Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Exercise in Teaching

 
"Breathe in. As your arm moves away relax your shoulders. Relax you neck. Sit up, up, up on top of the sitting bones." I hear Ligia, my Pilates teacher as I sit with "mermaid legs" on the reformer,  the tower to my side, right hand on the silver bar.

I shift, shift, wiggle my seat on the mat, try to push my left hip down level with the right. Tight is that joint. There. Sit tall. Breathe in. I feel my chest expand as I inhale. As I push the bar forward with my right hand, I exhale: shhhhhh. Movements are slow and controled. I focus on keeping my hips heavy, ribs lifted 

"Grow your spine. Long, long ...Lee Ann what are you doing with your head? You have the side to side head, the "Walk like an Egyptian"  happening there. Maintain one line from the spine. Inhale into the ribs.  Exhale, push the bar away."

I love how Ligia pays attention. I might not love specific corrections (who does?) but boy do I appreciate it when she walks over and puts two, red, squishy balls on either side of my neck. Those "scaffolds" help me self- correct.

I am learning a lot about language: repetition, humor, consistent direction and clear explanation. Ligia reaffirms much of I believe about good teaching too. I am loving Pilates class.

 

8 comments:

  1. This sounds so relaxing! I must try out a class!

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  2. Love how you show the parallels of teaching in any field!! You made me breathe deeply!!

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  3. Great connection between what works for us as students and what might just work for us as teachers! Makes you wonder what the kids think about our varied methods and strategies!

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  4. I've written a great deal about yoga and my trainer lately. I do think people who teach classes about strengthening bodies, are very precise with their language. It was fun to see the parallels in our experiences. Sounds like your Pilates instructor is a keeper! Enjoy!

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    1. Karen, I will have to check out your yoga posts! The language parallels fascinates me right now.

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  5. Pilates is the best! I bought a reformer/tower combo about five years ago for my house and I haven't looked back ever since. However, it took me four years of doing Pilates with an instructor for me to be confident enough to do it at home on my own. We need those cues to help us make our moves flawless.

    BTW: I did a series on TWT a few years ago about pilates and writing. If you ever want to check it out you can go to https://twowritingteachers.org/tag/pilates/.

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    1. Very cool! Thanks for sharing your Pilates series. I had forgotten you mentiond it in Day by Day. I am now aiming for the teaser!

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  6. I love to learn from great teachers who teach very different things than I teach.

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