CHAPTER 19 – NICK’S MEMORY – GRAEME, THE CIRCUS RINGLEADER

In the 1970s and early 80s, Graeme was generally to be found in the sports hall of the King’s Langley Rudolf Steiner school. A large space, Graeme’s location in the room was nonetheless immediately obvious. Whether this was to do with his imposing “He-Man” physique, booming voice, or the constant orbiting buzz of activity is difficult to say. A typical looking school sports hall at first blush, a more detailed inspection disclosed an array of apparatus that would not have been out of place in a travelling big top. An oversized trampoline with steel springs took centre stage, with a harness suspended above, itself attached to a rope and pulley system fixed to the steel roof struts. Adjacent, “The Tower”, a square metal scaffold complete with wooden boards, two storeys high, from which gymnastically inclined acolytes executed fear defying leaps onto crash mats strategically placed on the trampoline bed below. Scattered around and about were an array of mats, bars, rings, trampettes (including Graeme’s precious double trampette) and various items of vaulting equipment.

An exciting scene for any active boy, I first experienced it at 2 and a half years of age. This is the earliest and most formative example of cause and effect in my life. The cause being my having a hyperactive disposition, and consequently, a mother at her wits end. Faced with an unskilled circus performer attempting fear inducing leaps from the sofa to the armchair, my mother quickly realised a trained ringleader was required. Fortuitously, one appeared. Occasional babysitting duties were at that time performed by a young woman called Sarah. Sarah had many qualities. For present purposes the key one is that she was Graeme’s girlfriend. The pivotal introduction thus made, I was released into the gym whereupon Graeme found himself in the role of personal trainer to an egocentric, feral, force of nature.

Ten years rolled by, during which Graeme’s regular ministrations manipulated and moulded this unvarnished bundle of unfocussed energy. It takes a skilled master to combine encouragement of a child’s natural exuberance whilst simultaneously, noiselessly, teaching discipline. And I am not talking here of physical discipline, but its mental bedfellow. For Graeme has always understood that the mind takes centre stage in all matters, including (and, possibly, especially) where physical activity is called for. As master of gymnastic ceremonies, Graeme taught his disciples to dissolve the disconnect between the brain and the body. Through prior visualisation of the physical in the mind’s eye, Graeme taught that the art of execution lies in mental preparation. This lesson pervades life, far beyond the performance of a superficially beguiling gymnastic manoeuvre. It goes to the heart of wellbeing. By aligning the mental and the physical, it facilitates the development of one’s whole self. It also leads inexorably to something we might these days call mindfulness.

And what fun too! And so, it would seem, great things can come from jumping off the sofa.