One of the things that threw me out the other week, when I was trying to practice along with Sharath's led primary, was my jump through. I've been using a Kino inspired, floaty, half handstand thing for a couple of years but couldn't seem to tie it into Sharath's count. I've been following along with Sharath's led ever since, trying to tighten up my practice, my vinyasa ( here meaning jump back/through) was the first thing that needed thinking about.
I decided to go with the straight leg jump through only trouble is, I've never really mastered it. I had a go at it off and on a few times, even tried to learn it blindfolded and though I eventually managed it, I never really practiced it enough to really nail it. A month of primary is a lot of jump throughs so the perfect time to hammer away at it.
And with some success, it's coming. The first couple of days I was landing on my heels most of the time and a couple of times, when tired, only just managed to make it through. It's still not graceful or elegant but I get four or five nice ones a practice now, it's becoming more consistent.
The ones that work best are when I really lift up through my shoulders, keep my hips up and almost hold my backside back. Oh and Uddiyana, that seems to bring the thighs up and allow me to catch and hold it a second before lowering. I think I need to try and hold my backside back even longer and bring my thighs up higher to really catch it, need to slow it down too (Will update this every time I notice something else that helps).
Still needs work but I'm hoping by the end of the month of led primary's I'll have it settled in.
Bit of a change this morning, instead of the Sharath led I went for the Sri K Pattabhi Jois Led primary from Yogaworks. I have both Primary and Intermediate, I got on OK with the Intermediate a few months back but struggled, again with the timing, with the primary. Much better this morning, he doesn't give you as much time as Sharath to get in and out of postures and jumping through etc, which is fine for me, but what he does do is give you a little more time to breathe, so ideal. There are a couple of quirks, only Badha Konasana A, no B and no Parivritta Parsva Konasana for some reason.
Having both the primary and Intermediate i was able to cut and splice and make a couple of extra practice videos.
1. Primary to Kapo
2. Primary to Karandavasana
3. Primary to Navasana then 2nd
After this month of Primary I thought I use the Primary to Kapo for a couple of weeks and then the Primary to Karandavasana and then see about the 3rd one or just split and practice the yogaworks Jois led 2nd.
BTW has anyone got or seen Lino's 2nd and 3rd series DVD, be interested to hear about it.
Here's a tase of the Yoga works DVD's ( clink on the info for a link for getting hold of a copy).
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7 comments:
Funnily enough, the straight leg jump through is the only one that I can do. Here are a few tricks that helped me get it down:
1) Bring the hips forward and up as you jump. Stabilize the shoulders and imagine a straight line from wrists to sit bones.
2) Keep the legs tightly together. I like to press the inner edges of the feet together in down dog before I go for the jump to engage the inner thighs. This helps me a lot with my uddiyana bandha.
3) Even if you crash land when you come through, take a moment to lift up with straight legs to build the strength you need to float and hover.
And, of course, lots of practice... but you know that already. I've tried the slower jump through that you mention, where you bring the hips high and cross the ankles before swinging the legs through, which is mostly what I see from other practitioners in class, but I've never been able to do it well.
Is one or the other generally preferred in Mysore?
I can do both the straight leg jump-through (although my right leg is not perfectly poker-straight :-)) and the slower jump-through.
I personally prefer the slower jump-through: For months, it was the only jump-through I could do because of my messed-up SI joint, and doing that slow jump-through helped me build up a lot of core strength/bandha control, and was very healing for my back. But I don't know which one is preferred in Mysore.
I remember your jump through on your current state of marich post, really nice. Will try the leg together thing tomorrow. Don't think it matters which one you use, Sharath has the most delicate crossed leg jump through see it on a post of mine a couple of days back.
I'd heard the crossed leg is supposed to be good for upper body strength too Noble but the bandha control is perhaps better served by the straight leg one, especially how Megan does it, maintaining that lift at the end before lowering. Either way, I'm having fun working on it.
Bandhas are best served by the cross-legged version... you can (should) still straighten your legs and then lower down gently once through. Straight-legged version should only be practiced by those who have more or less mastered the cross-legged one with control.. too many beginners try to do straight-legged and end up lifting all or part of one/both hands and sliding through a la baseball with no control. Basically straight legs is very easy to cheat, and the cross-legged version develops strength initially much better. Both versions should be done with control and never just crashing through.
However once you can do both, you can jump through cross-legged for the double-sided poses, alternating legs accordingly, and straight-legged for the no-sided ones, like all the ones after supta k...
In short the straight-legged version is a frill for those who can do it properly, and best avoided by anyone who can't do the cross-legged version with control... with or without feet touching on the way through. If your feet touch and you still drag it through, you develop strength. If your feet touch on the straight-legged version however, you-re screwed :)
Just some general points!
Susan hi : )
Thanks for this, not convinced that 'bandhas are best served by the crossed leg jump through' rather than the straight leg. Was trying them both this morning , switching between them and I get the feeling it's probably about the same, more subtle and less obvious in the straight leg perhaps. I agree it makes sense to learn the crossed leg first, probably helps with your jump back and good for building upper body strength.
Like the 'your screwed' bit at the end of your comment, yeah if you get the straight leg wrong it's a toe breaker.
I like mixing them around as well, used to do the straight leg to get into paschi, alternating crossed for most of the assym and especially the high kino one for Navasana. I ended up doing the Kino one all the time though and it put my timing out.
Still really like Sharath's non fancy or fussy, subtle jump through but having too much fun pinning down the straight leg to switch to it.
And of course there's Lino's, but then he's not mortal.
Megan I was trying it with feet together, seemed to help, had more floaty ones this morning, more control, thanks.
nice video. I am working on the Susan version, I guessp probably because I have no choice, no straight legs for me yet, and engaging the bandhas does seem to work wonders for practicing and taking control longer...
Thanks for the reference to the primary and inermediate from yogaworks. I dont have any Lino Miele, just ordered his book for the first time, I read about how it came to be in the Guruji book, now I want to look at it.
hi Claudia, crossed leg is good prep for bakasana too, I like them all but having fun with the straight one for now.
Lino's book is one of those must have books, just needs to be on the shelf. Having fun at the moment learning the count and saying it along with them in my head, quite hypnotic.
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