Cross-training has always been a known technique for athletes to improve certain skills by changing up predictable routines. Football players have been known to try their hands at ballet; Yoga and Pilates have attracted athletes of all kinds who come to reap the benefits of flexibility and balance-promoting positions. So, when the members of the Women’s Varsity Hockey team shifted uncomfortably under the fluorescent lights of the Fieldhouse, anticipating———–with uncertainty-the start of an afternoon aerobics class, the word ‘awkward’ hardly came to mind.
Then the class started. Maybe it was the impossible machine-like delivery and enthusiasm of the instructor. Perhaps it was the distraction of the aerobics regulars-a group of unsuspecting average Joes and Janes who, once given a gym mat and some tights, exhibited awe-inspiring mastery over the wildly-gesticulatory movements.
More likely than not, ‘awkward’ described the Blues’ struggle to follow along with the thrusts and twirls of an arm-swinging, butt-squatting, knee-lifting, mind-altering advanced level class. Indeed, ‘awkward’ emerged, to the tune of severely uncoordinated limbs, waving and flapping around to a pounding techno beat.
There was flailing; there was mass disorganization; there was plenty of Schadenfreude delivered via the chaotic visuals of more than twenty university-aged athletes all orchestrating vastly different moves from each other. From the ‘Chaucees’ to the “Fred Astaires”, rhythm was taking a sort of vacation far-far-away from the Athletic Centre that September afternoon of the preseason. The regulars at the front were fine, well adapted to the sequences from weeks of aerobics-coordination practice.
The instructor, between the rapid-fire of commands that left the least possible warning between instruction and hamstring curl, reassured the girls euphemistically that they’d got it. He was obviously lying, unless they were rehearsing an interpretive dance which collectively illustrated the path of Hurricane Ivan.
Nonetheless, the team got a kick out of it. Well, several kicks, really, and in repetition. Next week, the aerobics class is invited back for a skate at Varsity Arena under the auspices of coach Karen Hughes and the rest of the skating-shooting-scoring crew. Full gear required, including helmets, shin pads, neck guards and waivers, signed and dated with a witness.
But enough about fish out of water.
