You know what it's like when your footbag shoes are finally so worn they're no longer usable and you have to break in new ones? You know how really frustrating it is when the model of shoe you've used & loved for years is discontinued and you have to get used to kicking with a different kind of shoe? The footbag just doesn't sit in quite the same place on the shoe, or it rolls too much, or it bounces off at a different angle when you kick. You find yourself having to constantly make adjustments and it seems like some of your moves will have to be learned all over again.
Now imagine that you've been playing footbag for a few years and suddenly you find yourself using a whole different body. You have big bulges in places where you formerly had flat taut muscles. Your balance is completely different and gravity becomes a more formidable enemy when you have several extra pounds to move around. Congratulations! You're now kicking for two.
Another thing that's fun is getting my new unusual surfaces into the action. Thanks to my pregnant condition, I've finally been able to hit a move that I thought would forever remain an elusive dream -- a cleavage delay. I haven't been able to achieve the belly bounce yet, but I'm sure the baby will be getting his/her first footbag kicks in soon.
An unexpected bonus I've experienced is that I'm now hitting some freestyle moves I was having trouble with before. I suddenly find myself able to do a clipper stall to an osis pretty consistently, when before I struggled and struggled with this move that seemed like it should be so easy for me. Evidently the shift in my balance puts me in the proper position to get the bag. Pregnancy can give you a whole new insight into what makes some tricks work & what can cause you to miss them.
Oh, and have I mentioned the serious energy crisis of the first three months or so. It's maddening to want to play footbag, but to barely have the energy to even drag yourself home from work before collapsing in a heap. For awhile my schedule went something like this: Work 8 hours & sleep 16; repeat. Then, about the time my energy level came back up, I started putting on the pounds. At times it's very easy for me to start feeling like my life in footbag is now completely over with and I might as well take up knitting instead. I just can't wait until I can no longer see my feet.
I remind myself this pregnancy thing doesn't last forever and eventually I'll get back in form and ramp up my skills some more. Other women have done it, after all. Meanwhile, I can still kick and keep my conditioning up. My mantra is "What doesn't kill me, makes me stronger." It seems like anything I can do now should be a piece of cake later without all the extra bulk. It's kind of like theprinciple of working out with ankle and wrist weights on.
Finally, I'm trying to learn to chill out. I'm starting to enjoy the fact that I'm putting less pressure on myself now when I play. In the days BP (before pregnancy) I had started to get pretty intense about learning new moves and letting my happiness about kicking hinge on things like whether I hit a certain freestyle trick or did a spike in net. Now I'm happy just to play. I've been having a great time with circle games like one-up five down that I didn't want to waste my time on previously. Once I decided it was okay not to work on a lot of new stuff for the next few months , I gained this sense of freedom because I had given myself permission to do whatever seems fun without worrying about keeping up in the official or unofficial competitive arena. I can kick just for the fun of it, like I did when I first started playing!