Power from the Center: Getting deep into the hips for grounding, powerful twisting, and whole back relaxation
This week, we go low - down to the pelvis and feet to explore the relationships between the hip joints and feet. This is another fundamental lesson that will resonate with everything from golf swings to kayak strokes to the most complex of all actions: walking. Also, essential for martial arts moves as demonstrated above by the magnificent Michelle Yeoh in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
The Feldenkrais Method®/Awareness Through Movement® is, like martial arts, a 'lineage practice' of sorts. The cannon of lessons developed by Dr. Feldenkrais is 'covered' or 'interpreted' by individual teachers the way musicians cover popular songs or actors interpret roles. And one's training has a big affect on how newish teachers like me 'perform' the lessons.
My trainer Alan Questel's approach could be summed up as "like yourself better," and he provides lots of sensory cues to help students discover their habits and new, comfortable alternatives. Another school of teaching is much more bare bones, where the teacher offers an instruction and leaves it up to the students to figure out everything else.
This week's lesson is an attempt to cover both schools by integrating Alan's version with that of Andrew Gibbons, a NYC-based teacher who specializes in working with musicians. It lands somewhere between Alan's "Getting to Know Your Hips" supine lesson and Andrew's seated "Classical Mechanics" variation for pianists, as Lady Gaga demonstrates the lesson here!
This lesson calls for a firm-seated chair without arms OR a mat or towel on the floor. We will be getting into the hip joints through bowing movements - bow to the piano, or place the golf ball on the tee - and then very gentle leg lifts that will concentrate our focus on the hips and feet.
This lesson is a little less active than some, but can be profound. I have been using it to bring awareness to the relationship alignment between the leg I broke many years ago an its hip socket, my 'Achille's tendon."
And, as we did last week, we will be paying close attention to when we begin to maybe start to feel tired. This time calls for self-care and knowledge of when we start to tip in the direction of overdoing it.
As many Feldenkrais teachers assert: It's all about the pelvis! What do you think?
