Question: What do books on Fascia and buses have in
common?
Answer: You wait for ages then two come along at
once.
I have been waiting for the books: Fascia in sport
and movement and Yoga Fascia anatomy and movement to be published for years and
then they both arrived in the same box, on the same day, an abundance of
information and ideas, too much to digest in one go, and consequently I have
the equivalent of information indigestion. The rich diet served up by the
wonderful authors was just too much for me, so I have had to slow down and read
in smaller portions.
I have the great pleasure to include many of the
authors and editors amongst my friends and acquaintances and I know how long
they have strived to bring this information into the public domain. I recognise
and remember the birth pangs of some of the ideas from Summer schools and
gatherings of Fascia devotees.
If you are interested in Fascia and movement
then please log onto the Handspring publications website (http://www.handspringpublishing.com/publications/)
and secure your copies now, you will not regret your purchase.
As some of my clients know, I have had fun playing
with some of the content, indeed the editors of the Fascia in sport and
movement, encourage the reader to open a conversation with the content of the
book, to discover and make up their own minds about the ideas suggested by the
authors; and so I thought I would share one of my observations with you in this
blog.
I was flicking trough the Yoga book by Joanne Avison,
and came across a picture of the children’s toy –the Jacobs Ladder.
Immediately I was transported back to a lecture
theatre in Brussels watching Stephen Levin holding up this everyday toy as be gave
a lecture on biphasic movement, it was fascinating to watch the movement of the
toy, to remember back to childhood when I played with my own Jacobs Ladder and
to realise that this simple toy could demonstrate and symbolize so many
principles of movement. Later Joanne bought a couple of the Jacob ladder toys
and we spent a frustrating couple of hours getting to grips with the concept
Stephen lectured about and finally in the wee small hours there was a light
bulb moment, in fact it was several light bulbs which continue to flash over
the intervening years. How could such a small event make such a big ripple
through my Pilates and movement teaching?.
I am playing with that Jacobs ladder toy now as I am
sitting at my desk, continuously fascinated by this simple wooden and ribbon
toy. I have even made a chocolate bar version (which didn’t last very long) to
understand the way it worked and now want to share one small but significant
aspect with you.
If you want to know all about the bio-tensegrity and
how it relates to yoga teaching and movement then please read the beautifully
written chapter 7 in Joanne’s book.
However the bite sized aspect I am interested in here
is finding the silent stillness at the point of perfect balance just before the
biphasic movement of the toy, i.e. just before the wooden blocks tumble down.
It is in that pregnant pause, the point just before ‘no return’ that the
effortful becomes effortless, the tension between the ribbons is equalised and
the blocks are held in a seemingly magic suspension. It is in this moment that
we can play, we can suspend time and we can discover the hidden tension, which
is always there in a bio-tensentric body. The tissues of the body are never in
a state of ‘no tone’, we may say we are relaxed but that is never truly the
case unless we are anaesthetized or dead. In the space between, as can be shown
so perfectly by the Jacobs ladder toy, we have a choice, possibilities exist,
balance and movement flow from that point.
In the Pilates studio we can place the body into
shapes, which mimic this space between, where it is relatively effortless and
where we can play with the possibilities. In the studio we played with
recognizing these points of balance, tone but minimal effort, points of choice.
The clients experienced the calm silence of the space, a time of
self-perception.
All movement moves from and too, between these
points, from a simple breath, to a complicated exercise. It is the magic of
that point that I would love everyone to find in his or her own movement
practice.
Over the last year we have been involved in a project
where we took scientific concepts relating to our connective tissue (fascia) and
using movement, we tested them. From out of this project has evolved a creative
movement system Connective IQ movement and Self -perception is key to the way
we teach.
Just like Christmas chocolate eaten quickly, the glut
of detail and information quickly read in these two books is soon regretted as
it formed a log-jam in my brain, instead, I realised that a little exquisite taste
can be fully appreciated, digested and savored every once in a while and that
is how I will now proceed. As invited by the editors, I will contemplate on the
content and make up my own mind. There is so much that it may take some time, however, I
look forward to opening that conversation with my own body and with my clients,
I foresee lots of fun ahead.
Tracey Mellor
© 2015
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