Falling In Love with Falling

I recently started playing pickleball and I’m obsessed. I love the physicality and the great things exercise does for my mental health. But even more, I love who I’m playing with. 🙂

I am one of the younger people at the facility where I take lessons. I have always had a love of being around people who are older and wiser. It’s evident in much of the work I do! I love the perspective I gain from people who have been there, done that, people whose bodies may not work the same as mine. 

Take this interaction:
While going after a ball, I reached – far – and ended in a deep lunge that left me off balance, and on my butt. I rolled to my side and jumped back up, not thinking about it.

But another person on the court shouted to me, “Wow! You’re really good at falling!” And suddenly, I thought, “Yeah, I am!”

What would have been a moment I took for granted became a moment to thank my body for showing up; for allowing me to fall and get back up… unhurt! I’ve been working on that my entire adult life and I literally teach others to do the same, but I still needed someone else to point it out to me. What a gift!

THIS is why we:

• Sit on the floor doing various goofy movements. We are practicing our options.
• Work on bone health with strength training (moving against a heavy load). Using weights, doing planks, and putting some stress on our bones via jumping or heel bumps sends signals that new bone needs to be built to support the load placed on it, thereby maintaining and creating more bone density. A definite must as we age.
• Do VOR (vestibular ocular reflex) games to improve the balance of our inner ears. It may look like easy work, but it’s amazing brain and body work. 
  • And a bonus about this work is that you don’t need any special equipment. Go look at yourself if a mirror and, keeping focused on your eyes, turn your head side to side, then up and down, then diagonally in each direction. Do it about 5 times each.

So far for me, and for many of the clients I’ve seen over the years, it works! Keep at it friends.

Cheers to a long, active, fall-filled life,

If you ever want to join me in pickleball, Connie and Jan teach Mondays and Wednesdays at 11:30 am at MSA Lakeshore. The lessons are $15 each and then you can play with others after. I’m there on Mondays!