Silks 2 Week 2

[ladysprite]

So I think I've realized the primary problem. It's just that my teacher... isn't that great. She's not *bad,* she's just nowhere near as good as the teacher I had for Silks 1. And temperamentally, we're just a horrid mismatch.

I don't cope well with people trying to support me with dishonest, excessive praise. If I'm doing badly, about the worst thing a person can do is come to me and say 'Nooo, you were *beautiful!* That was AWESOME. You did SO WELL. That was WONDERFUL how you Did The Thing!' It annoys me, it upsets me, I know it's phony, and it feels condescending and I wind up wallowing in even worse shame at the thought that the person thinks I'm either so stupid that I can't tell they're blowing sunshine up my ass, or that they think I'm so fragile I can't deal with honesty.

I'd much rather someone tell me, 'yeah, that wasn't great, but you'll get better.' Or 'we can work on this.' Or just don't say anything, and let me work through it on my own. It's more honest. And it doesn't engage my stubborn, argumentative streak.

Unfortunately, my teacher is the sort who tries Very Hard to be very sweet and supportive, and doesn't know quite what to do when it just frustrates me more. But at least now that I recognize this, I can try to work around it. And I need to remember that, while I'm lousy at climbing, that I'm good at everything else - and that my trouble with climbing is more a matter of injury than anything else.

Anyway, what we did.....



Basic climb, split silks descent

Russian climb

Bicycle climb (epic failure here; I can't even comprehend how this works. Time to hunt down instructional videos)

Foot knot climb

Rebecca Splits, and then progressed into an actual split (from the knee lock, split the silks with that foot, flex the ankle, climb up and over)

Catcher's Lock (side straddle-up, same side knee lock, 80's dance move; knees together to hold or relax to slide down)

Comments

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, not all teachers are equally good. :(

And, aerial silks is probably new enough (in gaining popularity) that there isn't much process for training teachers at this point, rather than just someone who is pretty good at it hanging out a shingle as a teacher.

[matildalucet.livejournal.com]

Is there any chance that it would help things if you told the teacher what words would work better with you? (I like the phrases in your second paragraph.) It often might not, but with at least a few people who have wanted to be supportive to me, finding a way to tell them what could give a better result has been a relief to both of us. And I often forget that.

(Feel free to remind me to use my words if you catch me flailing. I might react badly in the moment, but I will hear you.)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Glad you've worked this out. Hope you'll be able to get more out of the class.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're able to deal with this.

One thing to consider: she might be a bit lacking in empathy, and the only way to avoid being over-critical is to be over-nice.

Another thing that might help - if you can come up with a direct question about the technique.

"Oh, you did that beautifully!"

"Yes, but I was thinking - do you think it would work better if I'd been able to X?"

That could short-circuit the "pretend to be nice and encouraging" and put her into thinking/instructing mode.

(As always, one should be cautious about listening to the advice of strange men you met on the internet.)