Ah... summer. Let's cut right to the chase. After I got a job again in 2012, practice went down to almost zero. Especially after a busy day in the shop, my legs seem to be screaming for a chair at the end and not in my right mind do I think about practice after all that.

Halfway through June I get the energy back. Not so much in practicing steps, but mainly stretching and training certain muscles. Without thinking I daily take up a routine of stretching a whole bunch of muscles, after I trained a few muslces in my legs. It takes up 50 minutes to an hour, but I like to do so: I notice I make some progress: it's a slow progress, but it's there.

The 'hop'...

At the end of August, I'm finally able to take the right posture during the 'hop', allthough this takes quite a lot of effort.
For as far one can explain this posture: with both feet flat on the floor, with the heels together and the toes pointed outwards, both feet should be pointing outwards at about a 45 degree angle from your body center. You lift your right leg, but in doing so, you have to keep it pointed out at around 45 degrees.

Lift your leg to such extent that your knee passes an imaginary line that runs horizontal through both hips. Don't forget to stretch your foot and arch your toes!.
After that, you bend the knee - supposed to be above that imaginary hip-line - in such a way that your knee is exactly in front of the center of your body.

Your toes should now be pointing down and the right foot should be around the height of your left-knee, and is meant to hide it from view.
In that posture, the heel of your right foot should be pointing inwards.
If you think 'I can't do that', don't worry. It has taken me 10 months of stretching to be able to do this more or less and it still takes me so much effort that it's not a 'regular' move at all.

Taking control over cramps

Slowly I also notice how I can take control of cramps better now I stretch so often. Less and less I have to stop stretching a certain muscle as a severe cramp hits my leg. I'm better able to control and lower the tension in the muscle, to keep control over the matter.

Just an advice concerning the stretching: Put the TV or radio on something you like, because it's just plain boring...

Big lump...

'Not again...' Is the first thing that comes to my mind when I wake up one morning, throw my legs to the side of the bed and notice a big lump on the inside of my left foot.
I can already see myself walking to the fysiotherapist, but first decide to check how serious it is. I check my right foot for comparison and to my surprise, the same lump can be found in the exact same spot.
I arch my toes and notice that is has become a serious pile of muscles. Originated without noticing them and now suddenly apparent because of the size.

Reverse sit-ups (so that probably is a crunch...)

At some point I also notice how some muscles start to appear around my stomach area. My crunches are paying off. The only difference with a real crunch is that I do them lying down flat on my back, bringing my legs up in the air. This puts less strain on your back than a real crunch.
Some great energy has taken over: I will and shall show my teacher what I can do when the classes start again!

My left knee is acting up...

At some point, I decide to take things a little easier. My left knee starts to cause me some trouble. As I didn't start doing something different all of a sudden and I didn't change anything to routines in stretching and practices, I get the feeling the problem is down to something in daily life.
On a certain day, I notice how I leave the bus with a kind of jump, and immediately feel what is going wrong.

To be sure about it, I try to be aware how I leave the bus or tram for about 2 weeks in a row. Only than you find out how much you are not aware of such a normal movement. Not that it's a bad thing though, I think you will get exhausted straight away if you were 100% aware of every step you take.

When I leave a bus or tram, I almost always hit the ground with my left foot first. Because I either go left or right after exiting, I tend to place my left foot in a 45 degree angle to my body, in the direction where I want to go, after which I turn my body in the right direction.

When I start paying attention to this, the pain subsides and I can continue on doing what I want to.

I've outgrown my trousers...

Practicing has it's consequences. A pair of trousers I bought 5 months ago, has become too small by now. I just can't get my upper-legs in it anymore and around my calves, there are only a few centimeters left.

In the queue before the cash-out in a shop, I tend to get into 5th-position ever more often, if I'm not stretching my muscles for a while.
In the bus, I can stretch my legs a little or rotate my ankles around, to get them more loose bit by bit.
An unearthy spirit has gotten hold of me and I'm ready to show my teachers that I didn't sit down on my butt this summer!

No more classes in Haarlem

There is only little left when I hear that there won't be anymore classes in Haarlem because of a lack of students. Classes in The Hague, on a Saturdarymorning are mentioned as an option but as I have to work on a Saturday, that's out of the question.
I loose motivation one by one, allthough I keep up with the stretching. The real energy however, is gone.

I have gotten quite addicted to my dance-sneakers in the mean time. They are sooo comfortable!
I don't really like leaving work with a bag that hardly has anything in it, so I take my sneakers with me and put them on when I get to work in the shop.
Beside the support they give, they just have a comfortable fit and there is another factor that makes me wanting to wear them: height. I'm not incredibly tall measuring 1,72 meters (but I don't dislike it either), but the heel of my sneakers gives me about 2,5 centimeters of extra length, which is probably quite a lot for most males.

Back to square one

To cut right to the chase: eye-surgery I had to undergo on the 15th of November 2012, which had a very severe aftermath, takes me back to the beginning. My stamina is down to zero and all the strength and length in my muscles is reduced to nothing because of surgery that only lasted for an hour.

The last 1,5 months of 2012, I quit stretching and practice: I've got other things to deal with.
I slowly start in 2013, but the energy is gone before I know it. I have no idea when the next class will be, Haarlem probably won't have any classes anymore and a different location probably takes too much time to travel to.

To stay around in the scene, I do visit the Kilkenny Feis in 2013.

• Lesson 21. May 11, 2012
• April 4, 2013. The Kilkenny Feis

---