Gymnastics is Life, Danger Shop, Period 3

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Hello, I'm Parker, I really hope you meant to be here." She frowned a second and then said sternly, "If the moose sent you here against your will, you are free to leave. You don't have to humor the authorities. But I think you guys would get something out of this anyway."

Parker had sent out an email the night before, to meet in the Danger Shop today. And with Hardison's help, it was now a multi-layered playground of mats, rings, jungle gyms, hanging chains, and bouncy balls. The ceiling was open, with platforms staggering upward to a diving board onto a huge trampoline. Plus a smooshy ball-pit you could swing into on a rope.

All enhanced by being at half-gravity! Parker had been gleefully thrilled the day before to realize the potential in this for her class.

"Gymnastics is useful! It's good for your body, if you do it right, and don't break your face falling off a balance beam. It's good for your mind and your focus, if you don't pull a muscle in your butt. And it's good to impress people by putting your ankles behind your ears, like this." See?

"We'll get into more of that as the class goes on. And we're lucky! The Olympics are this year, so if they schedule stuff right, we might get a field trip to Rio to watch some of the events in August." Parker put her leg back down. "Today we're gonna start simple, with stretching. And some yoga poses. And me just generally figuring out how much help you're gonna need not to hurt yourself." She paused and added, "We'll use the rest of this equipment over the next few weeks, but if you want to explore it and ask for help today, I'm good with explaining."

"Oh! And if you don't know people, introduce yourself. Or don't. Or make up a name you want to be called, I have a few of those." She did a back-bend, then came up on her hands. "There's popcorn for everyone who at least tries. Sorry for last week, my boyfriend was a bear and we got distracted."

[ooc: comments going up!]

Comments

Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker started on the mats, making everyone sit on the floor, and then saying, "You can wear whatever you want, but this'll be easier if you're already wearing loose or stretchy clothes. Don't push the stretches past where it feels okay. Take it slow..."

Parker went through the stretches (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhVphYcXsag) slowly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5hBSzJGhkQ).

"All right, show me what you've got. Somersault, backbend, headstand, whatever you already know."

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[thewrathofkaan]

Roscoe should have planned his wardrobe better, because he was wearing a maxi skirt and platform wedges. He reluctantly took off the shoes and eyed the mat skeptically, wondering how in the hell he was going to manage to do somersaults and handstands in this skirt. (Look, he didn't care about flashing the class, but he was guessing the teacher would.)

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Problem?" Parker asked, wondering what was going on. That was a really cute skirt, Roscoe.

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[thewrathofkaan]

"Only if you don't want me flashing everyone," Roscoe said. "'Cause that's pretty much what's gonna happen."

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Well, I don't care if you don't," Parker said, then remembered she was the teacher. "But other people might. Hmmm." She paused and said, "Let's see some splits? And then I can teach you how to do a somersault without flashing people."

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo actually did quite a bit of stretching for AirTrek stuff, so that was pretty easy. From there, she went slowly through a couple of moves. Cartwheels and somersaults were a bit tricky. With ATs, you were generally going too fast for landing on your hands to be a good idea, so Ringo had to rely a ton on her natural balance and athleticism to pull them off.

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Okay, why does that look a little weird to me?" Parker said, more thinking out loud than asking.

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo blinked, then flushed, as she realized Parker was looking at her as she asked.

"Um, does it?"

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Because you're not supporting your weight on your hands enough," Parker answered herself out loud. She blinked. "Which is really advanced? But it looks more like you're not used to it."

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Oh." Ringo went from mildly worried to just sheepish. "Well, there aren't a lot of moves in AirTrek where planting your hands on anything is a good idea. Like, you can learnt to absorb 100 kilometer landings through your ATs with proper technique, but it's a good way to break a wrist if you use your hands."

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Ahhhhhh." Parker knew about her AirTrek enough from the last class Ringo took to be able to picture that. "Like doing parkour improperly. Okay. Hmm." She didn't want to limit Ringo, or teach her habits that wouldn't help, but... "Try a somersault again, with your hands and fingers spread. If we do this right, maybe you can get an extra edge without having to rely on your hands, so much as know how to use them if it comes up. Okay?"

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Okay." Ringo could give it a try!

And, fortunately for her, this was exactly the sort of stuff she was good at. She already had the body-control of a professional gymnast, even if she didn't have all the same skills.

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[kenselvren.livejournal.com]

Jalian did the stretches without an issue, then went into the opening movements of kartari that she still used to limber up before real practice.

If it looked a bit like a form of martial arts dedicated to knife-fighting, good guess!

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Parker stood in front of Jalian and started to mirror her. "Is there a name for this?"

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[kenselvren.livejournal.com]

"Kartari," Jalian answered, pleased to see Parker had no problems with it. "Ken Selvren youngsters learn it. I find it good for warming up."

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"I like it." Parker grinned. "How young were you when you started?" She'd need to drag Eliot into class time sometime, so he could see this, if Jalian hadn't already shown him. "It's a martial art, I can tell that much."

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[kenselvren.livejournal.com]

"For knives," Jalian agreed. "There is also Strike," she shifted to that, "for bare hands. I have done them for as long as I remember. Some children learn the starting moves before they master walking."

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Excellent." Parker grinned. "You shouldn't have any problems with what we'll do in this class. It's mostly beginner stuff, but I'm always going to leave time so people can practice more if they want to."

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[notamascot]

Kaylin was able to do the stretches easily and then worked her way through a set of exercises designed for hand to hand combat.

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

Another martial artist, one Parker remembered from their previous courses. "So, Kaylin, are there gymnasts where you're from?"

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[notamascot]

"I'm not sure what those are," Kaylin said, "But there are sort of people who do traveling shows and jump around and everything. Not where I grew up, obviously, but in Elantra."

She might have looked a little wistful. "The children like things like that."

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"We have circuses. And carnivals, that's what they're called here." Kaylin was always so serious, so focused. Maybe this could be a good thing in more than one way. "So, you can see what they do. The trampoline, the bouncy pit, all of it."

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[notamascot]

Kaylin seriously had no idea what trampolines or bouncy pits were. And she was pretty sure Parker wasn't talking about being trampled or actual bouncing pits. But it was Parker and she'd pretty much agree to walking on fire for her.

"Well... okay..."

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"Come on." Trampoline first! Because that required no skill or dignity. Parker showed Kaylin how to get on the trampoline without hurting yourself or bouncing off, then just jumped up a couple times. Then did the splits in the air. Then landed on her butt. "Get a feel for it. Do something silly!"

Re: Stretch! Bend! Fall!

[notcancelled.livejournal.com]

Mayday had some experience with gymnastics from back before basketball became her entire athletic ocus, and she kept up with the stretching to help her agility on the court. So both the stretches and some of the routines were pretty simple for her. Especially since she came dressed for a gymnastics class.