This past weekend saw me finally join a gymnastics club in Japan. After various emails back and forth, I made a reservation for a free trial session with a small gymnastics club in Hyogo (Okayama’s neighbouring prefecture). Nerves were an understatement. After 6 months of no training and the knowledge that no one at this club could speak English, I was suddenly launching myself into what seemed like disaster! I did not want to back down now, as this is what I’ve been hoping to find since moving to Japan.
The gymnastics club is around 90 minutes by train from my home in Soja. So it was a regrettable early morning start for a Sunday, and I remember muttering away at how this session better be worth it.
And it was.
I first arrived and greeted the coaches, in which the first question they asked was if I spoke Japanese. Their sigh of relief at my response of ‘only a little’ was almost amusing! We were then straight into it, beginning with a run on the beach. Well, they’d practically killed me in the first 10 minutes!!
The rest of the session I was left to my own devices. I took a long stretch and did some simple floor work in order to blow the cobwebs out. To be able to flip, sault and leap again felt almost foreign, but I know with more practice it will be natural again.
Being out of a gym for 6 months can definitely do a number on your confidence. It took me time to not just get back into the natural movement, but to also do the skills in the first place. Bars were a nightmare with all my calluses gone! 15 minutes was all I could stand before having to return my grips to my bag.
The best part of this session was meeting a super-obaachan (super-grandma). She was a past gymnast, now coach and grandmother to one of the junior elite gymnasts. Her age definitely did not stop her from stretching with me and doing handstands around the gym for the others’ amusement! Age is no restriction for a gymnast.
However, age does result in longer periods of pain and recovery. Today, I feel my body is bruised all over and I move at half the pace I usually would. With the weather how it is, I am not keen to have an ice bath either!!
Yet, there is no doubt I will return. No amount of pain can outweigh the fun and ‘fullness’ I felt from training. I felt like myself again; I was doing what I could do best. Even if the travelling distance is long, it is worth the satisfaction I feel afterwards.
I finally feel whole again.
