This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by Joe Walnes. Original Post: Joe tries to do backflips Feed Title: Joe's New Jelly Feed URL: http://joe.truemesh.com/blog/index.rdf Feed Description: The musings of a ThoughtWorker obsessed with Agile, XP, maintainability, Java, .NET, Ruby and OpenSource. Mmm'kay? Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by Joe Walnes Latest Posts From Joe's New Jelly

I'm doing a sponsored backflip to raise money for the International Autistic Research Organization.

How did this happen? I'm not totally sure, but if I recall it started in a conversation with Martin Gill, my manager, that went something like this:

J> Did you see the gymnastics and the olympics? It looked awesome!
M> Yeah. Bet you can't do that.
J> How hard can it be? They make it look so easy. Bet I can learn to do a backflip.
M> Ok. When and where?
J> Uhmmm, four, no, six weeks. On the grass outside work.

Next thing I know, I've blabbed this to lots of people and the suggestion comes up that I get sponsorship to do it for charity.

So here I am, now 2 weeks into my 6 week task to learn to do a backflip. This backflip will take place unassisted on some flat grass. However, there was ambiguity in this challenge as there was disagreement about what a backflip actually is and it seems to vary from country to country.

In the UK, a backflip is where you jump backwards, spring on your hands and back onto your feet. The technical term for this is a back handspring. This is what I thought I'd agreed to. You know, like ninjas do down the street. QuickTime animation

In the US, a backflip is where you jump upwards, rotating a complete 360 in the air and land on your feet, without anything but your feet ever touching the ground. The technical term for this is a back somersault. QuickTime animation

So, to compromise the I've decided to give both a go. I will attempt three things:

1. A single back handspring.
2. Three back handsprings in a row.
3. A back somersault!

I'm asking for sponsorship for different amounts, depending on which of these I achieve. For example, Dan Bodart says he'll sponsored me 10GBP if I achieve one handspring, 20GBP if I do three handsprings and 50GBP if I manage the somersault.

I'm learning this at home, with the help of Google (which has helped me find lots of online tutorials), a bouncy castle (a safe place to practice without breaking my neck), and Jaimie (my fiance who watches from afar and tells me what mistakes I'm making).

If you want to sponsor me, drop me an email ( my first name at truemesh dot com ) or leave a comment.