Changing the swing

May 19, 2009

Tiger Woods

A client today was saying how his golf swing left something to be desired, despite managing to play a good game. He described that during his swing, his right hip and leg did something strange that caused a slightly erratic movement. He had been told by another specialist that he had a preference towards his right side, so he was imbalanced and that his Psoas muscle on that side was over developed. I agreed with this, but also added that if a muscle is over developed on one side, then that is because it is being used more than the other side; it doesn't happen by accident. The muscles on one side are often worked more than the other, so they become more developed; it's cause and effect. If he uses muscles less, then they will reduce in strength according to the amount of use.

I watched his golf swing during our session today and could see clearly there was a tendency not to remain even on both legs and also to straighten his right leg and pull ihis hip backwards during the movement. We looked at how he should think to overcome this tendency.

He commented that he may be able to change his stance and swing, but he was concerned that the ball may go wild and fly off in wrong directions. I explained that when we change how we 'use ourselves' during something so precise as a golf swing (or playing the violin in my case, or any other instrument or sporting activity) we not only change our movement and use, but also we upset everything we have relied upon over the years, to do what we do. The new way will feel wrong and there will be a large amount of readjustment of all the parts of his body that come into use during his swing. It is most likely that the ball will go wild and his accuracy will be affected, until such time as the new way of 'use' becomes familiar and established.

When we think about one thing such as changing our stance and swing, our mind is taken away from other aspects of the swing that we have previously relied upon to get the ball in the hole. Nothing is familiar any more. However there are very great problems with trying to just 'get the ball in the hole' and not attend to the manner in which we do it, or the 'means whereby' as FM Alexander called it. By 'end gaining' we can get into all sorts of trouble. It is much better to work on the fundamentals of 'use' and let the 'end' take care of itself.

If we can give ourselves some time to work on such principles, without worrying about 'getting the ball in the hole' then we can change our manner of use so it will be more reliable. However, repetition of faulty use or a faulty swing in his case, ingrains the tendency more and makes it even more pronounced over time.

It is really worth while to practice small parts of a movement of a swing and give absolute attention to such things as keeping our neck free, remaining balanced on both feet, maintaining freedom across the shoulders and the arm pits etc and moving fluidly, without worrying about the end result. Repetition of 'good use' gets into the muscle memory and system so that we will be better off once it's established as a norm. The only way we can eradicate faulty 'use' or actions is to give absolute attention to the situation, millisecond by millisecond. It will soon become more second nature and our accuracy will return and become even better as all of the working parts become more integrated.

Yes, his accuracy may be affected by changing his swing, but with due care and attention to 'how' he is doing it, I believe he can change his swing ant it will be much better as a result. We've just got to give ourselves a bit of time to work on it.

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Pressing Pause, on 'Now'

May 14, 2009

Le Cottage, Talloires, Annecy, France

One of my first clients this morning told me that she's going to Annecy in France for a holiday next week. How wonderful I thought, remembering the times I've been to Annecy, beside its lake of the same name near the Alps. She explained that the hotel wasn't actually in Annecy itself, but in Talloires, nearby. "You're not staying at Le Cottage, Talloires, by any chance, are you?" I asked. "Why yes, actually we are!"

Sometimes the world seems very small, very small indeed. My first visit to Talloires was in 1965 when I was a spotty adolescent. We went as a family of four; my brother and I, Mum and Dad. We swam in the lake, fished for the small local poisons, made rafts out of old timber logs and went walking in the mountains behind. In those days Le Cottage was a humble house of no grandeur or finesse, whereas now it is a very smart lakeside hotel and more expensive than we would have afforded in 1965.

We'd had the most amazing three week holiday touring France by car, taking a week to drive down to the Cote D'Azur staying at small Relais Routiers en route. We'd had a week of Mediterranean sun, sea, sand and fun. The return to the UK was gentle drive north again via the French Alps and one of the places we stopped for a couple of nights was Talloires, so we could have fun on the lake and visit the neighbouring town of Annecy with its pretty riverside houses with flower baskets and its stunning castle on the hill. Roads in those days were quiet D or N roads as it was before Autoroutes had been thought of, so pottering around by car was a great adventure.

I returned to this region of France just a few years ago when doing small tour with my partner; 5 days in the Ardeche further south where shrubs and trees are stunted and the ground is bleached ochre by the sun, then a week in Le Chartreuse, a mountainous region where the Maquis resistance fighters hid from the Germans during the second world war which now is a National Park and wonderful walking country (not to mention the delicious green Chartreuse liqueur produced at the secluded monastery....a beguiling tipple capable of blowing your head off). And finally we had a week in the lower reaches of the Alps, just above Talloires and Annecy. We drove specially to Talloires as I remembered the name of the guest house that my family had stayed at almost 40 years before and I wanted to renew the memory. And there it was; grander, larger, but still in the same location. My raft had disappeared and there are now more sun loungers and waiters around, but it's the same place. On this return, I pictured my Mum and Dad there, sitting beside the water as my brother and I played. How strange it seems to revisit a place where memories and history tell you that events have occured and lives lived, and here we are again....living the same life, but now moved on. That was then. Now is now.

And here I am today, now in my Alexander Technique teaching practice giving an Alexander Technique lesson to a client who will be at Le Cottage, Talloires, next week. Memories are fun. Planning and looking forward to future events is also fun. But really there is only one time to be in and that is 'Now'. And 'now' is fun too..... That's the place to be. The more we are 'present' the more fun and enjoyment and depth of experience we get at this moment, which in turn will provide stronger memories for some future time when we press the pause button on the 'present' to remember an occasion once more. Ah, Talloires, I remember it well....

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Wild Garlic and Blue Bells

May 11, 2009

We read with interest that the winner of TV Master Chef, Mat Follas is due to open his new restaurant in his own Dorset town of Beaminster and where we moved to ourselves, just a few weeks ago! (Now Beaminster is our own adopted home town and his restaurant is a mere two hundred metres away.) Having cooked a meal for the final featuring his favourite wild ingredients, it comes as no surprise to find that Mat's new restaurant will be called The Wild Garlic. We'll look forward to taking a table in June when it opens....if there are any tables available to book!

Apparently wild garlic is not so readily available to chefs unless they have access to a vegetable garden or some in the wild. But as we went on our Sunday walk from our door across the Dorset countryside we came across such vast amounts of Wild Garlic growing at the sides of the paths, it's clear why Mat Follas chose it as the name for his restaurant. One path we took from Beaminster over the hill towards Mapperton had a half mile of its borders covered with the typical white flowers and broad slender leaves. I'm sure we smelled of garlic after the walk, without even eating any. We will soon be experimenting by chopping the leaves (not the bulb) into our own cooking. It smells slightly sweeter and more gently than normal garlic. We'll try it this weekend as we receive our first guests at our new home.

Further on the walk on the hills above Maplash the path meandered through some woods with the most wonderful bluebells. It was like an enchanted garden. There is nothing to lift the spirits more than such a quiet and beautiful spot, with sun glinting through the leaves, to reconnect with the soul and enjoy nature. I freed my neck, smiled and walked on through....

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Back on track again

May 6, 2009

Our refurbished home is now finished, the builders have moved on to new pastures and we have finally moved in. Eight months of building and repair works to our new 200 year old house has finally come to an end and I have withdrawal symptoms for my daily discussion with our Master of Works; the talking through of details and decisions which have been virtually all consuming over recent months. Now it's back to 'normal living'. What is that, I ask?

In my work as an Alexander Technique teacher I help people overcome postural habits, where muscles and co-ordination have got into a set pattern of habits that characterise our posture and govern how we move and how much effort we make in doing the simplest of tasks. But retraining our muscles and co-ordination in Alexander lessons we can get out of habits that in the worst situations can cause a great deal of pain, discomfort, anxiety and loss of ability and reduced performance in all fields of activity.

But here I am with post-project blues missing my daily interaction with Russell who has expertly steered us through to completion, and I realise that my brain 'muscle' is just as prone to get into habits as my physical muscles! Habits of thought are just as powerful as habits of posture and physical tension. So it's time to move on; to move out of the mode of house renovator and to recommence all those activities that can give me immense pleasure, but it takes a certain amount of mental switching over. For instance, my violin has barely seen the light of day for weeks, my photography has come to a complete standstill, but now I have a brand new darkroom at our house (yes, old fashioned darkroom for camera film development and printing pictures in wet chemicals!) I am almost ready to get back into it. But how rusty I feel!

The violin almost feels strange in my hands; I'm clumsy and less proficient with the minimal practice I have afforded it in recent months. Goodness knows how my darkroom skills have fared but I shall challenge those at the weekend, I hope and do some inaugural prints with my new facilities.

Also, after a rather lengthy spell away from writing blog entries, I hope to settle back into the pleasant occupation of writing some musings and drivel, mainly for my own amusement, but if you're at all interested, then please do drop by occasionally. I'm sorry for the recent lapse in writing, but I hope you don't hold this against me!

So with spring well and truly budding, the weather most pleasant and a garden at our new home flourishing, I can reflect on all this in between my clients for Alexander Technique. So as another person is about to arrive for her lesson to improve her posture, I'll must go and get on with the day in hand. See you soon. :-)

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Unexpected improvements

March 12, 2009

My first client this morning was saying how the Alexander Technique was helping her game of tennis.... how she could get to the ball faster. Her coach had commented on the speed of her reactions and she firmly puts it down to the change of her 'use'; how she uses her body to do things. She is freer, more supple and sprightly and she's more agile.

I am always happy to hear how people's lives have changed beyond the obvious 'getting rid of back ache' or 'reduction in headaches' or the 'knees that don't ache any more' or the 'better confidence and improved speaking voice in meetings'. When they discover something else that was not the reason for taking lessons in the first place, then you know it's getting into their system; it's improving their life on fundamental levels. I think of the entrepreneur lady who came for back and neck problems and found her acidity and digestion improved, and the chap who came with a bad back but who had broken his elbow 30 years previously and had been 'permanently bent ever since, now finds it is straightening.

I've been playing the violin for around 4 years and my recent endeavours have been much improved by a step back from playing music to really working on my own poise, balance, ease of movement. For the last eight months I have been absorbed in such fundamentals as freeing my neck more, paying attention to my balance, so I don't lean, going 'up' within myself so I lengthen and widen in stature as I play. I had found one or two habits creeping in that I wasn't too happy about. Hence the 'step back' to work on fundamentals. My last violin lesson was in August last year...eight months ago. I told my teacher (who is wonderfully understanding) that I was going to do this and he let me go, to go and work on it. I returned just two weeks ago for another lesson and he said that he'd never heard me play so well, that every aspect of my playing had improved. I was chuffed. Thank you!

For the last eight months I have been standing between two mirrors, angled so I can see different sides of my self as I play. This way I get to see what's really going on. This is the way that F.M. Alexander worked in the 1880's when he evolved his technique to help himself. He found he couldn't trust his feelings as the mirrors clearly showed that he was not doing what he thought he was doing. These days, Alexander Technique teachers guide their 'pupils' with their hands, so they get the new experience; the teacher acts as a mirror. But I have been using the mirrors in F.M.'s manner to help myself.......and I've learnt so much! You may think I'm mad, standing between mirrors for eight months, but it's only a fraction of the time that Alexander did for himself; his experimentation lasted many years and I am blessed with a little knowledge of how he did it whereas, he worked it all out for himself!

Mirrors never lie. You see what is.....if you have the eyes to notice. You've got to not look at the balding head, the moles on the face, the belly that's had too many dinners. You've got to be objective and see what is truly happening. Then by using Inhibition to avoid just pulling your shoulders back or sucking your guts in, to use Alexander Technique directions to change how you are. It's an indirect approach where we use a process, rather than aiming for the end result.

So, like my tennis playing pupil who has experienced changes beyond her expectations in another field, I am using the technique that I teach to others to help myself improve at my own chosen activity of playing the violin. It's helping so much..... It does take time, but by giving it plenty of time it pays huge dividends.

If we change our manner of 'use', in our poise and movement, we change how our body functions. This helps us internally with breathing, digestion, circulation, reproductive organs as well as personal confidence and sense of well being. It also helps with everything we do.

I'm very pleased that my violin teacher tells me that I've improved so much...not by practicing the music, but by practicing how I 'use' myself when playing the instrument. He simply said...."Carry on, it's great." So I shall.

Soon I will return to learning more music and I will bring to the task a better performing Noel and I'll do a better job at it, as my own 'use' is improved during the activity.

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Great poise, no effort

January 29, 2009

Unnecessary strain and distortion in the military stance.

"Pull your shoulders back, man....and stand up straight!" Can't you hear a Sargent Major shouting this? And haven't we heard our parents tell us similarly when we were young (or even not so young!)...to stand up or sit up straight?

We all know that upright posture is supposed to be better for us, but sadly just pulling your shoulders back, sucking your guts and bracing yourself is just not the way.

When we pull ourselves up 'straight' like this, we use a whole lot of muscles in ways that are not intended for upright poise. We use the wrong muscles and wrong muscle fibres in our endeavour to straighten out our banana shaped posture, but after a short while we begin to collapse again into our slouch as we become tired. We're back to 'Square One'.

And looking at this gentleman on the left, he may think he's standing up 'straight', but look at him in more detail. His back is arched, so he's bent in the middle, his head is severely pulled back, there is masses of tension between his shoulder blades, in his lower back and legs and it's painful to look at.

However if we were to observe a 3-4 year old child we would see an example of upright poise that appears effortless and causes no strain or discomfort; it can be sustained all day without tiring. Now why is that?

All vertebrate mammals, including horses, dogs, lions, cheetahs, cats and the Meerkat motif at the top of this page have a natural instinct for poise. It's in their genetic make up after millions of years of evolution. Humans have a very similar instinct that gets us on our feet as a child and we learn to balance with upright stance. We also have a very free neck, relaxed shoulders. It's all instinctive and working naturally. This instinct is with us until we die.

But if we look at the chap in the photograph, he certainly is not doing what a child would do; he is using a vast amount of effort and is distorting his poise too.

As adults we have probably developed a lot of postural habits, that may stiffen us and also cause collapse at the same time. If we were able to get rid of our postural habits we could allow our natural instinct for poise to help us. This is what we do with the Alexander Technique. Someone having lessons in the Alexander Technique is never shown 'how to stand or sit', but is helped with the hands-on work from a qualified teacher, to learn how to let go of the habits we have. "If we get rid of the wrong thing, the right thing will look after itself.", said FM Alexander.

The Technique does not involve making effort to hold ourselves up. Far from it. We learn to not stiffen, to let go of tensions. But by thinking in the right way, we stimulate our bodies natural response to gravity, to take us upright to our full height. We only need to think it and our muscles will oblige. The Meerkat sitting at the top of my page is only wishing to see into the distance and his 'postural muscles' oblige him by bringing him up tall without any sense of effort.

Improving your posture should not involve making any particular effort, but to overcome our habits we do need to use our mind. We learn to think the right thoughts that encourage our body to come into better balance, tall and broad. We let our body sort itself out. We are actually doing exactly the same as what is happening in nature with vertebrate mammals; animals such as cats, horses and lions.....as well as our own children. The only difference is that they are doing it instinctively (without harmful habits that interfere with their poise) and we are doing it consciously by tapping into our instinct. We think, but we DO NOT make effort. We'll leave that to the old fashioned military school.

:-)

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The Old Phone

January 14, 2009

I've just received this story from a friend and would like to share it with you:

THE OLD PHONE (A great story)

When I was just a young boy, my father had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember the polished, old case fastened to the wall. The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination when my mother talked to it.

Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an amazing person. Her name was "Information Please" and there was nothing she did not know. Information Please could supply anyone's number and the correct time.

My personal experience with the genie-in-a-bottle came one day while my mother was visiting a neighbor. Amusing myself at the tool bench in the basement, I whacked my finger with a hammer, the pain was terrible, but there seemed no point in crying because there was no one home to give sympathy.

I walked around the house sucking my throbbing finger, finally arriving at the stairway. The telephone! Quickly, I ran for the footstool in the parlor and dragged it to the landing. Climbing up, I unhooked the receiver in the parlor and held it to my ear. "Information, please" I said into the mouthpiece just above my head.

A click or two and a small clear voice spoke into my ear: "Information."

"I hurt my finger..." I wailed into the phone, the tears came readily enough now that I had an audience.

"Isn't your mother home?" came the question.

"Nobody's home but me," I blubbered.

"Are you bleeding?" the voice asked.

"No," I replied. "I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts."

"Can you open the icebox?" she asked.

I said I could.

"Then chip off a little bit of ice and hold it to your finger," said the voice.

After that, I called Information Please for everything. I asked her for help with my geography, and she told me where Philadelphia was. She helped me with my math. She told me my pet chipmunk that I had caught in the park just the day before, would eat fruit and nuts.

Then, there was the time Petey, our pet canary, died. I called Information Please and told her the sad story. She listened, and then said things grown-ups say to soothe a child. But I was not consoled. I asked her, "Why is it that birds should sing so beautifully and bring joy to all families, only to end up as a heap of feathers on the bottom of a cage?"

She must have sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly, "Wayne always remember that there are other worlds to sing in."

Somehow I felt better.

Another day I was on the telephone, "Information Please."

"Information, "she said in the now familiar voice.

"How do I spell fix?" I asked.

All this took place in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. When I was nine years old, we moved across the country to Boston. I missed my friend very much. Information Please belonged in that old wooden box back home and I somehow never thought of trying the shiny new phone that sat on the table in the hall. As I grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood conversations never really left me.

Often, in moments of doubt and perplexity I would recall the serene sense of security I had then. I appreciated now how patient, understanding, and kind she was to have spent her time on a little boy.

I spent five minutes or so on the phone with my sister, who lived there now. Then without thinking what I was doing, I dialed my hometown operator and said, "Information Please."

Miraculously, I heard the small, clear voice I knew so well. "Information."

I hadn't planned this, but I heard myself saying, "Could you please tell me how to spell fix?"

There was a long pause. Then came the soft spoken answer, "I guess your finger must have healed by now."

I laughed. "So it's really you," I said. "I wonder if you have any idea how much you meant to me during that time?"

I wonder," she said, "if you know how much your call meant to me. I never had any children and I used to look forward to your calls."

I told her how often I had thought of her over the years and I asked if I could call her again when I came back to visit my sister.

"Please do", she said. "Just ask for Sally."

Three months later I was back in Seattle. A different voice answered, "Information." I asked for Sally.

"Are you a friend?" she said.

"Yes, a very old friend," I answered.

"I'm sorry to have to tell you this," she said. "Sally had been working part-time the last few years because she was sick. She died five weeks ago."

Before I could hang up she said, "Wait a minute, did you say your name was Wayne?"

"Yes," I answered.

"Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down in case you called. Let me read it to you."

The note said, "Tell him there are other worlds to sing in. He'll know what I mean."

I thanked her and hung up. I knew what Sally meant.

Never underestimate the impression you may make on others.

Whose life have you touched today?

Why not pass this on? I just did....

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