Jun 26 18:46:22 108 PA - Gabriel Teaches Erica about Individual Athletic Sports
From Chronicles
Jun 26 18:46:22 108 PA.
OUTSIDE THE LANDING STRIP
As promised, it is two hours after sunup in a beautiful late June day. The Landing Strip may not be the finest place to carry out large group sports and other activities, but Harry's is too small, and the people in the Arena are far too psychotic and dangerous to justify it. Thus, one will find Gabriel awaiting his charge. His pants are as usual, but instead of a jacket, his torso sports a tight, dark green T-shirt with the Marine Corps logo emblazoned across it along with the words, "Semper Fi!" However, there's far more than just one man. There's a man and a shiny metal whistle. There's a man and a whole bunch of equipment that has obviously been carefully setup for just this moment. He glances at his watch.
Erica comes out onto the landing strip wearing some grey sweatpants and a light blue t-shirt. She is wearing some pink running shoes as she walks over to where Gabriel is standing. She flashes him a quick smile as she nods her head to him. "So what are we doing first?" She asks as she tilts her head slightly to the side.
Gabriel grins widely. "Pink, huh? Cute. Not to get sexist or anything, but you would be pretty ridiculed for that when and where I'm from. However, we'll move along." A congenial wink is offered and he turns back. "By the way, I caught the news last night, and there's a lot of talk on the streets. Heard about that Val stuff you talked about. Crazy woman. Yesterday she came back after months of hearing nothing to ask me to teacher how to fire a rifle. I dodged the issue by saying - honestly - that I'm already busy. But.. I do no lot look forward to telling a crazy woman that I'm not going to give her yet one more way to kill things." Gabriel slaps his hands together and says, "Alright, moving on for good this time. Give yourself your own little warmup, stretches, whatever makes you happy. Then I'll start to abuse you." His voice devolves into an obviously intentionally evil chuckle.
Erica eyes Gabriel for a moment as she shakes her her head. "What is wrong with pink?" She asks with with a wry look on her face. "Well I hope that she doesn't take it out on you and get angry at you." She says with a little laugh in her voice. She starts stretching, bending down to touch her toes. She then starts doing other various stretching moves to help loosen her muscles.
Gabriel watches as his pupil stretches smiles, then moves into, "Under normal circumstances, many of these would be simple exercises, but as you've gone through a version of Basic, those seem rather redundant. That being said, I'm going to be hard on you. I'll show you some sports that you might not know, might not have ever tried, or are a variation on a theme that you do know. As I mentioned, I've already paid off some of the local historical societies, some high school athletes and even a few people from the junior college in the city. You might owe me a few bucks for that. This won't be puffball stuff - competitive and tough, but I also hope that it'll be fun. I'm going to make you do a supervised warm-up now that you're done with your own, and a supervised cool-down when it's over for today." He pauses only long enough to inhale and allow the information to be processed. "Like I've said before, part of my MOS was training soldiers, partisans, and guerrillas. Maybe not from a basic level, but the theory's still sound, and it does translate to sports. In order to buff you up so that you can *handle* these things at a just-barely-not-professional level, we're going to run around three to four hours a session. It'll be good, and soon you'll be begging for mom and apple pie." He then grins widely and asks, "Questions? Suggestions? Want to dive right into it with a request, or would you like to be surprised? I'm ready to have some fun." The last is stated in a louder tone and with a slap of his palms together at chest-height.
Erica rolls her eyes slightly. "You know I do quite a good workout just about everyday. I am sure this workout won't be too tough. But I don't have any questions. Let's go ahead and get into it." She says as she finishes doing all her stretching. She ties her hair back into a pony tail so it won't get in the way.
"I know, I know. But you asked me to teach, this is how I'll teach." Gabriel sweeps his arm downrange. "My addition to your warmup. Jog around the strip at a comfortable pace. This isn't combat, so you might as well be limber and easy before you move on." Gabriel waves behind him to where some equipment has been set up. "This isn't timed, after your initial warm-up, take this set and in this order. Pushup area, an easy one-hundred. Jog. Situps, an easy one-hundred again. Jog. You can see there's a two-hundred foot rope to scale, a one-hundred foot horizontal rope then attached to a tree with some good but rather chaotic climbing branches. You move down." He looks beyond and waves again. "Sprint over the one-hundred and ten meter hurdles. Don't trip. Then a weight station. Only one-hundred pounds, that's nothing. Lift it fifteen times, take your time, I'll be there to spot you. Shuttle-run, ten circuits. Pull-ups, as many as you can do, this one *is* timed, sixty seconds on the clock." Gabriel taps his military dampened watch. "Then you're done and warmed up to my satisfaction for some fun. Take a little time for a cool-down after that run, do whatever feels good. This is *one* time where I don't care - to a point - how much you attack it. This is just to get you into the games. Don't burn off more than you need to just to get to the point." He then makes an elaborate sweep of his arm. "Whenever you are ready, at your convenience." Apparently it's time to start. "Remember, no need to impress me on a warm-up exercise." He then moves off into a position to better watch the course and be at the weight station to spot, as promised.
Erica chuckles softly to herself. "Ok telling me all this at once is just going to make me forget it. How about we take things one at a time." She says with bemusement in her voice. "Alright I'll start jogging then you can tell me what to do next." She says before she starts jogging around the landing strip at an easy pace.
Gabriel moves down the course as he'd said he would be doing, but also watches Erica's movements with a sharp eye. "I said jog, not stroll! C'mon, pick it up, show me that you want it. You don't look like you mean it!" Three shrill whistle blows follow. "C'mon! Get the heart going, just don't blow it out!"
Erica picks up her pace and starts jogging faster. She makes a fairly quick lap around the the landing strip without any problem. After making the lap she goes into a pushup position and starts doing pushups up and down as she was instructed to do.
"Good, good. Nice. Keep it up, Erica. Don't show off by doing any more than I said." Gabriel glances at his watch. "Good pace," he says, watching her go through the exercise. "You know what do to next. Jog, one hundred sit-ups, jog and then *immediately* up the rope. When you get up there, you can pause for a breath. All of this work comes first, then we'll move into something more fun. You have to be tough to go through these sports. Not Juicer-tough, but normal-person tough. There you go. Closing in on the century mark." Her number of pushups is noted.
Erica finishes doing her hundred pushups, making her breathing come a little faster now. She hops up into a standing position and starts taking off around the strip at a quick jog. She does another lap around the big landing strip and then hops down to start doing sit ups.
"Good job, good job. Dial it back just a little bit, the adrenaline's starting to talk louder than your head. Yeah, yeah. There you go." Gabriel stands easily near his pupil as he awaits results. "Lazlo did a good job on you, Erica. Or was it New Lazlo? I can never remember. One more lap then up the rope and take sixty to pull together. Lookin' good. Remember, this is about strength and the ability to take a pounding. Speed is good, but secondary. Remember that, and carry yourself accordingly as we get prepared here."
"It was Lazlo." Erica says in between sit ups. She finishes up the situps and then hops back up to her feet. She starts jogging around the strip again. She makes good time as she is jogging around and once she is done she grabs the rope and starts climbing up the rope easily.
"Nice job, Erica! Catch your breath, and just finish the course like I already said. I'll be there to spot you on the weights. Strength and stamina, speed comes second." Gabriel glances at his watch once more and moves on to the final station of an extensive warmup exercise.
Erica takes a moment to catch her breath at the top of the rope she climbed. She then grabs the other rope and starts climbing hand over hand on the horizontal rope. She makes it across quickly enough and then start climbing down the tree the rope is tied to. Once she reaches the ground she takes a quick look at the hurdles and then starts running, jumping over the regularly spaced hurdles.
"Keep going, nice! Don't catch your foot on it, these ones don't fall over when you fuck up!" Gabriel is obviously enjoying himself, both as teacher, tormentor and friend. Almost done, Erica. Strength, speed, strength and we'll move on to something more entertaining." He plops that silver whistle into his mouth, just waiting for an excuse to blow a shrill tone and yell further instructions. "I'm at the weights."
Erica knocks over one of the hurdles, catching one of them with her foot. She lets out a loud curse, and she manages to finish the rest of the hurdles without a problem. Once she is done with the hurdle sprint she takes a second to take a breath and then she hurries over to the weights. Picking up the weights she starts doing a few reps.
Gabriel is there, spotting her as promised. However, rather than offering the clichés from Harry's Gym of, "I got it, but it's all you, IT'S ALL YOU!!!" he's more martial about it. "C'mon one-fifty is nothing. My grandmother could bench this much, *after* she was finished milking the goats, feeding the kids and churning butter! Just for that, gimme five more. C'mon. Make it snappy."
Erica chuckles in between breaths as Gabriel tries to motivate her. She easily presses the weights showing off her strength. "And these are the sports that you played. It doesn't seem like a lot of fun, more like just another workout." She says with another chuckle.
"I said that *this* was my easy version of a warmup to *get* to the sports. Pay attention." Gabriel winks at his charge good-naturedly. "Anything that I can do to help speed things along so that we can get to the good stuff?"
Erica quickly finishes the reps with the various weights. She sits up and takes a moment to finish catching her breath. "So ok all done with this warm up stuff. What do we start next?" She asks as she gets up to her feet.
"Pull-ups. Those are the final station, as I said." Gabriel taps his temple. "Team contact sports are about *brains*, too. Stay sharp, think about more than just running and pushing." He nods his head backwards to a nearby tree limb with a smile on his face. "C'mon, the agreement was as many as you can do. Finish up, get to the fun. Want me to help out with anything?"
Erica rolls her eyes again as she goes over to the pull up bar. She hops up and takes the bar in her hands. She starts to do pullups using the strength in her arms to lift her up again and again. She does quite a few pull ups before her arms give out on her and she hops down.
Gabriel offers a bow. "Nice job. Be happy that I didn't make you run wind sprints until you puked. Over here, please." He gestures toward one of the large open areas off of the strip. He'll wait for Erica to follow and arrive. The man with salt-and-pepper hair offers some philosophy. "Many, many people will say, that competitive recreational sports, team or individual, aren't about winning or losing, rather it's how you play the game. That's just fucking bullshit that losers float out for themselves and other pussies who can't hack it. Games have one winner. Everyone else loses."
Erica follows Gabriel over to the area on the strip. "Oh so it is about winning?" She asks with a little laugh in her voice. "Ok so what sport are we going to try?" She asks when she gets over to the open area.
"Yes. *Everything* outside of family and friends is about winning. One winner, no more. There can be *no* winner, but there can never be more than one winner." Gabriel nods his head sagely, obviously believing in the absolute truth of his words and philosophy. "Sports are just a form of war, but with more smiles and most of the time nobody dies. They can and should be fun, but they should also be fought to win above all else. That's the fun part - it feels good to win. If that means that you have to intentionally foul someone to keep them from scoring a point, then that's what you do. Good sportsmanship should begin and end at taking the end result like a man - or woman - and not taunting or bitching about the result when it's over. If you only play to 'play hard' instead of playing to win... you will lose, and losing sucks." A few seconds of quiet are allowed for that to sink in. Then, "We'll start simple. Individual Olympic events. You're playing to win by doing something farther, faster, longer or stronger than anyone else has done." He pulls an iron ball out of his pack. "One regulation sixteen pound Olympic shot put. When I left, the record was just over sixty-three feet. You throw it like this." Gabriel near-expertly demonstrates the odd, cheek-in spin and throw. "Now, you."
Erica chuckles as she grins while Gabriel gives his tirade about winning. "Well you certainly have quite the philosophy of sports worked out." She shakes her head briefly before looking at the heavy shot put. She jogs over to where the shot put landed, and tosses it up and down in her hand to test the weight. Arriving at the throwing area she gnaws on her lower lip for a moment before she tries to imitate the spinning throw, not doing as good a job as Gabriel since her throw is more off to a side.
Gabriel's head quirks to the side at Erica's arm movement. "You must really have some strength in that arm, Erica. Even shot put professionals don't heft the damn things up and down like that. It's a good way to tear a ligament. Do it with a light ball, not a solid iron one. Like I said," he taps his temple again, "keep your mind on what you're doing." Then he moves over to his charge. "Like this. Stand still. Cup the shot put like you're going to do an overhand throw. A weird one. The weight rests on your *wrist* not your palm. All of the energy is going to come out of your arm as a lever, not a wrist toss." A few motions of his own hands assist her in the hold. "Now, right beneath your chin, like an iron violin. Let your head lean to the side. You want the weight to be as close as possible to being over your center of gravity. Archimedes was a bright guy, listen to how the lever works. You build up angular momentum, you extend your arm and your entire *body* into the throw, converting it into forward motion. Try it again, and make sure that when you push, it isn't in my direction, okay?" He slaps Erica's shoulder and grins in support.
"Well I am pretty strong for my size. I can beat most normal people arm wrestling." Erica says with a bit of a laugh. She tilts her head as she listens to Gabriel's directions. She adjusts her pose as she holds on to the shot put. After She adjusts to what Gabriel is telling her form should be and she spins around going for a second throw. This time her throw is much better going further along the line then her previous throw.
Gabriel once again quirks his head. "Even a strong professional doesn't take the chance of tearing a ligament. But.. you're unusually good at this for a beginning. People take months and years just to learn how to go through the throwing motion - and without any weight on their body. With that in mind, since you seem to have learned unusually rapidly - one shot and it's good?" The man purses his lips and gestures with one arm. "Keep throwing until your arm gives out, or you think you'll cause permanent damage."
Erica tries a couple more throws with the shot put. Her body whirls around as she tries to throw it again and again. Her form varies from throw to throw and only about a third of her throws are any good. Most of the time she can't get the timing right of her release.
"Better, better!" Gabriel claps with approval. "Don't worry about it. I wasn't kidding when I said that people take years just to learn the motion. You're doing extraordinarily well. If they allowed women into the Olympic games, I'd certainly nominate you." If that sounds sexist, it's not his fault. It's how 1959 was. "The arm okay? Give it a few spins, slow ones. Keep it moving, just slowly, it'll help stop a cramp, ease down on this tendons and ligaments. Long as you want, no time limit on this one." He waits for a moment to consider, then says, "I think that today I'll just keep you on the individual or one-on-one things. Work our way up to the team sports." With a laugh he says, "Those old history guys are going to be upset. You ever seen a javelin throw?"
Erica moves and stretches her arm as Gabriel instructs. Her arm is a little sore with the unfamiliar motion so she works it so that it doesn't cramp up. "Sure I have seen people throw javelins and spears before. Lots of people still use old weapons like that. I haven't really tried to throw one before though." She says with a shrug. "How do you want me to throw it?"
Gabriel nods and retrieves a semi-straight and pointy stick from where it had been leaning against a tree. He presents it to Erica with open palms, the object laying horizontally. "This.. is not a javelin. It's barely a spear, but bit's the best that I could do on short notice. Won't make you an expert, but it'll show you how things work." He then simply tosses it in her direction. "See that right in the middle, there's some wrapped string. That's called the 'binding,' and usually it's more professional. Anyway, grab the center and hold in the middle of your palm. Just wrap your fingers around it, but to get the maximum fulcrum, the best energy transfer of this particular object, your index finger should be to the rear of the binding, and your thumb should be alongside the binding. Chucking spears is really not as easy as it looks. Go ahead, try it once or twice. I'll see where the major flaws are, and help you correct 'em." Gabriel then steps aside so that no stray javelin can strike him. "Oh - get a running start."
Erica takes the javelin from Gabriel and moves it up and down in her hand to get used to the feel of it. She nods her head once at Gabriel and then takes a running start before she chucks the javelin from her hand. The javelin does a fair amount of distance before it hits the ground. The ground isn't very soft so it bounces off the ground, not sticking in.
Gabriel walks over to the javelin and hefts its small weight, tucking it under his arm. "Again, not bad. You're a natural sportswoman!" He grins as he returns to Erica's side and hands the sports-weapon back to her. "You were gripping it too tightly. You need your hand like that, but your palm should really just be more of a cupping pad, not grip. Now lift it over your head by a few inches, and keep that right elbow jutting forward. Try it."
Erica takes the javelin from Gabriel, and she tilts her head as she listens to his critique of her form. She adjusts her form as best she can holding the javelin up above her head while sticking her elbow out. She then takes another run at it, and she chucks the javelin over her head. It goes a little further this time but bounces out of the ground.
The fellow chuckles this time as he walks to retrieve the spear. "Okay, that was a fluke of nature. When I said, 'try it' I didn't mean to actually throw it. The wind caught this one, your form was horrendous." He returns, he's still chuckling, but hands it over easily. "Okay, now try that form again. Just stand there. When you have it stable and close to what I said, aim it up about thirty-five degrees, then just hold it there, get a feel for what that's like. You need to imagine that there's a cord going straight through this mock-javelin and all the way to a fixed spot in the sky. When I do have you throw it, you're going to aim for that spot. You're throwing to that star. You're not throwing to see how far you can throw it. Does that make any sense?" Gabriel pauses his instruction, waiting for questions.
Erica takes the javelin again from Gabriel, and she shakes her head slightly as she adjusts her form. She does her best to hold the form as he wants. She holds the javelin at the correct angle about. "Alright how is this?" She asks while holding the pose.
After taking a moment to stand back and inspect, Gabriel steps forward and makes some hands-on adjustments. "You're not in line. Bring your right elbow out, and keep it over your shoulder." He pulls. "Get that index finger back, and let your left arm hang semi-loose in front of your torso. Don't really stick it out there, just make sure that it's in front." He steps back again, chuckles, and says, "Close enough for someone who will never be challenged. Okay, now keep holding it, but look at me - hips, legs, and torso." His hips are lifted, his body slightly turned to the right at the waist, left arm as stated. "This is the next part of what you want to look like. It feels funny, it feels wrong when you're learning, but trust me on this one... take it away." He backs away then quickly adds, "I don't mean run!"
Erica puts her right elbow out and over her shoulder as Gabriel critiques her pose. She grimaces in frustration as she adjusts her pose again to what Gabriel wants, turning her body a little. She stands there for a while holding the pose not knowing what he means in what he says last. "What you want me to finally throw the stick?"
"No, I want you to get the feel of that position, then I want to you just totally relax and shake out your body like you just got hit with a case of the willies. Then I want you to try to get back into that same form again." Gabriel holds a hand out, palm up. "I ended up skipping over the shot put pretty much. So this is going to be more thorough. Shake it out, pose. Shake it out, pose. Five or six times, then we'll see what you have. Just remember what I said. This pose -" he assumes the position that he'd instructed "- and the line between the end of the javelin, going all the way straight out the front and to a fixed spot in the sky."
Erica chuckles as she shakes her body a bit shaking out the pose she was holding. She then tries to go back into the pose as best she can holding the javelin at thirty-five degrees. She then shakes it out again and tries to move back into the pose. She does this several times as Gabriel instructs.
Gabriel approves. "Okay, for a lesson that's lasted a full twenty-minutes, that's not bad. Good enough to play with right now. Two more pieces, then we'll actually get to throwing it. Gimme the stick." He holds his hands out.
Erica chuckles softly as she reaches over to hand Gabriel the javelin. "There you go." She says with a little bit of wry amusement. "I wasn't expecting so many track and field events."
"One-on-one and individual are just as much sports as team sports. Buff you up a little more and everything. In fact, as far as I know there are no team sports in the Olympics at all!" Gabriel grins, then lays the 'javelin' carefully back against the helpful tree. "Next part. Running. I'm sure that you can run, but there's running, and then there's proper running. You probably don't run this way - go run fifty yards, but I want you to move your legs in a wheel motion, almost as if you're riding a bicycle. I know, I know -" he holds out apologetic hands "- it sounds stupid. But it's the fastest way to run. Just not the natural way. It conserves and uses your energy and body geometry most efficiently. So, fifty yards like that *and* holding everything beneath your shoulders like I just did. Rest, then run back the same way. If it feels funny, you're probably doing it right." He picks up the little silver whistle and gives it a single tweet.
Erica rolls her eyes as she chuckles. "Trust me I know how to run." She says with less amusement in her voice. She moves into the silly pose and then runs for the fifty yards that Gabriel wanted. Her running form is very good even as she holds the pose that Gabriel wants.
Gabriel nods in approval. "Okay, good. Now this is a little awkward, because we need to put everything together, but there's one more thing that you need to practice - the actual release portion. So stand there like you're learning, full body, just not holding the javelin yet. I want you to whip your entire body around the core, left arm pulling back, hips pivoting, shoulders turning, and your arm moving forward to that fixed point in the sky. But you'll hurt yourself if you do it just standing there, so do it in slow motion. I'll watch." He steps back.
Erica moves into the pose that she has been practicing for a while now. After she is sure that she has the pose she tries to do as Gabriel is telling her. She whips her body around pivoting around her hips so that she tries to throw with her whole body instead of just her arm.
"Slow motion! Slow motion!" Gabriel claps his hands together a few times. "I said to do it in slow motion. If you don't have anything to put the energy into, it'll go into wrenching your elbow, Erica. Same reason that you'll break the firing pin on your rifle if there isn't a cartridge loaded. So now, slowly, so that I can see what you think you're doing. But it does look like you have the right idea. Give me three or four slow ones, please."
Erica lets out a bit of a sigh as she goes back to the ready pose. It seems like she is getting a hold of it. She then turns on her hips using her body to add to the force of her throwing arm, but this time she does it in slow motion. She does it once then takes a moment to go back into the pose before trying it again. And then again.
"Okay, not bad - for someone who's never going to compete. The only other thing is to remember to throw your entire body forward like it's pivoting from your feet. Gotta drain out every last bit of energy that you can manage." Gabriel walks over, picks up the poor excuse for a javelin and hands it to his pupil. "Okay. This is the hard part; you have to take all of these individual pieces that we've been doing piecemeal, and throw it all into one event that lasts less than ten seconds. Assume the starting pose. Relax. Pick an arbitrary spot in the distance. Run, but only thirteen, maybe seventeen paces to get up to speed. Any more and you're wasting energy. When you get to the end - hurl that fucker like you're trying to nail George Jetson's ass. Cord from back to front to star. Don't think distance. Think of yourself as a blazing star, and you go make yourself go nova right at the instant of the throw, and you channel it all into that motion." He taps his temple again. "I really do mean think about it. I've said it before - keep your mind in the game. Good luck, and go for it when you're ready." He steps back, out of the way of an errant throw.
Erica takes the javelin from Gabriel and using the stick this time she sets herself up in a throwing pose. She thinks about what she is about to do for a moment before she starts running. She runs about 15 strides before she pivots her body around her hips to throw the javelin. She throws herself forward a little bit as she lets go of the stick.
Gabriel watches the run, the release, and the flight of the javelin, involuntarily hearing both the sound of the sirens on a Stuka dive-bomber and the cliché sound of a falling bomb at the same time. Of course, the sport-weapon itself is silent. Not a bad throw, maybe sixty or seventy feet. Very good for a beginning, and he tells his charge as much. "Okay, go on and grab it, bring it back. Put more pivot into it next time, and straighten your arm faster. Gotta keep that palm toward the sky the whole way. Bring it back, do it again."
Erica lets out a bit of a sigh as she jobs over to retrieve the javelin. She picks it up and then jogs back to roughly where she threw it from the first time. She takes a about the same amount of strides again before she releases the javelin with the same type of throw she made before.
Erica's teacher can't help but notice the sigh, and suggests, "If you're not really getting into these things, perhaps it's not what you thought you wanted? I could just skip through two dozen events, another dozen team sports, just letting you touch on them so lightly that you are more simply aware of them than having any knowledge of them. But that wouldn't do you much good. Wouldn't exactly be exercise." Gabriel shrugs. "Either I'm doing a very poor job of introducing you to competitive sports, or it just simply isn't your thing - there's nothing wrong with that." He's not upset, he's just observant and questioning, waiting for a reply with a pleasant smile.
"No this is fine. Just not a very exciting sport really." Erica says with a chuckle and a bit of a smirk. "Alright would you like me to do it again?" She asks before she jogs off to pick up the javelin from where it stuck in the ground a ways away. She grabs it and then jogs back to where she has been throwing from.
Gabriel smiles and nods. "Good then. They aren't always fun, but they are good exercise. With time, you'll learn to enjoy it - they're skill involved with both brains and brawn. That's a combination that I enjoy. Now, you see that?" He backs up and points down the landing strip area. "See that? The shiny new building with the neon green 'Uncommon Mechanics' sign? I want you to start here, and throw at it. Don't think about putting it through the doors, but that's your goal." The fellow grins evilly. "I know the guy who owns it, he'll get a kick out of it. About two-hundred feet, which is far more than you've thrown yet, so it's safe. Which means that want you to really put your ass into it this time. Good luck with your mission, Lieutenant." He salutes, and steps back. "Fire when ready."
Erica hoists the javelin in her hand as she moves her body into the throwing pose. She takes a deep breath as she judges her throw. Then she takes a run, running for a good fifteen strides she twists her body and throws herself forward as she throws the javelin with as much power as she can muster, aiming for the doors of the new garage.
Plop. The stick-javelin clatters against some dry dirt still about fifty feet from the open garage. Still, Gabriel is pleased. "Okay, great, great! You're bored with this, fine. But go get it, take one more toss, try to nail the bastard again," he says with a broad smile. "That's it, once more and we'll move on to something else. Maybe competitive timed mine field clearing."
Erica claps her hands together happy at her toss. She then jogs off to go get the javelin before hurrying back. She takes up her throwing pose again making sure her body is positioned right. After she thinks she is set up she starts running taking fifteen strides before throwing the javelin with all her strength, throwing herself forward with it.
"Whoa!" Gabriel snaps his fingers together in disappointment. "So close! But, at least you *sort of* managed to nab it." In fact, the javelin struck the ground about twenty feet shy of the garage, but somehow managed to skitter along the hard-packed dirt the remaining distance just enough to score a point. "Good enough!" is declared. "Just leave it there, it'll be funny for Galvin to try to figure out where the hell the thing came from when he closes up for the night. Now, over here, please." He sweeps his hand further along the large area that he's managed to set aside with rudimentary games. There is a simple set of vertical poles set about fifteen feet apart, with a single wooden pole connecting their vertical limits. A pile of sawdust is on the other side. With great flair, Gabriel introduces, "The Olympic high jump!" Then more quietly, "Women's version"
Erica walks over to where the vertical poles are set up. She eyes them for a moment before turning over to Gabriel. "So I'm guessing the goal is to jump high?" She says in a joking manner as she looks at the pile of sawdust.
"Indeed, Erica. Your command of the English language is marked." Gabriel points at the crossbar. "The bar is set with a hair trigger. You get an un-shaven leg hair on it, and it will fall over. The higher you go, the more points you get. If you go the highest you're the winner - and everyone else is a loser in the event. It's currently set at the women's world record height, just over six feet. The hurdles that you were clearing - and not clearing - were about three, so I'll just set it at four. Still start with a challenge." He pulls back, then just waves over a seemingly random area. "Okay, jump over it without knocking it over." No further instruction is offered.
Erica looks at the high up bar with some obvious skepticism. She walks back a ways away before taking a deep breath. Then she runs at the bar at a fast sprint. Once she gets close to the bar she comes in at a sideways angle and attempts to leap over the bar backwards with not very much grace but at least she manages to gain some air.
She clears it! But with such flailing motion that it's just only barely a clear. If she hadn't shaved her legs that morning, the pole would have fallen. Still, a pupil's win as a pupil's win, and Gabriel claps and offers and approving whistle. "Nice! How's that sawdust feel?" He walks over to the setup as Erica gets to her feet. "Okay, that was pure beginner's luck. But in competition, it would have counted. So -" he lifts the bar up. "Five feet. In fact," he bumps it up a little further, "Five feet, four inches. You're jumping over me, if you think you can hack it." As he walks away, he adds, "And I don't want you to mess up my hair."
Erica laughs even as she tries to clean all the sawdust from her clothes. "That sawdust doesn't make it exactly the easiest landing, but I guess it is better then nothing." She says as she walks over a ways away from the bar. She takes a couple deep breathes and then starts running at the bar from a bit off to the side. She tries to do the same thing twisting around and jumping over it backwards.
Oh, so close! However, the disposal of the bar and its subsequent fall to the ground was to be expected, and Gabriel is nice enough to say so as he resets it at a lower elevation. "You're laughing and smiling! I guess I should tell everyone back at the Alibi that there's nothing better that you like than a good tumble?" He chuckles then continues with his teaching. "I would have bet my left nut that that was going to happen. No offense, but women just jump lower. Genetics and the human species, I guess. But even at that, just about impossible. The only person to clear that elevation, didn't. Five feet three inches a few years back. For me. There's just a certain elevation that human leg muscles can't push us past when you're trying to scoot like that. You need to attack it very strangely. You need to do it backwards." He allows that to just sink in, seeing if Erica guesses at any of it.
Erica scowls in Gabriel's general direction. "That wasn't funny that was just bad." She says at Gabriel's attempted joke as she stands up and dusts off the sawdust from her. "That is what I have been trying to do. I can't jump over it forwards my boobs will knock it over."
Gabriel takes a moment to inspect Erica's boobs, apparently trying to judge if that would be a real issue or not. Whatever he decides, it goes off as if only information needing to be gathered. "Yes, trying to do. That's admirable, but it takes practice. You're trying to rush into all of these things too quickly! These are things that you should *enjoy practicing.* Things that you want to come out and do over and over and over and over until someone tells you that you have to stop and eat. Just because you want to make it the perfect jump. The perfect motion. Simply throwing yourself at it and being lucky to clear it is yes, a win. But when you're practicing by yourself, the only way to *keep* winning is to get better, and the only way to get better is to improve on a very ragged form. You've been attacking it much more head-on than you should. Come over here, stand by me." He's standing about a dozen paces to the right of the bar and about half that distance in front of it. "You attack it sideways, not over."
Erica lifts up an eyebrow as Gabriel inspects her boobs. She lets out a cough as she blushes slightly. As soon as Gabriel is finished with his speech she moves over to stand by Gabriel. "Alright." She says as she judges the bar again.
Gabriel really didn't seem interested in her boobs. He has a pair back at his place, after all. He waves from his location, and makes a sweeping motion with his hand. "Notice where we are. You just run at it from here, sure, you might get the legs to pass, you might not. What you want to do is attack it not as a *jump* but as an *approach.* You don't run at it. You sneak up on the bar, so it doesn't even know you're coming, and you're over before it knows it. Never in this approach will you be sprinting. In fact, more of just a fast jog. Follow." He waves a hand, and walks through a hooked 'J' approach, the short part of the J moving toward the location, then hooking left smoothly but quickly, stopping before the bar. "Here is where you will jump. Do you see?" The question is obscure.
"Uh yah I think I see." Erica says after she watches his approach up to the bar. "So just a jog and then you want to jump over it backwards?" She asks as she looks at the bar again.
Gabriel waves an important-yet-dismissive hand. "It's not a run or a jog or a sprint. It's a smooth motion. A continuous acceleration from the start -" he sweeps his arm "- to here. You move with your body *straight* up and down. Instead of a run where your feet go where you expect, you move basically foot in front of foot, in front of foot. Yes, you build up speed, you obviously need that. But it's the smooth motion of the approach that is more important than anything else you will do in this event. Now go back to the beginning, and walk yourself through the approach like that a few times. Straight up -" he pulls himself erect in demonstration "- and foot before foot." A small, flapping wave of his fingers indicates that she should return to start. "Slowly."
Erica walks back over to the beginning that Gabriel wanted her at. She tries the approach like he demonstrated foot before foot in a smooth motion. After the steps she arrives at in front of the bar. She frowns slightly before going back to the beginning and she tries the approach again. She attempts it a few times each time becoming a little more confident in her approach.
"Alright, alright," Gabriel says after having glanced at his watch. "I promised you three to four hours today, it's been three hours. Since I'll be seeing you tomorrow anyway, just listen." He points at where he's standing. "When you get here, the launch point, you want your weight to be on your left foot, and you want your torso to be almost perpendicular to the bar. Then you'll *push* off with the ball of your foot -" he does a short demonstrable lift "- with a good rotation. You want to corkscrew your body in flight so that your roll over the bar instead of clearing the bar. If you land on your back, you probably did a decent job at the motion, and need to keep practicing. If you land on your face, you probably will have knocked over the bar, and definitely over-rotated. In any case," he slaps Erica's shoulder fairly hard, "I'm gone. With those mysterious final pieces of knowledge, I'm going to let you try it out. Try it out. I want to see some action motion tomorrow. I don't expect you to clear it, I just want to see it work. Set the bar no higher than four and a half feet. Good luck!" With that said, the instruction period is over, and Gabriel is departing for points unknown.
