The art of flexibility

I grew up watching, loving, doing gymnastics from when I was a
little girl until I was graduating high school. I was always a
tall, lanky kid who could have excelled at other sports such as
volleyball or basketball. But I was into gymnastics. I was on my
high school competitive team, but it wasn't until I was older and
wiser (read: in college) that I came to terms with the fact that I
really wasn't that good. Maybe I just make excuses that my back
is too short and my legs are too long, but I was never built to be
a strong competitor. I was never graced with the ability to be
flexible, which can only help you in your routines. You don't
have to work as hard to have a beautiful scale or split jump, for
example, when you are flexible. So, because of my lack of
flexibility, I never could understand why guys, who would come
watch our meets in the gym, were so impressed by a girl who could,
pardon the choice of words, spread her legs. I accepted that that
girl would never be me.

So it finally dawned on me one day this year, while watching one
of the playoff games (probably on Versus since they do such an
awesome job overall with the NHL games over NBC) why guys liked
those flexible girls. It came to me as I was watching the pre-
game and staring at Marc-Andre Fleury as he was stretching and
getting ready for the game, warming up in front of the net. I was
able to finally fully understand the sex appeal of flexibilty at
that point. I knew there was a sex appeal to gymnastics in
general, but because of my own negative feelings from my own lack
of flexibilty, my mind had always been clouded. Well, let the sun
shine through the clouds because I finally get it. Maybe this is
a topic best for my female readers, but guys, you can relate to it
in the general meaning I'm sure, at least when I was talking about
gymnastics anyways.

Check out this video of MAF with an amazing splits save during
game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals last year in 2008 against Henrik
Zetterberg.

I give major props to any guy who can stretch like that who's not
a gymnast. That is impressive. Hockey goalies always impress me
because they are not only wearing skates and are on the ice, but
have to have lightning-quick reflexes in order to stop pucks
before they're in the back of the net.

Bob Errey had a cute thing to say about Fleury one time: that his
legs are like pinball flippers. I love it!

This is another view of MAF's flippers from a fan's angle
(backside!)