Artist of the Week: Greta Stechschulte

Freshman Greta Stechschulte has been flipping and spinning from her gold silks in her front yard for three years. Stechschulte explains her balancing act between tennis and silks, the details behind the sport, and her thoughts when flipping head first towards the ground in the Q & A below. 

How would you explain silks to someone who has no idea what it is?

“When I say I do silks, most people say like, ‘what the heck is that?’But I will just explain the people in the circus who flip off the fabric and then they usually understand. If that fails, I will just pull up a YouTube video.”

How serious do you take silks? 

“Not very serious, it is mostly a side activity I like to do when I’m not playing tennis.”

Do silks and tennis ever interfere? 

“Tennis comes first, so I usually do silks when I have extra time. It’s a very good workout and works out a lot of the muscles used in tennis, which is the reason my parents are semi-okay with me doing silks.”

What is your favorite part about silks?

“I think silks are very rewarding because skills can be very hard to learn and you spend weeks and weeks preparing for a skill and when you can finally put everything together it feels like all your hard work paid off.” 

silks Is it a relief to have a form of exercise that is different than tennis?

“I do a lot of tennis and it’s nice to not compete and try to beat someone else and silks, to me, is just for self enjoyment.” 

Peyton Moore | The Harbinger Online

“I really don’t get that nervous because you feel safe the entire time, as you are always tied in at least once, maybe multiple ways. I also wouldn’t ever try something if I didn’t think I was ready for it. But my parents like to tell me how scary it looks and I just laugh.”

How often do you do silks?

“Not very often but when it is nice outside I will try and set up the rig once or twice a week. In the winter it is harder as it is always cold.