The idea of this post, same as the jump back progress, kapo progress and I think there's a Karandavasana progress post, is that you find the video that most represents where you currently are , check the date, then go to the blog archive for that period to find what made the difference to lead to the next video.
---First attempts at Dropback 17 aug 08----
-----Dropping back to head 20 aug 08------
---Building up to Dropback 26 jan 09-----
------------Dropping back 27 Jan 09----------
--Dropback+attempt to come up 24 Feb 09----
----First time coming up 1st Mar 09---------
-Hanging excercise + drop back 2nd Mar 09-
---Dropping back and coming up 3rd mar 09--
---Jun 09 after a six week break from backbends-
-- 1st up from UD (no dropback first)-----
--------Oct 09 (rarely practiced since July)---
------------------Late Oct 09---------------------
---Early Nov 09. dropback and back up-----------
Feb2010 ( first Iyengar dropback challenge).
Haven't updated this progress post for a long time, above from May 2011
108 dropbacks June 2011 - Speeded up
Feet together vinyasa krama style from 2011
Without lifting heels, again 2011
and finally most recent ( although I practice them less often than i should these days), 2014, here in Japan, downstairs. Went back to lifting heels after Norman Sjoman's workshop.
19 comments:
Do you also think that looking at the own pictures and movies helps a lot to improve the practice?
I mean it is not vanity.....mmhhh.
For me it is a great help, the movies of others and my own.
Very much so, filming it makes all the difference, seeing what your doing wrong, I used to break mine down shot by shot and compare each shot side by side with Swenson, Scott, Freeman etc. Sometimes it feels fine but when you see it on video it looks completely different. But also the good things you see sometimes that surprise you and you understant why maybe it felt better this time. I like seeing the progress and taking encouragement from that, will I get tick ticks, of course I will, because I can look at those first dropback attempts and then the most recent one, or the jump backs or karandavasana progress videos.
Is it vanity? Occasionally perhaps, there are a couple where you get it right. first time I grabbed my heels and posted it, pure vanity, most of the others though are too awkward, too clumsy to be that vain about.
As an analytical tool for the home ashtangi, I can't. Recommend it enough. Posting them on a blog make a big diference too, no? You can fool yourself but when you know other will see it then you watch the video with a more critical eye, especially when you know you have some advanced practitioners as well as some teachers visiting.
It's exactly what I experience.
I just thought I should film more. My space here is limited, but perhaps I find a solution.
My pictures alone help me a lot. I study them. How a pose feels and how it looks like is often totally different.
We bloggers are surely extroverted people. It's fun. For me and for you, too (what I see).
I rediscovered the book by Swenson. It is really helpful.
Time to go to bed to be well-rested for the early morning practice. Good night.
Nice seeing this progress! Using the couch to drop back to is a great idea. Feels like I need this right now. ...except I wonder how I'd do this in a shala with a teacher watching? Having some kind of safety net below your head is exactly what I need, short of wearing The Stig's outfit! Don't wanna do no more dropback headbutts!!
this link might give some useful hints:
http://community.simplycircus.com/tutorials/acrobatics/contortionistshandbook/about_backs_and_back_bending.htm
a bit long, but I think it is interesting
thanks for the fun link nemsissi. interesting the how the contortionist trainer criticises approaching backbending via dropping back in favour of more supported approach.
I've never really understood the argument for working on dropping back and coming up from UD before the backbend work in Intermediate. It just seems counterintuitive.
Found the link a bit depressing too, it's a reminder of how grey and occasionally blurred the line is sometimes between Ashtanga and gymnastics/circus skills.
No doubt it's more to do with my own personality, I do like the floaty stuff. It's that transition, makes you want to float up or back or fly up into handstands, or lower gently right into the asana. It has that playful aspect thats absent from Vinyasa Krama say. With VK it's the breath and the bandhas I feel like playing with and exploring when I practice.
Surprisingly, despite the blog I'm exceedingly introverted, verging on the socially autistic. give me a hemp mat and a cave in the middle of nowhere and I'd be happy. In fact I lived in a cave for awhile in Crete , back in my 20's, making flutes, one of the happiest times of my life.
NICE - Congratulations on 108 dropbacks!!
How'd it feel?
AC
What was the state of the breath whilst doing them?
AC
Why thank you AC, kind of funny you wrote don't be in a hurry in your previous comment, was thinking , oops, too late.
How did it feel. First half was up hill, seemed such a long way to go and i couldn't get the rhythm right. Same as you, got to around 65 and thought what heck might as well go the whole way. Legs were turning to jelly right at the end but thought I better do an extra ten in case I'd screwed up the count.
Apart from the legs and the room being a little hot I felt fine, back is OK, slight crick in the neck though.
Difficult to see the clock think it took about 20 minutes.
The breath, some good stretches some not so good. I used your lifting through the chest a few times, that helped when i was getting tired, thanks for that. there's a normal speed video on Youtube, will do a post on just the 108 in a day or two.
Thanks to T-Mobile's shite connection I've forgotten what I wanted to write.
As we've achieved our 108 dropbacks ahead of our intended birthdays I myself feel rather down about it all. We can still do it for our birthdays, right? :-)
How the heck did you keep your towel on the mat? A huge source of my irritation in the dropbacks.
Were you generally satisfied with them? I wasn't with mine, they felt perfunctory, physically not a big deal but I just didn't get the breath and ultimately that's what I was after. There was no quality to the breath, no sense of ease, effortless state. Whereas last week just doing them there was a sense of joy, playfulness to the breath - maybe there was no pressure.
AC
I think I feel glad to get the 108 out of the way, to know it could be done now it's more a question of can it be done well. All these thing, tricky poses, long holds, 108 sury's or drop backs , every time you nail them you see a little more clearly that it's not what it's all about. We know this of course but need a reminder every now and again.
Although there's nothing wrong with having some fun and giving yourself a little extra motivation and besides, the will like the body needs exercising too.
Like you I want to work on the breath more, I think I was happy with a couple of sets of ten got a nice rhythm then lost it, fifteen to twenty is a nice number to play with , perhaps thirty-six. I do want to keep exploring this for a while and yes let's still do it for our birthdays as an incentive. After then I think I'd rather save it for a holy day or somebody else's birthday, certainly not Thursdays. I did 108 sury's when SKPJ died, kind of feel that things like this should be saved for such occasions, perhaps when you need to ask a boon, tapas, no?
Still can't get over Iyengar's feet how close together, straight and solid they were, 108 like that would be something to celebrate.
Anyway we have a few weeks to work on quality of breath now, get 36 good ones then just do that times three on our birthdays then move on to 108 Kapo's : )
Told ya, when I'm 80+ I'll be demanding dropbacks like Sri Iyengar or I'll be asking for my money back from the Yoga gods! A few more decades of practice to nail it, let's compare our dropbacks then.
The idea of doing 108 dropbacks a la Dona Holleman x1/ wk in many ways makes sense if done on the breath - because it is effortless. After all she was a student of Iyengar.
Yes, let's work on the breath these next few weeks.
Not sure I'm game for 108 Kapo's!
AC
Why depressing, the blurred one between asana and gymnastics? I don't get it. That's the heart of the Yoga Body book, too, yes? Physical practice is physical practice, regardless the form -- and there are great benefits in physical practices. Is asana supposed to be different/better/more mystical than others? Isn't the gestalt of the eight limbs what makes yoga? Couldn't you potentially sub in almost any ther disciplined, focus-demanding physical practice -- even, say, zen brushwork?
(Just mulling this over in my mind...)
one = line
hey Karen.
Was wondering what you were referring too, then remembered this is an old old post that I've been adding video's too, reread the earlier comments, guess your thinking of that one about about backbend tips in a circus skills book and how I found it a little depressing.
Think at the time I was ....'asking, 'Is this all we're doing, circus skills? Wasn't degrading circus skills or gymnastics and for that matter always been uncomfortable when it's said that yoga without the breath is just contortion... have a lot of respect for contortionists, must take a lot of breath and mind control as well as the physical aspect.
I love the physical aspect of the practice, the discipline, the will to practice, the challenges and indeed, the problem solving aspect of a posture. Was asking though, I guess, Isn't it supposed to be more than that too? Otherwise why not do circus skills or gymnastics, as kino says, they're better at that aspect.
I've taken on the idea that as well as the exercise and health aspect, the mental discipline, asana burns of rajas and along with the pranayama helps set you up for meditation practice ( some problems with this idea but on the whole going with it).
The question then, why asana and not any other practice( I'll exclude Shodo because I don't think it burns rajas)? I'm going with the italian idea that it 'marries'. in cooking they say certain ingredients go together (often form the same region) ' they marry'. So Hatha and Raja, asana and pranayama, they just marry. You don't need anything, other than a clean couple of feet of floor, you can focus on the breath while you do these exercises and then sit down where you are and do your pranayama and meditation, they just go together well.
And Ashtanga jumbling all the limbs together, for the busy householder short of time is a good compromise.
That's where my mulling over takes me at the moment.
But what's this about One=line
Re the bit that bothers me about asana burning off rajas, pranayama the tapas, making you all nice and satvic for sitting.
You meditate, do you think you need to burn of rajas at 4am (supposedly when your supposed to do your asana.) Isn't that supposed to be the perfect time for meditating. Some pranayama perhaps to wake you up a bit but asana? In the evening when the mind is busy perhaps but the morning? often wondered about that.
Hi Grim, my comment was in response to your earlier comment: "thanks for the fun link nemsissi. interesting the how the contortionist trainer criticises approaching backbending via dropping back in favour of more supported approach.
I've never really understood the argument for working on dropping back and coming up from UD before the backbend work in Intermediate. It just seems counterintuitive.
Found the link a bit depressing too, it's a reminder of how grey and occasionally blurred the line is sometimes between Ashtanga and gymnastics/circus skills."
Anyhow, I love morning for meditation/asana because the mind is perhaps as still as it gets, so I can see the thoughts and turmoils and damasks energy more easily. I don't really draw a distinction between zazen and Ashtanga any more. It used to seem like two different things -- but you know how zen laughs at any presumption of sameness/difference.
Wow. Damasks = rajasic. Interesting and poetic typo!
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