falling without grace

have you ever (tried to) run so fast that your legs can't move fast enough to keep up with the rest of your body? that was me yesterday... trying to play touch footy. i'm not usually a fan of touch, mostly because i don't like any of the sports involving an olive-shaped ball (except maybe a spot of league come state of origin time), and also because i'm not very good at it. i actually thought we were going to play basketball, but the others were already on the field and kicking the ball around when i arrived, so i joined in.

when the pros play, they're often diving to score tries and make the act look so easy... even graceful (if you can attribute that kind of adjective to the typical rugby league player??). i've never been one to fall gracefully. in fact, i avoid falling, and anything that looks like it could lead to falling, like the plague -- jumping around on a trampoline for example, an activity from which i'm rather paranoid of bouncing off and doing myself great damage. this is because when i was younger, almost every fall would result in a broken bone, chipped tooth, or at the very least some broken skin.

my dad knows how to fall properly - he once fell off a ladder (or was it a roof?) and instinctively performed a somersault/roll manouvre to break his fall and dust himself off afterwards. he had kung fu training though, so that doesn't count :p i think i've managed to fall that way twice, quite by accident on both occasions. once when i was bounding down a hill and gravity got the better of me just at the end of my descent, and the other time when the front wheel of my bike met a solid kerb (i didn't have enough skills to jump it, and was going too quickly to stop or avoid it) and the impact sent me sailing over the handle bars.

anyways, back to yesterday, and my legs racing away at full capacity striving for the try line after somehow managing to make a break from our own half. i was already feeling a loss of balance some way out from the line, realising with a bit of a worry that i probably couldn't stop myself without falling over... then a tap on my back from the chasing defender helped me on my way to the ground. i don't know how to fall properly, neither how to dive without hurting myself. the last time i took a dive on that ground was in summer, playing cricket, and much broken skin ensued. thankfully this time round the spot where i fell happened to have thicker grass, and the recent rain meant the ground was also more slippery and softer. so i survived with only a slight graze, nice grass stains on my clothes, and my pedometer stayed on to count every step :p later in the game, i went for a coast to coast, and took another dive. this time i managed to stay within the field of play and got the try :)