Personal Topic (2)

Loosening the bonds of matter
October 16th, 2017
SArah Clark
Loosening the bonds of matter stretch your abilities and allow you to be able to rise above.  It can be painful, but it is rewarding.  In class we talked about how coaches and military officers help their students stretch their bonds of matter through discipline.  I was a competitive figure skater that had a lot of potential for success, but wasn’t feeling it everyday.  I needed coaches to hold me to the standard of success so I could rise above.  Some days they would have to threaten gloveless pushups on the cold ice to get me to be motivated to not mess up.  Or the Russian coaches would yell at me to go faster, extend greater, jump higher and pull in tighter.  Not everyone loves being yelled at, but I did.  I knew why they were doing it and it gave me an urgency to perform.  They saw potential in me and wanted to help me loosen the bonds of matter through hard discipline.  Some American coaches would let some of my skating friends just have spin days if they weren’t feeling well.  My coach made me run through my all my jumps back to back, practice my spins, and then run back to back programs.  Some days I would fall on everything, pass out on the side of the rink, barely be able to breathe.  However, I did the most clean programs I had ever had during my skating career when I worked with this coach.  It is not skill that makes you get the gold.  It is discipline and how much pain you can manage.  In that liminal period some days it felt like torture, but I came out as a USFSA double gold medalist senior level skater, I ran clean programs in regionals and I got put on the wall of fame at my home rink.  I loosened the bonds of matter, and I rose above my past ability.  

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