D to the, wait for it…….P

__________________________________________________________________

On Dec 19, 2007 6:50 AM, Aaron Richard Arndt <aaronarndt@gmail.com> wrote: 

Great email, man.  Loved it.   

Resonated:  “They should have listened to you when you were nice.”  Awesome. 

And: “As a coach your job is to do what needs to be done so your skaters know what they have to work on.”  …Simple, concise, coherent, exact…  perfect.  Believe it or not, this will be my philosophy over the course of the next few weeks at practice as coach.  

Really man, thanks for writing this.  I don’t know what I was doing writing that post, but I feel like until I did I was in some sort of limbo right up until I posted it.  I was full of mental blocks and passive self-sabotage.  It took me a month to write a really important email.   I somehow wasted a term at school by not attending a single class.  I even didn’t pay any tuition  fees and toyed with the idea of ‘accidently’ being removed from the rest of my classes, while not having the balls to check and see if I had yet been de-enrolled.  I haven’t done a spec of research on my future in schooling that is heavily pending on my consciousness.  I was letting things bother me personally like I hadn’t since I was a teen.  I wasn’t sleeping with any amount of regularity.   

I don’t know how or why, but I feel like things are coming back together.   

Can it be that coming back from Switzerland and a lifestyle that I truly fell completely in love with made me depressed?  It snowed 50cms here since Saturday, and I haven’t skated outdoors for five weeks, after coming off the best (road; straight line) form of my existence.  

It’s funny though, I think that whatever this transition made me feel, it manifested itself only in very specific ways; through a set of behaviours and reactions, not emotion or really even feelings.  It seemed as though I was just always in a big hurry to do “something else”, whatever “else” constituted.

Why? 

I think (and this is entirely my own speculation), that I am approaching the “half way” to getting back there.  Like I am cresting this big hill, and about to slide my ass down the easy side.  

I don’t have fireworks, or a success towards any of this that I can put a finger on, but somehow in many ways I am at least in the right gear. 

It’s funny though, the easy side is the side with ALL the work on it.  Studying, training, organizing… all with effort and consequence imminent.   

Am I masochistic?  

The good news is that I am out of debt now, after putting in a few months of work.  I wonder what role that played in the whole thing… 

It is 6:30am.  I actually went to bed at 12, and only got up to pee… 

Can I post your email and my response? It somehow felt really natural and honest, streamed consciousness, and I really like the context in which I wrote.  What do you think?  I can edit your’s if you feel strongly, but I of course recommend just putting it all out there.  

Sandra is coming to visit me starting this Friday. 

She is a girl I met from Germany.  Oh man…  the story…  haha, its a good one, and she’s awesome. 

We should talk sometime bro… I’ll have to fill you in.  It really has been a while. ;)

Write me back, I’m stuck in this email for the first time not typing like crazy…  so I’ll just stop. 

Get back to me! 

With skatey love,
Aaron. 

PS: I love that D to the P business.  Whahahahaha!! Yeah! Sweet. 

PPS:  Imagine the worst floor possible.  Now spray it with a thin mist of WD-40.  Now wait a few weeks for dust and debris to settle itself…  That’s basically our floor. 

(Parts edited)

____________________________________________________________________

From: Daniel Palomino [mailto:xxx.xxxxx@gmail.com]
Sent: December-19-07 10:09 AM
To: Aaron Richard Arndt
Subject: Re: got me thinkin…(hurt at first but then I got used to it)

oy you wanna post that? haha yea sure man, put it out there it’s cool.  Glad to hear things are getting better, I get that whole cresting the hill thing.  And it is interesting, the hard uphill part is when you don’t want to do any work and the “easy” downhill is when your ready and willing to put yourself through hell for what you want.  Or we could both just be kinda messed up in the head.  Happy you liked the email, after I sent it I kinda wasn’t totally sure if it was gonna make any sense but all good and feel free to post whatever you want if you choose to. And yea man, sounds like we gotta catch up.  (Parts edited)  oy you wanna post that? haha yea sure man, put it out there it’s cool.  Glad to hear things are getting better, I get that whole cresting the hill thing.  And it is interesting, the hard uphill part is when you don’t want to do any work and the “easy” downhill is when your ready and willing to put yourself through hell for what you want.  Or we could both just be kinda messed up in the head.  Happy you liked the email, after I sent it I kinda wasn’t totally sure if it was gonna make any sense but all good and feel free to post whatever you want if you choose to. And yea man, sounds like we gotta catch up.  (Parts edited)  5 weeks of snow…wow, it’s tough here too man, the last couple days have been in the 50’s! HA! sorry, I had to.  Every time I hear my team complaining about how cold it is I hear your voice, “Cold?!?”  Love, Peace, and Hair Grease, 

D to the muthaf’n P(it goes on…) 

P.S. yea that floor sounds horrible, forget what I said haha  

P.P.S. This writer’s strike is killing me, no fresh Stewart or Colbert. No more Office! More time to train I guess…and you don’t know how much I am into the idea of the WIC.  I even got some great videos of it I downloaded, thats some serious shit.  

_______________________________________________________________ From: Aaron Richard Arndt [mailto:aaronarndt@gmail.com]
Sent: December-19-07 10:18 AM
To: ‘Daniel Palomino’
Subject: RE: got me thinkin…(hurt at first but then I got used to it)  

Oh yeah…

Posted on December 18, 2007

Wait a minute, maybe I am an asshole…

Posted on December 18, 2007

I considered titling this long coming post “What the fuck is wrong with people”, but realized that this desire stems more likely from my own frustrations and inner hostilities.  It is true; I really miss training with the boys in the Kreuzlingen house, racing WIC nearly every weekend, and hopping out of bed (at whatever time I felt like) just about every day, making myself breakfast, calling out: “Aaron’s riding, anyone coming?” usually joined by one or two top class skaters (usually Danny Finster, who I consider a close friend), and going for at least an hour’s ride in the rolling hills of northern Switzerland and southern Germany.  Boys; I f***ing miss you guys.

                      There’s something missing here.

                      Where are all the WIC skaters?

                       My technique is going backwards.

                       What happened to feeling so motivated?

Skate practice is regularly compromised to include and help the non-elite skaters, and I believe that these skaters do not truly appreciate the impact of the gesture, or the short and long term consequences it has on those making the compromise.

                      Is this the best strategy?  How can I best address the needs of the skaters of
                      different abilities?  Given floor fees, and other constraints, and the pack skills
                      that need to be taught, it isn’t easy; but also not impossible.

Training is always “too hard” for some, and “too easy” for others, all the while nobody seems able to work on technique here, because for some reason; the impossibility of working on technique at anything above even a reasonable speed has become accepted fact.

                      It is improving, and more importantly that mindset is really starting to change. I have to
                     keep in mind that it is only December.  These efforts will pay off in the form of better
                     quality training for everyone through the rest of what is really the ‘Off-Season’.  If I may
                     repeat myself for Toronto skaters; Get better at relay exchanges.(hint/wink)

As head coach of the ‘biggest, strongest, and best’ skating club in Canada (eat that Calgary and Ottawa), these issues/questions have become my primary concern due to the disparity of the skaters here; the very skaters that make up the majority.  I have some ideas, and I think that this has already been the best indoor season in Canadian history, and it has still more potential than I have ever witnessed in a Canadian inline club.  However, I have to take a deeper look at what everyone else seems to think of things; and not simply assume that everything I think/know is best.  At the same time, I still need to meet my own needs, as well as the other top skaters.  Here, I believe I have best insight, and will continue to balance all else against this as the priority of our club.

To this end, what I think is truly unique, is the amount of improvement of the real skills-based stuff at our club.  It is taught to every skater here, and ours is quickly becoming a more skilled, racing-intelligent, and sharp club than ever before.  What makes this process great is that these skills are addressed with a sense of equality throughout the whole club.  “Theory” is taught without discrimination/exception, and practiced/executed by all based on ability.  This is something I am proud of, and yet wonder if its rarity is understood by those learning.

                       I think about all this, and here I have people, good skaters mind you, not showing up for
                       practices as regularly as they attend.  And when they are here, they don’t hesitate to
                       skip out on half the workout if it suits them. And these are the skaters that frankly, I
                       depend upon.  Some, who’s houses I drive right past on my way to practice.  Guys, let’s
                       get this together.  We need each other, and I need you. 
                       Sound sappy?  ‘Fuck it, we’re family.

Oh yeah, and our floor is absolute shit.  I mean horrible.  There’s no denying it.  It sucks.  Big time.  It doesn’t matter how much it smells like French fries, no one can skate even close to ‘all out’ on it.  …Not even close, and it really prevents us from improving. All the while, the best in the biz are soaking up sun in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, and training hard.  I am 100% jealous.