In the blood

This is me – age 10. I’ve always been a show-off.

And when friends hear I took up slacklining and the saxophone this autumn, the usual quip is “You’ll be able to walk on the slackline while playing the sax.”

This won’t be happening, if only because my progress on the slackline is so s-l-o-w. I’ll have a booking at Ronnie Scott’s before I can walk the line. I’ve been so discouraged with progress on the latter that I searched the internet for tips. The only one I could find was to forget trying to walk on it, and to learn to balance on one leg in the middle of the line. So rain permitting, that’s what I am doing.

Isaac - juggling the fire clubs above (some years ago) - said that splitting up the skill into its constituent parts is definitely the way to go. When he was learning to juggle, he practised an hour a day (during his finals) at just making throws, so the balls came down in the right position. He didn’t attempt to catch them.

Watch this space.