today's session with a private client
Private classes are a completely different ball game than group classes. Sometimes I'm wondering if I'm doing a good job with them, since there's no one else to give me feedback! For instance, I met with a student today for a session. He is a student of mine and several other teachers at Black Dog. He likes to get private sessions with me, to help him with injuries, tightness, and to help him go deeper in backbends. We've been meeting on and off for about three years now. He has a strong practice (he can balance in handstand, he can do arm balances, he's been studying for years) and his shoulders and hips are tight.
His main desire for today's session was to go deeper in his backbends.
So- I talked to him a bit before, checked in to see how he was feeling physically and then I was like, OK, let's go.
I chose not to do centering or chanting which I almost always do with private clients but sometimes my intuition tells me to just go.
I had him in child's pose, then Down Dog, then Uttanasana.
Then I watched him do Ardha Surya Namaskar.
I just observed him for a while.
I noticed that in Uttanasana his shoulders were coming off from his back- very common.
So I told him to "stay plugged" in every pose. We spent a while on this as he was confused of the shoulder alignment in Uttanasana.
I told him that one of the beauties of the Anusara system is that we do the exact same alignment in every single pose, therefore, in theory, you could be doing say a forward bend and it could still be helping you in your back bends.
I also told him that we do so many Uttanasanas in a regular yoga class, and he's missing opportunities to teach his body how to align his upper back, which is of course one of the keys for backbends.
After a few Surya Namaskars A and a few Handstands I had him go to Sirsasana 1.
This was really interesting. He went up but I noticed he was overly using his traps. Also he was not fully straight.
So I told him to come down and we talked a bit. He said that he can do the pose but after a minute he needs to come down. He says he's often wondered why he cannot hold the pose longer.
I told him that his strength is there but the alignment could still be better.
I explained to him about the curve in his cervical spine, told him to come more towards his forehead as he is setting up in the pose. His head was having a hard time getting down to the floor, so I had him widen his elbows just a bit more. I saw that now his shoulders were aligning beautifully. He tried it again and this time he went up and was straight. He said it didn't hurt.
Then we were running out of time but we went back to handstands and we even did a handstand backbend variation at the wall, where the head of the armbones move towards the wall and the heart melts towards the center of the room. He was having a hard time melting the heart...
Lastly we did some urdhva's and I told him to press into the pose not from his hands, not from his shoulders, but rather from the bottom of his heart. He was doing better.
We did a down dog, uttanasana.
We sat for a moment and then that was it.
He said it was really helpful and I hope it was as well.
I found it interesting that he ended up having breakthroughs in Uttanasana and Headstand 1. And those were not poses I would have thought to focus on necessarily but it happened that way. He was grateful for that...
Also, I've been trying to talk less with clients. I've noticed through the years that often students LOVE to chat and then I feel guilty that we do so little yoga, so I end up running over... I'm becoming more fiery, more confident in my teaching. I really feel like I want to teach people yoga not just entertain them. I like this strong, new version of me. I hope other's appreciate my fervor.
More will be revealed...
i so love working with private clients because it really gives you the opportunity as teacher to be completely open and present to one person's specific needs. also - it's amazing and fun to observe movements of an individual and use intuition (and grace) to guide where you lead your student. what a great portrait of your session today. thanks for sharing.
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I loved reading this! I've asked myself some of the same questions about the private sessions I teach. And I've recently cracked down on 'talking' during the sessions.
'Chatter' is one way we disengage from what's going on in our bodies. At the beginning of my sessions, I encourage my students to 'stay present'. I keep my cues short and specific (challenging, because I DO love to talk *grin*). It's working; the tenor of my sessions has changed.
Awesome work with Uttanasana and headstand! You have incredible instincts as a teacher. It's interesting to read about the Anusara approach to these poses.
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