UPDATED: Arm balances and trying David Robson's floaty tittibasana transition

screen shot from this post 'David Robson's chat through full Intermediate'.

I just noticed that David Robson is going to be in Moscow the same time as I am, he's doing a week long workshop at Ashtanga Yoga School Moscow,

David Robson Workshop Nov 22 — 27, 2014

...while I'm across town at Yoga 108 presenting a weekend workshop on

Krishnamacharya's Original Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga and the Vinyasa Krama yoga of late Krishnamacharya - practice and theory 22nd/23rd November 2014

Since I found that out this morning I've been looking into the possibility of staying in Moscow the whole week and catching the last four days of his workshop (fingers crossed) before perhaps popping over to St Petersburg, which I hear is quite 'fresh' this time of year.

And then on fb, I saw a video David posted of a transition into Tittibasana A that he says he's been working on ( it's not in the Intermediate  video series - picture above- that he posted recently, I checked),  unfortunately the video's not on Youtube as yet (...but if you request it perhaps). When I saw it on fb I left the comment, "...will be trying this all weekend." I've never really like tittibasana, B perhaps but not A and C, this makes it more fun and something to look forward to.

True to my word, here's my attempt this morning, probably my third actually. Now David's transition is much floatier and smoother of course ( his website is called 'Learn to Float.com' after all) he also lands way up his arms, allowing him to straighten them, and have his toes pointing skywards just as in the picture at the top of the page, rather than mine which point to the horizon but perhaps you get the idea.

I think Day Four of David's Moscow workshop is on arm balances so if I manage to get on the workshop I can ask him how he manages it.

The Black and White vintage look  below is supposed to go with the David Beckham old fashioned Long John's and cut down on some of those flesh tones.



I felt relatively confident about trying this because I used to practice that half handstand jump through the Kino used to do, before I switched to the ever so subtle (and energy efficient) jump through that Sharath employs. I think Kino's changed her approach to jumping through too no?

Kino's approach did make my favourite party trick possible, the full lotus jump through
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vKntS3yyiE#t=11

Iyengar has an even better one though in the old 1938 demo where he jumps straight in to vatyasana at 28:57 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML9yZd7bIvY,

"....there's always somebody with a cuter party trick than you" BRS Iyengar

I  have a similar approach to bakasana which starts off pretty fancy, you hop up into a half handstand then lower high up on arms, hold it there.... except that I've never worked out how to jump back from that position so have to do a little shoulder shuffle (9 seconds in) to shift myself into a regular approach to bakasana and jump out that way. I can ask David about that too perhaps on his arm balance day ( he also has workshops on forward bends, backbends etc).

"Day 4: "Elements of Arm Balancing
Arm balancing helps us to identify and attenuate self-limiting thoughts. These poses require deep focus, strength, and commitment, and can help to develop confidence and mental acuity. This workshop will teach you 4 simple and accessible steps to help you master Arm Balances".
http://ashtangamoscow.com/workshops/david_robson_2014.html

To be completely honest I'm not convinced ( but prepared to be ) that arm balances have any benefits to speak of other than their popularity, refocussing attention, and just shaking things up a bit, they perhaps do more harm than good but hey, in moderation....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxSy_hEgLQQ

Perhaps you can tell that as playing around with arm balances today I'm fiddling with the new phone and it's fancy filters, this one I can't resist posting, a mirror effect. http://youtu.be/7_2svySiSNY?list=UUxOhEtgBtcere7DupaAGFKw

Before you look down your Vinyasa Krama nasagri, there's actually an arm balance section/sequence in Ramaswami's book, I think he introduces it by saying gently, "Arm balances are quite popular these days...." I tried to make a video way back, bit rough it was the first time I'd ever tried that particular VK sequence.

Arm balances were always in fashion it seems...

BAKASANA FROM KRISHNAMACHARYA'S 1934 YOGA MAKARANDA

Tittibhasana comes in Krishnamacharya's proficient group in Yogasanagalu (1941), he doesn't mention A, B or C just that there are 14 vinyasas, the state of the asana being 7 and 8

Bakasana interestingly has 'hatha yoga' in brackets, 16 vinyasas but 9 AND 11 as the states of the asana.

How would that work, perhaps similar to how we have it now with A and B? Something like this perhaps, jump the feet close to the hands on 7, settle on the arms 8, lift up onto the arms on 9, jump back on 10 (and straight into down dog, something Krishnamacharya occasionally describes as one movement) and then jump straight onto the arms at 11.

UPDATE 1.
Landed it a little better in my shorter evening practice but wasn't filming, still horizontal, legs a little straighter but still horizontal. Come to think of it my tittibasana has never been that great, never been able to jump in quite right, not land far enough up the shoulders. I was looking for an old tittibasana video of mine to see what it used to be like, best I could find was the Rishi series version where you stay for fifty breaths or so, the jump in is just as so so as usual but check out the exit after fifty breaths in tittibasana C, nice heavenly pointing feet, suggesting that I need to find a way to land it as far up the arms as when I exit (come to think of it they point up nicely after supra kurmasna also).  " Need to", really? What are the benefits of having the legs point up as opposed to horizontal, two different asana perhaps, Tittibasana A and A1/2 perhaps (we have 84, 000 to account for after all), what are the different benefits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAM02BVwiec

Which includes 50 steps in Tittibasana B

UPDATE 2.
This feels a little like one of my old posts from a few years back, something along the lines of the Richard freeman 14 day Karandavasana challenge post(s). A new version of which is on its way, this time called something like the Jessica Walden 14 day karandavasana approach challenge Kind of miss those posts.

The good people of Yoga 108 have organised another workshop for me at Yoga108 Saint Petersburg for the following weekend 30th Nov/ 1st December. Thank you to everyone involved in setting that up.

Thank you too to Ashtanga Yoga School Moscow and David Robson for letting me join David's workshop two days in for the final four days, looking forward to it. (Post on my tittibasana and any progress to follow after Day four).

My schedule for this trip back to Europe will be

13th Nov.  Arrive London
14th Nov.  Vinyasa Krama class IndabaYoga
16th Nov. 1 day Krishnamacharya and Vinyasa Krama Workshop at Stone monkey Leamington Spa 
22nd/23rd Nov. Krishnamacharya and Vinyasa Krama Workshop Yoga108 Moscow
24th-27th Nov. Attend final four days of David Robson Workshop (actual w/s starts on 22nd).
29th /30th    Krishnamacharya and Vinyasa Krama workshop Yoga 108 Saint Petersburg
1st Dec. Fly back to London
2nd Dec. Fly back to Osaka with my resident visa which will allow me to work here.