Sharon Friedman – Vigilance and Tranquility

Hip freedom: First with a friend have him put his hands on the sides of your hips and start to slowly move you. There should be no ressistance and he should move you up and down, side to side, tilting one hip up and out, thrusting and so on. keep the work multi dimentional and do the same for him/her whatever. Now stand about two easy steps from each other and imagine a line in front of your feet. Reach forward with your torso and one hand to reach him while sending one leg back so it’s aligned with the torso. repeat a few times without crossing the line and now add to this a roll from that position to his feet exactly stopping at his feet.

Alone you can sit down and stand up using the ground while your hands ar on your hips. Keep the torso straight and perpendicular (I like the word) to the ground. You will learn faster if you move so there is no use of momentoum. To check it, simply stop at random points along the way and feel if you can stay at that point without using power and if you can stop the motion at all.

Now to something completely different. Lie on the ground and rise yourself a fraction off the ground using the feet and hands. Play with your placements so there is as little effort to maintain this (hint: rely on your connective tissue and the extent of your joints, think of a low spider in the hands and do the same for the feet though the scale is different) Now, sway forward and backwards, from side to side and in small circles. This is the first stage of learning to move close to the ground.

Now to the same thing (ish) while squating: squat with feet flat on the ground and toes pointing forward. bring one leg forward so the heel RESTS without weights jently on the ground before you. Using the hip joints sway and move your torso while upright forward and repeat. This seems weird at first but once you get the hang of it, it’s fast and easy.