JUDO CHOP!!

JUDO CHOP!!

This past Tuesday I got a chance to be a “crash test dummy.” At least a little bit of one, a very uncoordinated one at that. Not that “crash test dummies” are supposed to have any coordination, or even really be able to do anything that involves coordination at all….

To get back to this past Tuesday’s events, we got a chance to work on our crashing reflexes at a local Judo place, dojo, or whatever the technical term for it is…yes, I’m being a bit ignorant here, but that is besides the point (there really isn’t one). The basic idea was to work on developing reflexes for crashing that didn’t involve just planting your hand onto the ground and breaking your wrist, collar bone, or whatever else. Use your whole body, from your pinky finger to your toes. The whole thing was really simple, but very good to do. I know, you are probably asking why are you worrying about crashing? You should be worrying about racing your bike! Well, I’m sorry if I’m the one to inform you but if you “race” a bike you will inevitably crash. In my mind losing any fears of it will cause you to crash less, and when you do, crash better (safer). So you can “live to ride another day.”

I really haven’t done any of this flying through the air and tumbling stuff since my wrestling “career” in high school. My general comments lay along the lines of….training to be a cyclist, is training to be a cyclist and nothing else. You are not in shape for anything else! The evening started with some warm-up stuff that a few years ago would have been a cake walk…now I just felt incredibly uncoordinated and after a few times of rolling up and down the mats I couldn’t even stand up, literally. The whole frickin’ place was spinning! Things progressed from there to jumping over bikes and landing etc. Next Thursday we are supposed to go through actually crashing the bike…I’ll keep y’all posted. Maybe I will be a little less sore the next day as well.