Amanda Takes Off...

"Amanda, handstand? You can do it."

I stared at TempMaster.

My irrational fear of breaking my foot while doing a jumping double roundhouse kick has been turned into a rational fear of breaking it while doing a handstand.

When I was six years old, I taught myself to cartwheel by pulling a bunch of pillows and blankets onto our living room floor. Three years later, I was doing a cartwheel when a girl walked in front of me. I twisted to avoid hitting her and landed on my foot wrong. I broke the long bone leading to my pinky toe and fractured the middle toe bone. I had to wear a wooden shoe around for months. (And this was shortly after I got glasses. I don't remember being teased for being the four-eyed wooden-footed girl though...)

Since then I have not once attempted any sort of headstand, handstand, or cartwheel. The closest I've come to voluntarily going heels over head was when I went bungee jumping in Costa Rica.

So when he expected me to do this without any support, I just stared at him. I said, "I broke my foot doing this when I was nine. This scares me."

Eventually I ended up kicking my feet up against a wall, with Sabumnim holding on to my legs for support.

The boys at my studio may do funky headstands and risk breaking their necks for fun, but I'm glad it's not part of our normal routine.