Dance! - The Road to Heavies: The end of 2013 - March 2014
Exhausted from trying, I don't even dare to practice any step at all, at the end of 2013. My shoes are still securely stowed in my closet and I wasn't planning on taking them out anytime soon.
Even so, I still search for 'Irish dance' on YouTube once in a while. Somewhere deep inside, the subject won't let me go.
Finally, a jump-rope
Shortly after the beginning of the new year, I find again the urge to keep trying. Especially my fitness has to change if I want to be making progress again.
While on my holiday I see a professional jump-rope kit at the Aldi supermarket and decide to go for it. For only 10 Euro, I can hardly go wrong with that.
I was hoping to be practicing on the holidaypark in the open air, but the weather isn't that good. Moving some furniture in the holiday-home proves to be providing enough space to jump in home, allthough it being very careful on my dance-sneakers, as the stone tiles are rocksolid.
The first few times I start jumping, I quickly fail. After 2 or 3 jumps, I trip over the rope.
I wasn't good at this in the past. Rope-skipping went quite allright as long as someone else was turning the rope around. Jumping over it ánd turning the rope myself just wasn't my piece of cake.
Sore muscles!
If I try again a day later, I'm able to do 20 jumps in a row, without stepping on the rope once. The 'blow' comes the day after. I get out of bed completely broken. Deary me, what sore muscles am I having! This clearly needs work. It probably doesn't help I also walked 10 kilometers that same day, but than again, the muscles in the middle of especially my right foot hurt like mad.
A few days after that, I have already improved and I can even do 100 jumps on a higher speed, without jumping in between.
Though I didn't expect to have an opportunity to practice on my heavy shoes, I do have them with me. Every once in a while I grab them from the bag, look at them and let the smell of leather reach my nose. I will be able to do something on them sometime...
Heavy shoes back in sight
Once back home I place my heavy shoes in my closet, but in such a way I can see them when I open it. They are staring at me and it starts to become a kind of love-hate relationship. They seem to challenge me: 'You can not do it...'
Though I tried before, I do place my feet in them while at home. As mentioned earlier, the floor is extremely slippery and I would call it dangerous to do so.
Slowly I get to the point that with a lot of practice in strength, I have the power to lift the ball of my feet slightly off from the floor and only the tip and heel are in contact with it.
Fi-nal-ly: the treble
It is not until halfway January that suddenly the 'treble' hits me. It was shown to me in one of the classes as one of the first real steps, but I was pursued to start with the basic movement first.
Besides, a treble was just too hard to do. No matter how many times I tried, every time my legs almost literally tangled up and I just didn't understand how I would ever be able to do that.
While drying the dishes, it suddenly hits me and I immediately stop and put the plate I'm drying, away. I try to dance it on my socks and no way! I can do it! It's not a fluid step at all yet and I have to find my balance all the time, but the basis is here.
But hell... that takes some speed ánd power, doing a treble. And than I'm doing this on a very low speed. My admiration for all those professionals and all those people who are in this as a 'hobby' grows more and more every time.
At the end of March, I get my practice-floor back as I got a job again, at the same company as last year. Now I gained some strength, I immediately try to repeat the treble on my heavies but there is still a difference like night and day between practicing on my socks and practicing on my shoes. Especially getting up on the tips of my shoes will take quite some practice and the treble is rubbish.