joyful hand flapping on "American Ninja"

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"American Ninja" is an NBC show where athletes go through very challenging obstacle courses.

I recorded this Monday's show and finished watching it last night. And when competitor Joe Moravsky finishes stage 2 his wife Stephanie Moravsky wildly cheers including hand flapping!

Yeah for her and Yeah for her husband!! !

I'm sure they're both creative, active persons, and the baseline odds is that neither one is on the Spectrum.

Now, I personally don't hand flap, but I think I do other quote-unquote 'weird' things that people are against.

So, hand flapping is 'normal' ? ? ? Yeah, to some extent it is. So, why are people so against us on the Spectrum when we do it?

I think because we might get excited at different things and we might do quote 'weird' things in different ways.

I'm actually in favor of trying to conform in a light way and be more low-key in public, just that our friends and family need to understand that this is not a 100% deal.

I'm also very much in favor of the rest of the society lightening up on the topic of stimming.

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NBC has about a two and a half minute clip.

http://www.nbc.com/american-ninja-warrior

There's a crappy 29 second commercial first. And the clip's two plus minutes. Look for the cheering at about the last 20 seconds.

I think the case is that it's considered abnormal more than it is normal. It's not everyday you'll see something like that happening. I do my share of hand-flapping when I'm at home, but I do, on occasion, flap in public if my excitement gets too overwhelming for me at times. People are going to be judgmental of anything someone else does that isn't 'normal'. It doesn't matter if it's because someone is on the spectrum or if the person is mentally-challenged or whatever. People are uneducated when it comes to disabilities, and they don't realize that when we fly off the handle or express our joy that it's simply harmless.

All I got was a voice saying 'this content is currently unavailable'...

Interesting. Only read the top part of the post.

I was able to play the "Featured Video" at my local library.

And I agree that it's not everyday that you see hand flapping on TV. Now, with the broader category of stimming, this is more common, such as basketball players, baseball players, poker players fiddling with chips, someone fiddling with a pen while talking on the phone, etc.

I like to look for examples of stimming among quote 'normal' persons to kind of demonstrate that it's a time and place issue. Okay, sometimes stimming can be a distraction, but other times it helps to maintain concentration, adds joy to life, etc., etc., etc. And of course, there's really no such thing as 'normal' and how boring a place the world would be if there were!

I have a feeling that this show is those kind of shows where you are supposed to laugh when people fail.

I don't really feel happy about it.

Not true at all. One of the things I really love about this show is the true sense of camaraderie among the competitors. They get truly psyched up about the success of others.

I didn't see the flapping clip yet. Haven't watched the most recent episode. I had an NT friend once who flapped when excited. Most people thought it was cute, although overall, people would have described her as "ditzy" even though she was academically smart.

I hand flap when I'm extremely upset and when it happens I can't control it.

I want our friends and family members, and to some extent people in general, to be more accepting.

Yes, sometimes we do unusual things, and it's okay.

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And in addition . . . in a public setting, if a person who is with us is relaxed and at ease, that might translate and help bystanders be relaxed and at ease.