– MOVING BEYOND HABITS PERFORMANCE MOVEMENT

THE FELDENKRAIS METHOD OF SOMATIC EDUCATION

®

In sport, the arts and indeed in any field of human endeavour involving movement, we aim for a smoothness of action that we consider to be good form. We want our movements to be efficient, graceful, effortless and powerful. Top athletes and performers understand that these elements are an integral part of producing a consistently high level of performance and that they also help in the prevention of injury. However those of us who are less ‘naturally’ gifted consider the amazing coordination and ability of top performers and athletes to be innate – a gift that they are born with – and we believe that they raise their performance levels only through hours of dedicated practice and effort in the gym. While it is true that most of us will never match the grace and ease displayed by sportsmen such as Roger Federer or Tiger Woods, we have an innate potential for graceful action far beyond that we can imagine – if only we could learn how to realise it!

By Catherine McCrum

DR MOSHE FELDENKRAIS Dr Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-84), a Russian- born physicist, martial arts expert, and mechanical engineer, developed the modal- ity that bears his name in order to cure his own debilitating knee injury. Drawing from his background in these various fields, as well as his observations of developmental movements, he used his own body as a lab- oratory, experimenting with many different ways of doing everyday actions, and carefully noting the results. After months of exploration, he concluded that it was his particular individual neuromuscular patterns and rigidities which had con- tributed to his injury. He refined his kines- thetic perception to such an extent that he

could clearly sense the unconscious habits that had led to his injury. More important- ly, he discovered experientially how to move most optimally and regained full use of his knee. He concluded that: ‘Only when you know what you do, can you do what you want’.

Today there are over 4000 Feldenkrais ‘Awareness Through Movement’ lessons cov- ering topics from improving the organisation of the eyes, jaw and tongue, to maximising the healthy functioning of the feet and ankles. These lessons can improve every aspect of human functioning and provide a profoundly effective approach to understanding and optimising our design for effortless, graceful motion.

WHAT HAPPENS IN A FELDENKRAIS LESSON? The goal of a lesson is not to ask what is wrong but what is possible and to explore how the student could function at his/her most optimal. Students are guided, either through direct manual contact (Figure 1) or through verbal instructions (Figure 2), to explore specific aspects of movement.

These explorations are designed to develop the students’ awareness of where they are limiting their movement more than the design of the skeleton requires. Ingrained habits of muscular holding always go hand in hand with perceptual distortions and lack of accurate sensory feedback. The role of the teacher is to find

CASE STUDY: FEMALE TENNIS PLAYER COMPLAINING OF LOWER BACK PAIN EXACERBATED BY SERVING Movement observation The student replicates her serve as slowly as possible. At the apex of the toss she extends powerfully at the top of the lumbar spine (where she feels most discomfort), yet the upper thoracic, lower lumber and hip joints remain relatively unchanged.. She holds her breath.

In sitting, when asked to look up to the ceiling by arching her back, the same pattern emerges:.she extends powerfully in her mid back; the vertebrae of her thoracic spine stay uninvolved; her pelvis remains slightly rolled back; her abdominals are a little contracted throughout.

Asked to notice where she can sense the movement of arching, she reports that she feels her mid back pushing forward but has no sensation of movement in her upper spine and no sense of how the hip joints and pelvis could be more involved..There is a gap in her perception.

12 sportEX dynamics 2007:14(Oct):12-13