Month: March 2017

Notes from class: Making choices

It is evident that as we use our muscles and nervous system well, they get better and we move and work in better efficiency and effectiveness.
Let us use the same simple but not easy mechanism to improve our awareness to making choices (lead the chariot instead of being one of the horses) and making better choices.
We will use the methodology of constraint to improve our sight inward to the choices we make weather willingly or not and to improve our sight outwardly to understand that all choices are made up of several parameters and mini choices so we can adjust everything from the way we say Yes and No to our action under tension.

1. Stand with your back to your partner. Have them push you lightly from behind and breathe and move to avoid giving resistance to the contact.  Cover the entire backside and then work with two contacts at once. This allows all involved to witness themselves going within to release excess tension and movement and opens the door to further understanding.
2. Lie down and have a partner push you with a foot. Repeat the contact five times and at each time, start to move along the contact from a different limb or neck movement. This opens the awareness to movement from the center and to awareness to more than the contact point.
3. Stand a step away from each other and send a limb to push or pull the other one at a time. Act to enfold the coming limb using each limb and head in turn and maintain that you always have choices.
4. Stand a step away from each other and facing away from each other. Reach out with a limb to repeat the previous game and maintain that you do not need sight to always have choices.
5. Stand side by side a step away from each other and repeat the previous game with now having the direction decided for you. Your partner gives you a direction of forward, backwards, left and right and as they move in, you must move in the prescribed direction as you maintain your freedom. This gives you directional compulsory directions in game and in life. Choices are always made. Make them yourself.

Enjoy the games 🙂

Notes from class: Horizons

We walk and look in lines as we are taught. We naturally walk and see in arches and the hold the horizon and gravity has on us amounts to a great lever on our movement.

Here are a series of plays to release the hold we manifest from our perception of the horizon and gravity. Let yourself move. Movement is the cure.

1. Stand a comfortable distance from each other and throw a short stick between yourselves. You can receive and send the stick only by moving from the trajectory and pressing the stick to your body with a limb or two. You cannot use your hands and thus you are freed to bend twist and move continuously. Less is more in many cases.
2. Lie down and have a partner stand over you.  Have them stomp on you or press the end of a stick to your body as you repeat the movement from the previous play.
3. Have your partner strike you twice with his upper limbs. Move along the arches of their movement and use your initial movement to press their limb to your body and keep moving.
4. Add a lower limb strike to the previous play and now pay attention to your feet. Allow your mass to move from the front to the back of the foot and from side to side. Let the contact slide on you by the quality of your body awareness. All technique is, is a key to one door. Be the key maker.
5. Add a hold to the beginning of the previous play. Moving from a hold is many times a matter of inner levers.  If a rope is held in one point and twisted, It will move in the air and stay untwisted.  We must release the hold of the earth and move with our spine and heart free from resistance. Acceptance is freedom.

Acceptance is not giving up though. It is participating in the great game instead of trying to cheat in the moment.

 

Ten movements for a healthy mobile back

Here are ten movements that will ease you into greater mobility and health. They require a little bit of time and not extra equipment.

 

  1. The turning turtle – Place yourself on your back and raise all limbs in the air including your head. Breathe and move all your limbs and body to turn back and forth from stomach to back .
  2. The look around – Place yourself on one leg and opposite side hand on the ground. Turn from facing up to facing down and switch limbs every several movements.
  3. The cross reach – Place yourself on your back with your legs straight together and your arms to the side. inhale and arch one leg to opposite hand and exhale and let it relax back down. Repeat.  Turnover and repeat the movement while facing downward.
  4. The head screw – Stand a step away from the wall and place both hands on the top of your head. Place your head (hands buffering)on the wall and turn back and forth while you maintain the contact with the wall.
  5. The Cobra – lie on your stomach and place your arms in a Y forward. Inhale and arch from the bottom of the spine upward. Exhale and release downward gently.
  6. The shoulder blade walk – Stand a step away from the wall and lean on it with your shoulder blades. Breathe and walk up and down the wall using your shoulder blades and body motion.
  7. The boat – Lie on your stomach and raise all limbs and head in the air. Breathe and use the body motion to rock forward and back as far as you can.
  8. The duck walk – sit on your behind and raise your legs so only your behind is on the ground. Walk forward and back with your body motion and let your breathing set the tempo.
  9. The exorcist – Stand a step and a half from the wall facing away from it. Walk with your hands down into a hand bridge and back up.
  10. The twister – Stand a step and away from a doorframe. Place both palms on the inner side of the doorframe and slide each leg in turn to the side as you exhale. Inhale and come back to standing and repeat to the other side.

Have fun and enjoy the innate ability of your body.

Notes from Class: levers holds And joint manipulation

There are countless holds levers and ways to manipulate the joints. There are however a few ways to play with the body to bring our  innate knowledge into awareness. That way we are able to create those on the move and without trying to force one way over the other.

Principles for the play:

  1. Our bodies and movement are not perfect – there are always openings and vectors unnoticed and unmanaged in any given moment. Use what is there instead of trying to force a method you envision in your mind.
  2. Keep the far away goal in mind instead of the pathway you see in your mind. Your thoughts are possibilities. Let them go if they do not serve the moment.
  3. Placing a focus on the contact dissolves the connection to self. Move yourself from the center outward and each part freely and avoid using the contact as support. Each time we push and pull, we lean and remove our freedom of movement.
  4. See yourself and see your contact as one. We have the same body with little changes here and there. We work the same way and what is comfortable or uncomfortable to you is mostly the same to others. Know yourself and you know the other.
  5. Keep in mind that we do not know everything. Is there a knife ? Are there others in the engagement ? When is it over ? Ask yourself questions and know the value beyond looking for the answer.

Games to bring the natural awareness to the surface:

  1. Hold each others wrist and transition continuously from the ground to standing and back. Change who leads the movement and after a while have one move to get up as the other moves to go down.  This game with changing holding locations on the body or with the use of rope or stick will teach a lot of fluidity in getting somewhere without fighting over position.
  2. Hold a hand or fist on your partner and have them tense a part of their bodies away from the contact. Push or pull and have them relax that pat and keep moving. Place with your hand placement and body part tensed to bring to the forefront the awareness to tension release freedom and continuous motion. You must play your own game within the whole.
  3. Hold your partners wrist and start turning your own body. let your movement transfer to your partner without relying on twisting the contact point to allow whole movement to manifest. Repeat the game for the ankle and move up the limbs with care to keep learning and avoid trying to succeed.
  4. Hold your partners wrist and move your body up and down and turning to use it as the second point of contact to change the angles and press/twist of the joints. Make sure you are seeing the complete person and move with them instead of trying to control them. Go up and down all limbs with this game and see how you fare both on the ground and off.
  5. Have your partner hold you tight. Breathe and release the natural resistance to the hold and move your entire frame to use the others hold on you to play on your terms.

Avoid fast movement when not needed. Learning is about understanding and knowing, not about posturing as something we are not. Let the speed come to you.