WHAT MAKES THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE SO EXTRAORDINARILY UNIQUE IN ITS APPROACH TO MOVEMENT, IS ITS LASER LIKE FOCUS ON TEACHING THE INDIVIDUAL TO LET GO OF WHAT ISN’T NECESSARY IN THE ACTIVITY, AND IS ACTUALLY CAUSING PAIN AND STRAIN. Let me give you some examples.
If you’re running with too much tension in your knees and hips, you will cause wear and tear in your joints.
If you’re playing the violin with too much tension in your neck you will cause cervical pain that will radiate down your arms.
If you’re driving a golf ball with too much tension in your torso and a curved over back, you will compromise the power of your drive and compress the disks in your spine. (Tiger Woods)
If you’re playing the piano hunched over, then the musculature of the shoulders and back and hamstrings has to work extra hard to keep you from falling into the piano.
So, what is it that the Alexander Technique teacher does that gets you out of physical trouble in all activities and keeps you from continuously hurting yourself?
The Alexander Technique teaches you what great posture and great alignment is in daily activities and specialized activities, and how to see and feel what you’re doing that is harming and compromising the activity, and how to choose and trust what works.
IN OTHER WORDS, THE ALEXANDER TEACHER GIVES YOU AN EXTRAORDINARILY ACCURATE KINESTHETIC SENSE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING IN YOUR BODY IN MOVEMENT, AND HOW TO MAKE AND INCORPORATE GREAT POSTURE AND TECHNIQUE INTO THE ACTIVITY.
Once you’ve been shown this new accurate kinesthetic sense of your body, what do you do with it?
You use it to revamp your technique and posture in the the activity, from running, to violin playing, to golf, to playing the piano, etc. How is this done?
As you’re running you keeping “ordering” your knees to release, your hips to swivel, and this will become your new second nature way of running.
If you’re playing the violin with too much tension in your neck, you focus on your neck remaining released the whole time you play, until a free neck is what you always have (second nature) when you play the violin.
If you’re driving the golf ball, you allow yourself to have a powerful aligned lengthening free back, with your fingers WRAPPED around the club continuously, as you drive the ball, until it is second nature.
If you’re playing the piano hunched over, you learn to be accurate and sensitive to the keys fully upright at the piano, with a powerful lengthening back continuously, until it becomes your new second nature posture at the piano.
THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE TEACHES YOU TO APPLY A SUPERIOR TECHNIQUE AND POSTURE TO ALL ACTIVITIES.
IF YOU ARE WILLING TO TO DO THIS CONTINUOUSLY, IT WILL BECOME YOUR NEW CONTINUOUS SECOND NATURE WAY OF DOING WHAT YOUR DOING, QUICKLY AND WITHOUT PAIN.
