Tug-of-War

My husband David's favorite way to exercise is to play.

He loves to explore primal movement patterns like crawling and being on hands and knees, low to the ground. He also likes to revisit games and activities from childhood and believes in teaching us how to do them again as adults.

One of his favorite activities right now is jumping rope. Truthfully, it had been years since I had jump-roped and frankly, it had never been one of my favorite things to do. However, David's energy and enthusiasm is contagious so I couldn't resist trying it... only this time, we are doing it on top of a BOSU ball!

It's actually a lot easier than it looks (or sounds). David focuses on teaching how to throw the rope so the number of jumps we do are few - at first! Now I can jump the rope on the ball better and more comfortably than I can on the floor. It is wonderful exercise and the reduced impact is much nicer on the legs.

Anyway, last week, David brought a very long, thick rope to our exercise class and wanted to teach the ladies some jumping and running drills with the rope, on the floor. The rope was probably 40-feet long and before class, David wanted to practice swinging it, to see if it would work.

He asked me to hold on to one end of the rope while he held on to the other and he swung it around a few times. Being the cunning, crafty and clever woman I am, I decided that this was too good of an opportunity to pass up - I simply had to take David by surprise and ferociously pull on my end of the rope!

David likes to think that he's stronger than I am but this particular morning, I kicked his *!? at Tug-of-War! I planted my feet solidly into the ground, bent my knees, and tightened my core. Then, without warning, I began pulling on my end of the rope. David's body jerked forward and he looked at me, somewhat taken aback. "It's a Tug-of-War!" I yelled, "And I'm winning!"

He started to pull back but had lost some of his footing because he hadn't been prepared for the fight. This was exactly the advantage I needed and I took it! I kept pulling and pulling and he kept moving further and further toward me... I knew it was over and that I had won when he had to wrap his end of the rope around his back/waist to keep from being pulled forward. At that point, I eased my grip and declared my victory!

I beat David at Tug-of-War... and he knew it!! (Though he doesn't like to and probably won't admit it!)

I believe that we need to take these little victories in life as often as we can. David enjoys competition more than I do and therefore, he often times does beat me at different games that we play. But it's not that much fun to play when you think you know who will win and who will lose.

Sometimes all we need to do is to "outsmart" the competition in order to win. Thinking a few steps ahead and having an eye that sees opportune moments certainly helps. I'm certainly not always as crafty and devious as this might sound - but the truth is that I like to "win" too... and sometimes, I need a little help!

As I said before, in case you forgot, I BEAT DAVID AT TUG-OF-WAR! AND HE KNOWS IT TOO, RIGHT DAVID? :)