On teaching

While I was in New York, this past week, I took a Core Fusion class at the exhale spa at Central Park South, a few doors down from Trump Towers. I've been now to several classes, taught by three different teachers and it's been interesting to enter into these classes as both participant and observer. Thinking back to grad school now, I wish that I had been as attuned to how my teachers taught as much as what they were teaching. I don't know why teacher observation isn't a part of everyone's training who wants to go into teaching.

I see nuances in the way in which each of the core fusion teachers approaches a set of leg-lift exercises which can alternatively be done at the bar, on the mat on all fours, or lying on one's stomach (probably the hardest to get right). Though they are all meant to work the same set of muscles, self-correcting and getting the form right seems to be the easiest from a standing position at the bar. The teacher in NY was very good about correcting form, and also incorporating squeezable rubber balls into the workout to better target lower-body muscles. But she also encouraged a full range of motion on the plies, down to the floor, and for those with a knee injury (i.e. me), that would only exacerbate the tension already in my knee. Whereas the Dallas teacher emphasized very short movements and a small range of motion which is also effective.

Noticing all of these subleties and how things feel in the body, I'm excited to move forward with yoga teacher training next month and to better fine tune what works for me.