The Amazing Hurdle Experience

1593 Words7 Pages
Learning something new can be a scary experience. Although it may seem like one of the easiest things to do it can still be frightening. One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was learn how to hurdle. Being a great athlete has always been my thing, but I told myself I’d stick to the basics and I’d never try hurdling. When you tell yourself you aren't going to do something, you avoid it as much as possible. The more I ran track, the more my coach tried putting me in hurdles. I hated it, but I knew I was fast and I knew if I became good at hurdling it’d just be another event for me to win. What I didn't realize was learning how to hurdle would be hectic, but it’d also make me a more confident person on the track. Any new situation I partake in always makes me nervous and my first hurdling practice was no exception. After I ran my warm up lap, I stretched like I normally do but this particular day I took more time than needed. It usually takes me about 15 minutes to stretch, this day it took me about 35 minutes. I was so nervous, and although my teammates had hyped me up and told me “it would be easy”, I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I was doing what I said I wouldn’t do. The look on my face was probably priceless as I stood there, because as soon as my coach showed up the first thing he said was “why you looking like that?” Of course I just smiled and threw the “it’s hot” line at him so he wouldn’t know I was nervous. After a couple of minutes I see him set up like 3 hurdles on the track. Me, I’m looking like “what does this man think he’s doing”. By this time I’m finally done warming up so I walk over to the fence and start doing some leg swings. Thinking to myself “I got to be mentally tough”. My coach would always say that to my teammates and I at practice when he’d hear us say can’t. So with me thinking being mentally tough, the
Open Document