Employing blocks to help with shooting the legs back in jumping back.

My very first post on this blog was about jumping back, the blog was originally called Ashtanga jump back at home when I started it in July 2008.

I think I miss those old posts consisting of a couple of pictures, a video and a line or two or paragraph at most, (b)logging progress (or not) in an asana and/or how we might be working towards it, 'we' because there was the cybershala, others blogging about their own work on asana, growing our practice.

I remember I started the blog because there were very few videos around back then and those we had were so far ahead of us that while perhaps inspirational they were actually unhelpful, a hinderance almost. I remember Lino Miele's jump back and trying to copy it and thinking that floating up was what was required not seeing the years he put in before he achieved that. I bought John Scott's DVD, still inspiring today but perhaps discouraging to the beginner, they were too far ahead of us.

That was part of the problem of trying to grow a practice at home rather than in a shala.

This blog then was intended to show the progress, the hope was that in one of the many videos I took of my fledgling practice, one would capture that first jump back and we could see what actually made the difference which step, which missing piece. As it happens it turned out we all start the jigsaw in a different place, add different pieces and so all have a different last piece of the jigsaw....

My Jump Back Feb 08 to Present

For  some it's the shooting of the legs back.

This video has turned up on fb by Aey Komonlasu, (it's not on youtube unfortunately or I would share it here) you can search her name and probably find her fb page, I think her video will show up, we're not friends and it showed up for me. Alternatively you can go to my blog fb page and find it shared there https://www.facebook.com/AVKYatHome/?ref=hl scroll down for todays date 25/01/16

I shared it on my page and the like's are coming in non stop, many seem to think it may be helpful, I felt I should link to it here. It's an excellent video from Aey and she has others on her page.

I like how this video addresses the second part of the jump back, particularly step 3 and shooting the legs back, would love to hear from anyone in comments who tries this and finds it made the difference.

here are three screenshots but hunt down the video which has instructions/tips/hints below it on what she's up to.

I've focused on the shooting the legs back because I remember a few posts from a couple of years back where for some inexplicable reason I lost my jump back. I'd been jumping back fine for a couple of years then one morning it was gone and I had to tap a foot down on the way back, the timing had gone, quite bizarre, that lasted for a week or two and then my jump back came back as if noting had happened. That showed that the shooting the legs back is most likely all about confidence and timing, I already had the strength, internal action, all the other pieces, Aey's video then might help if you're stuck at the same piece of the jigsaw.

We give the jump back and through too much importance of course we can develop a perfectly nice flowing practice without it but it's worth the work, some interesting things are perhaps happening internally and eventually it'll come.... or not. 

My tip is to focus on it for a week or two then leave it alone to ferment and focus on your paschimattanasana instead or something else and then come back to it regularly. We can take the same approach to the yama and niyamas of course, re read/study them, let them too ferment within us and keep coming back again and again and if like our jump back we lose sight of them for awhile we can begin again, read them as if for the first time and seek to bring them back into our lives. 

Ramaswami talked about reviewing our day as we lay there in bed, my formulation is to perhaps ask how in keeping with the yama and niyamas were we today, not in a judgemental way, a critical way but just noticing, each evening just noticing.

It's snowing again here in the mountains of Lakeland, Shiga, Japan brrrr, writing a long post and putting off practice is tempting.

You may remember my post from the 3rd of January mentioning that I seemed to have slipped back into a relatively by the book Ashtanga practice, that lasted ten days until M. was away from the mat for a few days and I found myself slowing down ever more and slipping into Krishnamacharya's personal practice outlined in his son Shri Shribashyam's book.

This week M. made an ashtanga decision, choosing a less well paid job for one that would enable her to focus on more firmly establishing her practice, I didn't see that coming. So perhaps it's back to ashtanga vinyasa for me too, continuing to try and bring in those elements of Krishnamacharya's practice that Pattabhi Jois seemed to have put to one side and that perhaps became mislaid somehow along the way and that have had to be rediscovered ironically outside Mysore in some of the great shalas where practice has been explored for decades. Nice to think we might get to go to Chuck Miller's or Nancy Gilgoff's workshop next time they come to Japan.

We may however also feel that we wish to support a fledgling, struggling, local practice room by surrendering our home practice one or more days a weeks and just turning up to support the room.

Home practice post (part 35?) 

And this brings us full circle perhaps.