 

Another thing that made me think about this is that while I miss my free running and HS classes, I honestly don't miss my tumbling class that much. And I think part of it is that even if if I learn to do a flip, it will be on a soft bouncy floor and I won't be able to do anything with it. Or at least not for a very long time while I learn to connect it with something. I still really want to learn, but there are so many other fun things to learn. Things that will allow me to have more fun sooner, while gradually building up my comfort levels in more powerful movements and more intuitively learn to use momentum. For example I love the little rolls and transitions you see in free running videos like the one I posted. And one of my coaches sometimes builds entire flows from movements like that, it's not parkour or free running anymore but it looks both great and super fun. And on pole I definitely prefer the low flow stuff, it hurts a lot less. 😂(I say as both my shoulders and elbows are bruised haha.)

 

And I think the same thing applies to drawing. It's easy for me to do exercises, because it's useful and I don't feel pressure to have to come up with something, and then not botch whatever I have in my head. But then I always seem to have more fun botching my ideas... 🤔

[@mu]

It's a pretty flow, lots of movement synchronization, that's the bit looking very challenging to me 😛

 

1 hour ago, Mad Hatter said:

And I think part of it is that even if if I learn to do a flip, it will be on a soft bouncy floor and I won't be able to do anything with it.

 

It's also nice to have a lock-down-friendly practice, with minimal equipment and safety requirements.

[Lara]

15 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

In the evening I fell into the rabbit hole of reading news and deeply regretted it. Right now there's nothing I can do besides avoiding people so there's no point in making myself upset. Hence the no politics goal. 

I'm having the same problem. Being at home is not that bad in the end, but every time I take a peek at the news (specially if I go through the commentaries) I end up feeling anxious and way too worried.

[KB Girl]

On 3/23/2020 at 7:59 AM, Mad Hatter said:

I want to celebrate it and flow and enjoy it.

Yes! so much yes 

[raptron]

💃

[sylph]

❤️

[Mad Hatter]

9 hours ago, @mu said:

It's a pretty flow, lots of movement synchronization, that's the bit looking very challenging to me 😛

 

 

It's also nice to have a lock-down-friendly practice, with minimal equipment and safety requirements.

Exactly, it's not hard as such, but there are loads of little details to figure out and then remember in order to not roll over on your back. 😄It's fun!

 

True! Though I do kinda wish I had a gymnastics crash mat right now. 😛My climbing one turned out to be a good idea in theory but not that useful in practice. But I'm very happy that I have toys and space at home.

 

7 hours ago, zenLara said:

I'm having the same problem. Being at home is not that bad in the end, but every time I take a peek at the news (specially if I go through the commentaries) I end up feeling anxious and way too worried.

Yeah it's really not worth it. Stress is terrible for health too. 😉

 

6 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Yes! so much yes 

🤗

[Mad Hatter]

Here are some handstands from yesterday. Sorry about the cropped legs, I wasn't planning on turning it into a video. But you can see what happens when I get progressively more tired, as well as my sad attempts at being like @@mu trying 7s. 😂Clearly I have work to do hahaha. 

 

 

This morning I did my handstand homework exercise. 🤓My teacher had sent out an email to everyone with a little lesson plan and YT video links of stuff the school's been filming in the past few days, which I think is cool. He's also very sweet and added his contact details in case anyone wants to chat or whatever.

 

 

Afterwards I started working on my press exercises, but I had dawdled too much and only managed to do the high press section before work. (The program is split up into three parts: high press, i.e. pressing from the floor, low press, that is the bottom of a Stalder press, and pancake flex) Today's exercises were a little easier, I even did the highest rep range on one of them instead of the lowest. 😛

 

Both yesterday and today I spent more time inside because it's cold and windy, and working too much, and I've been feeling quite lethargic in the evenings, despite dance parties. Tomorrow I'm going to make sure to start late and finish early to compensate, as maintaining a high enough energy level to do fun stuff is key to keeping my sanity. I might seem all positive, but if it wasn't already obvious it's a defense mechanism to prevent me from spiraling.