Oh, what a fool…what a fool I’ve been. “I’m trying to become the world trampolining champion, I don’t need to wear shoes! Shoes are for amateurs!”
Let this be a lesson for you, my friends and admirers. Never think you’re too good for shoes. Now I’m having to get fitted for custom orthotics AND I’m getting tested for certain types of foot fungus, although if I’m being honest that might not be anything to do with the trampolining. Or it might be! You just never know.
Right now I’m just hoping that I haven’t screwed up my whole ambition, forever. I’ve wanted to be a professional trampolining person ever since I saw it at the Olympics, on the television. I liked bouncing on the trampoline, but for it to be a real thing that could get you in front of millions of viewers, and net you crowds of cheering fans? I wanted it. I wanted it more than anything ever. And the people on the TV weren’t wearing shoes, and certainly not orthotics, so I didn’t either. Of course, they also had coaches who yelled at them for hours a day, and probably recommend the BEST orthotics to use for trampoline usage. I just had my trampoline out the back with multiple springs rusted over. For hours and hours I twisted and turned and flipped, and quite often stacked my jumps. More than once I went flying off and hit the cold, hard ground and yeah that’s it. That’s where I’ve been going wrong.
I thought i was fine because I landed on my feet, but turns out falling from a great height and not landing properly IS a bad idea, wow. Which is why I need to go for that foot specialist appointment near Cheltenham! Mystery solved. It was never the trampoline; just the unforgiving ground turning my feet to brittle twigs. Also explains why my leg bones crackle so much, come to think of it.
-Lira