Kill Bill

Thursday's fly class, for some reason, seems a time to let one's hair down a bit, and try out some new things. Today's form of entertainment consisted of Jeff asking us to kill our swing and then build it up -- kill and build -- which I will from now on refer to as Kill Bill. Building a swing with little momentum is pretty hard. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I can do it. I was even more pleased to find that I do it using the Espana swing. Definitely something to play with some more, and to see how quickly I can build it up to a respectable height.

Also did uprise mod, at catch time. Choked on the mod, couldn't take it to the catcher, but the uprise is feeling a lot better. Definitely need to keep working on form, though, and ignoring the catcher.
Check it out:

(Am I the only one impressed that I figured this YouTube video posting thing out?)

I also wanted to say thank you to Jeff. Thank you for putting together this IFW program. I know that last year when we started, I probably griped more than anyone else, and certainly more than I had a right to. You took it all with good humor, took our criticisms (which were not always in the form of a sandwich) to heart, and kept working at modifying and improving the program, taking our needs/wants into consideration.

Last spring and summer, when you were pushing us to focus on basic skills, I took plenty of "stealth" classes to work on things that I thought were more fun, and even after we moved into Streb, I moaned and groaned that we weren't having fun. But... (and I hope you are keeping track, because I doubt you will hear me saying this again) you were right. My flying is stronger than it has ever been, as is my turn around, and my return. I get it now. I can take what I have learned from you and translate that to any rig, because my body can finally sense where it needs to be, and my mind finally can process all the stimulus coming at it during the swing.

So thank you for being an inspirational teacher, for the passion that you directed towards our improvement, your good natured attitude, even while being bombarded with criticism, and for your love of teaching us. I know that you will still be around a bit, but I won't be taking that many classes with you, and have to say that I will sorely miss having you as a teacher (especially since you have inspired me to learn the tricks that I have). I also wanted to say, since apparently it's a night for schmaltz, that beyond being an inspirational teacher, you are an inspirational human being. When Monte asked me for a referral, I had nothing but the highest praise for you. While originally he thought I was exaggerating, he has learned, through his association with you, that I was not. There are very few people that I have met that have managed to supercede, much less meet my expectations. You are one of the few. If there were more people like you, the world would be a much, much better place.
Namaste.