So far in this series we’ve been talking about adapting your teaching style and the structure of your teaching business to fit the needs of your students. Now I want to look at a trait that all of the best teachers I’ve studied with share, which is a work capacity they can turn on like a fire hose. If your work capacity only comes out like water from a dripping faucet, you won’t be able to be “big enough” to encompass all of your students and their varying needs. ...
In the previous post in this series, we looked at how adhering to a particular rhythm, in that case running at 180bpm, can trigger the natural spring in the body and give you insight into “stuck spots” in your body that won’t move at the right pace. Now we want to explore the practice of changing rhythm deliberately as part of your movement practice. The value for sports or martial arts, where the ability to change speeds gives you a competitive advantage, should be pretty obvious. What might not be obvious is the value for “real life” and even less obvious is the method for systematically training speed – which you can do joint-by-joint. ...
In Part 1 of this series, we talked about the social nature of wanting to belong to something bigger than yourself as one possible drive for learning tai chi. The social drive is a major aid teachers can rely on to build their base of students. Another one, that we’ll discuss here is our habitual drive, i.e. we are creatures of habit. That can be a good thing when it comes to maintaining a student base, but it is also the first major hurdle you have to clear as a teacher when it comes to getting new students. ...
It has been clear to me from years of Tai Chi practice that finding the right rhythm in a movement “unlocks” the body. When I stumbled on to this video though, I was fascinated to see a similar theory being discussed in running. In the clip, he says that this particular rhythm, 180 beats per minute, helps you “tap into the body’s elastic mechanism.” After I watched the clip (the other ones in the series are great, by the way), I turned my metronome up to 180 bpm and hit the road. Here’s what happened: ...
Over the weekend, Energy Arts Instructor Jess O’Brien was in town, teaching at BTC. We got to spend some time together and talk about teaching, studying with different teachers, and trying to run a teaching business. One thing that we came back to again and again was how difficult it is to build up a student base. I think I know why. People are Lazy, Social, and Creatures of Habit Now, I know it sounds like a mean thing to say, but in the words of Stanford psychologist BJ Fogg, people are “lazy, social, and creatures of habit.” Rather than looking at this as a moral judgment, take it as a reality of the way we are wired to operate in the world. In fact, if you look at studies about willpower and motivation or start to research how our nervous system functions, you begin to see that these qualities are survival responses that drive efficient behavior. ...
Introducing a new series: “Rhythm as Relaxation”. Across many different practices, which I’ll go into one at a time, rhythm is a common thread. When you find the right rhythm in the practice, it gets easier, smoother, more connected, and as a result, more relaxing to perform and more energizing at the same time. Some of the practices I will explore in the series: Running Tai Chi Breathing Five Element Theory I’m going to argue that the practices on that list have more in common than not, when you look at them from a rhythm point of view. I always try to be careful not to conflate different things that have common elements, because then you usually miss the depth and richness of both, but I will try to show you how focusing on the rhythm in each activity will make it easier and more enjoyable. ...
I find this topic so interesting. When you start playing with the way eyes influence movement, you begin to unlock connections in the body that you had no other way of accessing. I’ve seen some pretty strange stuff, from pain pretty much vanishing, big muscles magically unlocking, or people being able to run, jump, or lift in dramatically different ways….all from a couple of eye exercises. I know it sounds weird, and I was right there with you until I experienced it in my own practice and taught it to other. Enjoy! ...
Check you inbox for one more email from "[email protected]" with a link to a special download and a little more about what to expect from me each week. In the mean time..... Here are some of the topics I've been writing about lately. Dig in and let me know if there's something you'd like to see featured on the blog -- each post has a link to a feedback form at the bottom, so let me know! Thanks! ...
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