Some of the students did not exactly seem... thrilled by the revelation that they would be flying in reverse today. Kamran wasn't too concerned, however; it meant they'd be challenged, which meant they were more likely to learn. Better than just running through what they already knew, at any rate. He flew up and down the training area, watching the students as they took on the activity.

He kept an eye on Blackthorne, knowing full well she was not one of his most confident students. She was determined to try, however, and that was more than enough for him. He half opened his mouth to call out some encouragement in her direction, but quickly decided against it for the moment, lest he end up causing a distraction instead. Later then. Mental note.

Kamran was pleased to see Blaze trying for the slalom poles, fair flyer that she was. A wise move, too, to go at it slowly to start with. That little collision was just a minor setback, and Blaze had always been one of those who got right back to it at those times. "Good, Miss Blaze," he called out as he passed on his own broom, slowing down slightly. "You're getting the hang of it." Steering. Simple in theory and yet just as easy to trip up on.

For a few minutes, Kamran wondered if Connolly would be taking part in the activity at all. He kept glancing her way, to see if she'd started attempting to reverse yet, not saying anything just yet as it was clear she was watching how some of the others were flying. All the same, he was pleased when she got going. She was another student he preferred not to call out to for the same reasons as with Blackthorne, but as Kamran coasted past Connolly once again, he nodded to himself.

Ah, and here was Nichols. Kamran reached a point about level with the Gryffindor just as she bumped into the one pole, and so continued watching as she attempted to keep going. Good. "That's right, Miss Nichols. Slow and steady for now."

Nam was having a time of it with this exercise, but, as ever, Kamran wasn't worried. Mistakes maketh the... something. The learning. Fewer injuries would have been perfect, but he supposed you couldn't win them all, and the boy seemed to be suffering no obvious lingering ill effects from the little collision with the pole. Kamran was hovering near the start of the poles again when Nam returned for another attempt, and give him a nod of encouragement. "Better every time, Mr Nam. You're doing well."

Kamran checked his watch to see how they were doing for time. Still a few minutes left for them to get the hang of reversing, and then they'd be moving on. He left his gaze drift back to the vines blanketing the lawn, narrowed his eyes slightly, and then refocused on the students. One thing at a time, Kazmi.


OOC: You have just under 24 hours left for the mini activity ^^

Having managed to complete a lap backwards without running into anything or anybody, Violet decided she was up for trying the slalom (she hoped). Switching briefly to forward steering to get herself into place, she turned her broom and slowly put it into reverse, carefully steering around the obstacles. First one, cleared! Second one, cleared! Third one--ditto!! Violet was starting to think she could do this after all and, almost unintentionally, she put on a bit more speed.

Then it happened--she estimated the distance between her and the pole incorrectly, or maybe she just steered it wrong--whatever happened, she ran smack into the fourth obstacle in full reverse, knocking herself off her school broom. Fortunately she had become very accomplished at casting "Arresto momentum!" (having practised it a lot for just such occasions), so she landed relatively softly in a heap. A heap of vines, that is!

Trying to scramble to her feet as quickly as possible, Violet looked around for her broom, not sure what would happen if she stayed in contact with those vines for very long and not wanting to find out. "Accio boom!" she called out frantically.

Yes, Claudine was indeed a fair flier. Each lesson helped her to improve though. The girl flashed Kazmi a thumbs up, a quick one since she was unwilling to lose focus again. So far, only that one crash had taken place. Naturally that one would hopefully be the last. The broom was still level and moved easily when directed. A point to the left and she went right, a point to the right and she went left.

Claudine weaved through the poles and was quite sure that her neck was going to remain stuck looking over her shoulder as it now felt stiff. But at last. The Snakette bolted out of the final pole in triumph.

Success.

Ok so... Ash did not why they needed to fly backwards. Couldn't they just... turn around or something??? She didn't feel all that comfortable going backwards. But she thought going around the pitch would be boring. She was a good flyer, after all.

She decided to just start with going through the poles slowly, steadily, and efficiently, and then speeding up as she got the hang of it.

Hey, this was fun! Did she feel safe and comfortable? No, but this was fun! Safety was an illusion anyway.

Well, what do you know? Heath had correctly guessed the lesson, more or less. That had never happened to him in flying class, but he supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. With a philosophical spiel like that, he couldn’t think of any other way it could relate to flying. Not feeling at all confident in his reversing abilities, he listened to Professor Kazmi’s instructions with rapt attention. Okay, so keep the broom level; urge it in the direction you want to go; point the handle in the opposite direction that you want to go… Heath mentally repeated the directions. Professor Kazmi made it sound so straightforward, but Heath doubted it would be that simple. Especially that steer in the opposite direction part. That was bound to trip him up!

Dark eyes scanned the training area, darting from the slalom poles to the perimeter of the area and back. He did not like the idea of weaving in reverse between those poles! Knowing him, he’d fail miserably. He would’ve preferred to take things slow and practice reversing around the edges of the training area first, but as he looked around, he didn’t see anyone else doing that. He was a seventh year, for Merlin’s sake, and not just that. He was one of the oldest in his year too. How would it look if he took the easy way when none of the younger students were doing so?

Taking a deep breath to steel his nerve, Heath steered toward the first pole, hovering with his back to it. He peered over his shoulder and cautiously urged the broom in reverse. The pole was coming closer and closer into his view. So if he wanted to go right to avoid the pole, he should steer left, right? He nudged the broom handle to the left, but he reacted too late and promptly crashed into the pole. Well, that went about as well as he thought it would!

Heaving a frustrated sigh, Heath pulled forward, poised to try again. He slowly backed up, urging the broom handle to the left, and this time he swerved to the right just in time to avoid the pole. One down, five more to go. As he neared the second pole, he decided to try going left this time. He started to urge the broom handle to the left but suddenly remembered that when going in reverse, the handle directions were reversed as well. He nudged the handle to the right, and the broom swerved left to clear the second pole. Still looking over his shoulder, he positioned himself in front of the third pole, and steered the broom to the right. Now he was halfway through the poles. Hey, maybe he was getting the hang of this…

Or not. As Heath maneuvered in reverse around the fourth pole, he turned too late and grazed the side of it. Ugh, just when he thought he was doing so well! Did he have to go all the way back to the first pole and start over now? He couldn’t recall if Professor Kazmi had said. Given that and the fact that starting over seemed like a huge waste of time, he decided to keep going unless he was told otherwise. Repositioning himself in front of the fourth pole, he slowly backed up and steered to the left, avoiding the pole. As the next pole came into view, he steered right, then left again to clear the final pole.

As expected, Blaze was improving wonderfully once again given the sheer amount of focus and determination she was putting into her flying. Kamran glanced her way every so often as he watched the class, to see how she was getting on, catching her just as she finished up with the poles. "Great work, Miss Blaze," he called over, returning that thumbs up from earlier.

Fox was one of those natural flyers who picked up the different flying activities quickly, if not confidently, so Kamran in turn was fairly confident that she'd take to this lesson quickly. He had certainly been correct in this belief. "Very good, Miss Fox," he commented as he passed, looping the area in the other direction.

In the meantime, it seemed Jones was gradually adjusting to the slightly different controls in reversing the broom. Scanning each of the students in a loop to check in on how they were all doing, his eyes returned to Jones a handful of times, each time seeing a small but noticeable improvement. When the seventh year made it to the other end of the slalom poles, Kamran was sure to call out to him, "Great work, Mr Jones. Excellent effort." It was nice when the students could see immediate results of effort paying off, in their own progress or the progress of others.

Now, Kamran wouldn't say he was ever glad to see someone fall from their broom, but he seldom saw it as particularly disastrous either, even (maybe especially) when the student in question was not the most confident flyer - better to experience it a few times than to avoid it and fear the unknown. If nothing else, he was pleased to see Blackthorne call upon knowledge learned in his previous classes even as she fell from her broom. Whether he sensed or simply saw her urgency in getting away from the vines, he flew a little closer and called down to the Slytherin, just after she summoned her broom. "Good save, Miss Blackthorne. You're quite safe. If the vines take hold, cut them away, or call me down to handle it."

From what he'd seen and heard so far, the vines were not exactly a Devil's Snare level threat, but a distrustful student suddenly in the midst of them might understandably have a minor panic regardless. He stayed nearby to see that all would be alright.

_____

During a lull in the activity, Kamran checked his watch again to find they were just about done with this stage. He gave another shrill blast on his whistle, then beckoned his students back in to gather around again, still hovering up in the air.

"Excellent effort out there from everyone, I'm very pleased with what I saw." That is, that every time he looked from student to student, they were actively putting in the work or else watching the others to see how they performed the same activity. It was encouraging to see. "I'd like for you to tell me how that went for you. Was it easy, what were the difficulties you came up against, and how would you address those in the future? How confident are you with reversing compared to going forwards? And-" Last but not least. "-do you think it's useful to know how to reverse, or is it not something you really care about? You may answer any of these questions or just tell me how you feel the activity went for you in general."


OOC: You can have your character answer any of the questions Kamran put to them (or say nothing if that's what they prefer). Catch-up is allowed. We'll be moving on to the main activity in about 24 hours \o/

Perhaps it was Kazmi’s constant encouragement that helped her during flying lessons. Pretty much the same as Aguilar’s encouragement had done. Claudine gave Kazmi a grin and got out of the way so that she wouldn’t be a hindrance to others doing their laps or zigzagging with the poles. Because the Snakette wasn’t the type to draw attention to herself, she hovered there silently cheering Heath on, even when any mishap occurred.

Anyway.

Moving on time.

Claudine’s hand was possibly one of the first up. “It was… interesting. The poles made reversing more challenging.” Merlin knew that reversing was already a challenge for her. “My neck hurts from looking over my shoulder so much.” And her eyes felt funny because they were legit stuck to one side of the sockets the whole time. "Even though reversing is important, I prefer regular flying.”

Violet's broom arrived in her hand right on cue (at least she was good with other spells, ones that didn't involve flying). But as she tried to mount it, she found that some of the vines had taken hold of her left ankle. "DIFFINDO!!!" she shouted, cutting at them viciously. In just a few seconds, she was vine-free, mounted on her broom, and flying back into the air, feeling much better for having struck back at the offending plants.

Violet stared at her teacher unbelievingly. How did the activity go for her?!? Violet felt that was pretty obvious to anyone who'd seen it. She'd made a fool of herself, just like almost every other flying lesson, which was why she disliked flying so much. Violet didn't like to fail at anything, and she particularly didn't like to make such obvious and public mistakes. But, feeling like she ought to say something, she finally said, "Well, I guess I need to practice going around obstacles a bit more" in a low voice.

The rest of his practice reversing had gone pretty much as the first. Mistake, mistake, finally slowly through the obstacle. Mistake, mistake, again through. Mistake.. and then through without the second. He didn't get around to making zero mistakes, but he at least made a bit of progress. Which Kazmi had seemed to notice as well, at least.

But all too soon, the activity was over and it was time to move on. How did it go? He raised his hand. "It was surprisingly difficult remembering to change the direction to being the opposite of where you want to go. It became such muscle memory for flying forwards." Hence the few times running into a pole. At least he'd have nothing but some bruises, and no worse than falling at home. "As difficult as it was, I think it's good to know. Reverse would be another good way to dodge an incoming object, such as a bludger or another player on the Quidditch pitch."

Ummm... what were the difficulties? Like most things, Ash was perfectly capable of doing it, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t afraid to. It was like fighting, or doing a backflip, or something like that. She wasn’t super comfortable. But then again, was she ever comfortable? Not really.

“It wasn’t that hard for me to reverse, but I don’t like not seeing as well, and it just feels weird compared to normal flying. I don’t go as fast even if I theoretically could.”

Was reversing important? Um, was that a trick question? Ash thought that it wasn’t really necessary, seeing as you could just turn around and go faster to run away from something, but if Kazmi was asking then there must be a reason. Maybe if you were about to be in a collision and didn’t have time to turn? But there was always the risk that you’d be launched off your broom if you reversed suddenly...

So, if his sister's assessment was anywhere near accurate then the whole flying in reverse thing should have come naturally to Atlas. After all, Andromeda had rather forcefully told him that if he were a bird he would fly backwards. But it was funny how often expectations and reality were the polar opposites.

Like in this case.

Overly confident, the Gryffindor had gone straight to the pole thingies and maneuvered through the first mostly because he had angled himself to the bristles were pointed at a diagonal. However...once he started the whole leaning back and actual movement...thing...things fell apart. His robes caught on the pole and all attempts the blonde made to untangle himself only resulted in him getting even more ensnared and instead of flying backwards...he was in a perpetual spin around one of the poles.

So...that was...something...

Around, around, and around he goes...when will he stop? Well...er...Professor Kazmi?

Instead of answering the man's question, Atlas provided a visual aid of just how well it had gone for him...since he still was a bit of a tangled mess around one of the poles and his ropes in a real twist. Needless to say, he actually had his broom in a knot.

Or was the expression 'wand in a knot'?

"I think it went...rather well," Atlas eventually mused while wiggling his fingers in the flying instructor's direction. It was the only part of his arm that he could really move at the moment without making it so his robes strangled him.

Valentina had started to enjoy flying in reverse, it was actually a lot more fun than she'd expected. Sure it wasn't as easy but she just needed to practice more! Maybe.. she could practice over the weekends.. once she was done with dance practice and homework. She considered the questions for a moment or two before raising her hand.

"I didn't feel so confident about reversing buuut I more I did it, I kind of liked it! It was a little annoying to constantly look back over my shoulder to make sure that I was doing it right but overall, it was great!! I got to learn something new today, professor!" She beamed enthusiastically.

How Flamsteed had got himself so hopelessly tangled, Kamran did not know. In the end, he reminded himself of the very simple solution here, drew his wand, and vanished the offending slalom pole. With that out of the way, it was just a case of making sure those robes were untwisted and no longer a personal safety hazard. "Free once more." Not from his lesson yet, mind.

That situation more or less sorted, Kamran turned his wand out at the space where the students had been flying, and waved it once. The remaining slalom poles halved in number and flew down to the other end of the training area, while other obstacles blinked into existence. A set of hoops big enough to fly through, some stationary and some moving slowly left to right and back again, and then a series of stationary bars at alternating heights. The slalom poles came next, and finally - bright red, but hard to see at this distance - a touch plate hovering in the air marked the end of the course, one square foot in size.

Kamran addressed the students again. "For the rest of the lesson, I want you to make your best attempt at completing an obstacle course in reverse. Fly through one of the hoops - you may choose a stationary hoop or a moving one, depending on how confident you're feeling. Then the bars, go over, then under, then over again, and under again. Slalom through the poles, and then touch your tail twigs to the touch plate at the end." Given the difficulty some of them had had with the poles, he expected a little... dismay. Maybe. Just a touch. "Try not to be discouraged if you don't make make much progress through the course; while it is designed to be challenging, the point is really to have some fun with it, while also learning to reverse with precision."

As always, he was looking for effort, not perfection. Perfection would be an excellent bonus, of course, but the point of these lessons was to have a safe learning space.

"If you have trouble with an obstacle, don't worry about starting over from the very beginning, just keep going." There was some irony in that, he supposed, given this was a lesson about looking and moving back. "You can pair up for this one, and direct each other through one obstacle at a time, or advise each other on how to tackle a particular obstacle. If you want to complete the course solo but the neck strain is getting too much, I have rearview broom mirrors set aside. Let me know if you'd like me to summon one for you." Hopefully that wouldn't be necessary, but Kamran had made sure to be prepared to accommodate for that kind of difficulty for this particular activity. "Be sure to stagger your start times, and be patient with each other. I'm right here if you have any questions."

He gave another blast on the whistle, indicating that it was time to get moving once more.


OOC: Apologies for the delay. Main activity starts here; you don't need to wait on anyone before starting or taking on an obstacle, just play like it's your character's turn. You can do this in as many posts as you like, and your character does not need to complete the course for full credit. RPing solo or in pairs is both a-okay. We'll be wrapping up at about 4am GMT on 12th November (11pm EST on 10th November), so you have just under 96 hours from now.

The course:

- Goes straight from one end of the training area to the other
- Hoops (fly through one; some are stationary, some move, so pick the approach your character prefers)
- Over and under bars (a series of four bars; fly over, under, over, under)
- Slalom poles (fly in and out of these, as in the mini activity)
- Touch plate (touch the broom's tail twigs to the touch plate)

He wasn't even surprised there was a full obstacle course next for them to try to get through. Considering that was the best way to learn, practice and what easier way to get practice then through a specially designed course? What he WAS surprised to hear was that there were rear view mirrors for flying backwards that Professor Kazmi was only just NOW offering? That seemed like it would have been a helpful tool to have used the last activity as well. But no matter, no one got hurt.

Well... maybe Atlas, considering he hadn't asked the Gryffindor.

But anyways. Since the mirrors were still offered as a back up to working in pairs, he figured it was best to try the first option first before requesting one of them. Glancing around at the others, he opted to not single anyone out lest they already have someone in mind they wanted to work with and instead asking in generalization if anyone wanted to work with him. "Anyone else still need a partner?"

And in the mean time, he'd slowly start working on the straight away portion. That part he could do without someone else assisting with directions.

Twist her entire body around. Got it. Claudine bobbed her head, letting Kazmi know that she’d keep that advice in mind. With all the responses in, the girl watched as the professor made a series of changes to the training area. No doubt this was going to be another interesting activity. Claudine actually scoffed at the mention of rearview mirrors but quickly covered it up with a cough. Let’s just pretend a bug flew into her mouth, yeah? But who in the actual world would use a rearview mirror? A firstie maybe but certainly not her.

Claudine watched a few others get started before she took her shot. Since she felt comfortable with a moving hoop, it was that kind she aimed for. And yes, this time her entire body was twisted around. Instantly, the seventh year saw and felt the difference it made. Her eyes followed it as it moved left to right, much like the pendulum of a grandfather clock. Her gaze never left the hoop nor did her pace on her broom slow.

Concentration and timing were key. They were exactly what aided her in sailing through the hoop, even if not smoothly for her broom clipped one curved edge of the hoop.

Ugh, there was more? This was not Violet's idea of fun, whatever Professor Carton thought. She wondered if she might do better with a partner (though she doubted it). Looking around, she noticed Evan Nam asking if anyone wanted to, but she hesitated to volunteer, afraid of being embarassed by her poor flying abilities (not that everyone hadn't seen her flub up many times before over the past years).

Truthfully, one need not worry about embarrassing themselves with flying skills in front of Evan. This was not his strong point either, though slowly but surely he'd been gaining some improvement as of late. But it wasn't nearly as good as the best flyer's in the class, not like those who played Quidditch especially.

Glancing down, he could see Violet looking around as if for a partner as well, and he noticed she glanced his direction, so he opted for heading her direction - slowly and backwards as the assignment required - in order to see if she wanted to partner up. "Hey Violet. Do you want to partner up and act as spotter for each other?"

Violet became aware of Evan Nam moving towards her (backwards! did they have to do everything backwards for this class?!) and realized that her decision about whether or not to get a partner had been made without her realizing it. "Um...okay, I guess I could use all the help I can get. Do you want to fly first, or spot first?" Violet just hoped she didn't fall off again, she wanted to stay as far away from those vines as possible.

The clipping had caused Claudine to slightly lose her sense of direction. That meant she inadvertently drifted to her left side. Had the clip been harder, she might have gone off course altogether. As it was, she managed to right herself and continue on by keeping her broom level and pointing it to the left.

Next challenge up were the bars. Four of them. What was the task assigned to that? Claudine momentarily forgot so that she almost crashed into the first one as she focused to remember. Almost crashed. Instinct told her to go under the bar and in doing so, she finally recalled Kazmi’s words. That’s right… the task was to weave over and under; she had started under but that didn’t matter really, right?

Under.

Over.

Under.

Over.

Goodness. That was quite something. That process had required quite a bit of concentration. Also, her back was sort of aching now from all this twisting around.

The fact he'd managed to not run into her was something he was momentarily impressed with himself for, as it had been a concern in his mind for a second there. Fly or spot first??? "I'll fly first. The first and second step seem the easiest so... Just tell at me if I'm approaching anything?" And hopefully he could stop in time for that.

Moving himself forward again just to start more from one end of the pitch, he took a deep breath, glancing over his shoulder once to ensure no one was in the direct vicinity, before heading backwards down the length of the pitch. This was thankfully the easiest part. The hoops... He was more concerned about, but this is where the spotter would most be beneficial.

He lined up for what he thought might have been the stationary hoops, before slowly moving backwards in order to try to make it through. His neck was really starting to crick, so instead of turning again he called out towards Violet, "Am i lined up alright to make it through?"

It might have helped to stop moving while asking this question.

And....Evan was off, before Violet could say anything more. Already lined up and ready to make a pass through one of the stationary hoops before she knew it. She tried to mirror him from the sideline (going forward--hopefully that was all right when monitoring, because she didn't see how one could watch a partner and go backwards at the same time). As he called for her input, she thought he was too far to the left and started to call to him, but the fact that he was still moving made it pretty hard to keep up. "You're too far to the left--YOUR left! she cried, but he was already going through. It looked to Violet like he might have clipped the side of the hoop, but he made it through and the hoop was still standing, so as far as she was concerned, that was a win.

She moved a little faster, trying to keep up with him for the next obstacle.

An obstacle course. In reverse. Val had definitely been enjoying this lesson so far.. in fact, she enjoyed every flying lesson. Professor Kazmi was the coolest, really. But, she really didn't feel confident enough to do this.. but might as well give it a try. It wasn't like she had a choice. After a few moments of hesitation, she took off.

She decided to go with a stationery hoop first. Looking back with a deep breath, she slowly and carefully started to move back - aaaand she managed to do it without bumping into the hoop. YAAAAY. Her neck really starting to hurt from all the turning, the blonde flew over to the next obstacle.

... Listening to one's partner more closely definitely would have been more beneficial than listening whilst still moving. As his now smarting left arm was reminding him. He'd managed to clip it in the same spot as earlier, so he knew there would be a rather gnarly bruise come tomorrow. He went through the rest of the hoops with more looking over his shoulder, and far slower than the first attempt, before he'd made it through and headed back over towards Violet.

"I.. definitely should have listened more closely to you. You want to go ahead and take a turn through the hoops and then we can move on?" Just to make sure no one ran out of time from at least getting some practice.

He could also use a minute before any other potential mishaps.

Those poles again.

This time, Claudine felt a lot more confident about flying about them. Realising that she had been losing some height, she quickly readjusted her broom to return to the former altitude. Once done, her focus went to the poles completely. Neatly {for the most parts}, Claudine and the broomstick maneuvered between each. Her back was starting to ache slightly more now. That meant that she could hardly wait to complete the activity. Her left leg hit a pole but she kept going. Just a few more…

… and done.

Where was that touch plate?

Once it was located, Claudine made her way towards it, still looking backwards. As she neared the plate, she slowed down to gently allow the broom to touch said plate.

Oh dear. To tell the truth, Violet had been rather hoping they'd run out of time before she had to do any more backwards flying. Oh well, might as well get it over with.

After positioning herself in front of the course, Violet began very slowly and carefully backing up toward one of the stationary hoops. She wasn't very optimistic about it--after all, she'd already run into a large pole and fallen off her broom, and this hoop was a lot smaller. But she'd been going faster then; she'd be more careful this time. She also kept looking behind her, feeling a potential crick in her neck was better than a bruise from falling off again. As she got closer and closer to the hoop, she hoped that Evan would start giving her some tips soon.