Thursday, November 12, 2009
Dreams
In another lifetime, I used to be a fitness instructor (all my fellow CrossFitters who have witnessed me try to do a pull-up are all like "whaa-?"). I taught the cardio component of a martial art called "Krav Maga", or literally "contact combat" (it is exactly as it sounds). I felt like such a tough guy, flying down to LA to be trained and certified.
I came back all pumped and confident. Then I taught my first class. To say I sucked would be to understate it. In the mirror, as I lost the beat and tripped over my own feet again, I could see the frowns on the faces of my students, and an outright sneer on the face of one of the guys who had been royally pissed that I'd been selected to teach in the first place. I had just proven his point.
"You'll get better," my boss said, "it just takes time" (oh, the parallels I could draw with motherhood).
Despite how hard it was at the time, it's taken this many years for it to come out in my dreams. Yup, I am now having anxiety dreams about Krav Maga. In the dreams, I am called in to teach. It's been years, so I can't remember the steps. The students are waiting and I can tell they're better than me. I can't seem to get my arms and feet to move the right way. I can't remember the combinations. I'm out of shape and out of breath. My boss never shows up. I'm on my own.
I suppose in about five years I'll start having dreams about final exams that I forgot to study for.
As a side note, when I was training in LA they were really big into the keeping it overly positive and making contact with our students to encourage them. You know, a touch on the shoulder, a pat on the back, a hand on the arm to enforce a movement. That "touch is essential" was hammered into our heads and we were even marked on it during our practical exam.
After a few weeks of teaching back in Canada, my boss pulled me aside and said, "the students don't want you to touch them. It makes them uncomfortable." I was mortified. Now I chalk it up to a cultural difference between LA and, well, the rest of the world.
posted by Working From Home Today
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