Have you ever been a bit winded by standing bow? Have you ever started the setup, hand back holding your foot, arm straight up in the air, waiting patiently for the commands to start the kicking and stretching part of the posture only to have the teacher pause to help a student with the wrong grip? Have you ever waited for the instructor to finish coaching that newbie on the grip only to find yourself exhausted already trying the hold the first part? Maybe you even come out of it for a second and then "re-setup" when the instructor is finished with the newbie. It could be that your second attempt to setup is a bit sloppy as let's face it....you are a tired wreck. This kind of thing happens to me every so often during an off the charts hot class. In fact, it happened recently. That, combined with Juliana's competition post got me thinking about setup and dialog.
Juliana wrote this : Their advice to future competitors was clear and simple: follow the Dialogue They said it over and over. At the national and international championship level, people are still just getting deductions for not following the precise set-ups that are given in the dialogue. They mentioned things like gripping three inches below the toes in standing head to knee, two inches below the toes in bow, and keeping the wrists straight in bow. Have no doubt, these guys know exactly what is written in the dialogue, and they are sort of baffled when people aren't following it!
Now I don't know about you, but doing yoga so many days in a row sometimes the dialog can sound like the teacher on charlie brown "wah, wah, wah, waaaa" That's no good. We need to listen to the dialog like we are hearing it for the first time. Let's try this together, in the setup. The times I've done great postures have always been the times where I had a really strong solid setup. So tomorrow pick one posture and set it up to the letter. I know, it takes more energy to set it up right and you may not be able to hold the posture as long. It's ok! You will build endurance with your new strong setup and the day will come when you hold it as long again and it will be.....beautiful!
5 comments:
Yeah, Baby! The set up of the posture is so important to your form in the posture. Form over depth!!! Sloppy set up might get you deeper or you may have the ability to hang on to your posture, but nothing is happening. (ok you are sweating and breathing heavy, but nothing else). Depth will come and is not the focus of your yoga journey.
What was it Juliana said, The dialogue is complete.
Yes if you get lost come back to the dialogue and you will find your way again.
We did this last night in Kyle's class during the floor bows. She said, "No one listens to the dialogue for this and it's all right there." Then she demonstrated. "Kick up. Then kick back. Then kick up again." It made a HUGE difference in all our bows!
Same thing happened again this morning. Lynne came over to me during the standing bow and said, "I keep meaning to tell you to put your chin on your shoulder BEFORE you go down." Once again, HUGE difference!
I agree 100%...I took this advice to heart this morning and REALLY tried to listen to every word and follow the dialogue. It was a challenge though, my mind would go into 'auto-pilot' and I caught myself starting to just go through the motions. It might do us all some good to enter the hot room with that "nervous" feeling and listen intently again to very word!
Yeah, set-ups!!!
And you know what's nice? Sometimes doing it right DOESN'T TAKE ANY MORE ENERGY. Is it harder to grip 2 inches below the toes instead of 1 inch below the toes? No way! It just take a little more mental focus - a little more technique - and the pay-off is huge. :)
Technique, baby, technique! Everyone is getting so smart. I love it.
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