Day 68 - Ma, Jump rope, Radio

Liked Patrick's mail today about the sheer hard work it takes to learn to jump rope. Well done guys on Day 69 and to those behind us, it IS worth it! Today I'm going to weave two PCP themes - Jump rope and bodily awareness - with a personal one, my radio broadcasting.

To be a good announcer, I need three things.

1. Correctness.
For example, I need to ensure I know how to say names and ask or research if I do not. Also, I need to keep to the timings for each news item.

2. Confidence.
Once the On Air 放送中 sign comes on, I need to believe I am in the right place and I am going to do a good job.

3. Cadence
I've been complimented on having a good sound or pace to my voice. I try to feel both the overall direction or music of a sentence and the individual words. Sometimes I slip into my super-local Essex estuary English and have odd pronunciation, but the overall rhythm and tone is good.


Rhythm, confidence, good form...hmmm sound familiar to my fellow PCP-ers?

If you do something as elemental as jump rope everday, you don't get perfect straightaway or even the next day. I am still unable to consistently jump for more than a minute. But I am consistently jumping around a minute and with time and sweat, this will get longer. You improve in a cyclical manner. Improvements, steps back, plateaus, sudden unexpected leaps forward. And this applies to any skill.

If you do something that calls for confidence, which the rope does, you need to know how you are inside, to be aware. Like the space or 'ma', when eating, there is also a pause in the middle of a jump.

And in this pause is awareness of our strength.