Pointers from October 2013 Course

CORE QUESTIONS

Where are we going to?

Where have we come from?

The key to answering these questions begins in the present moment with another core question:

Where are we now?

We need to address this to establish right at the outset, some important baselines.

TIP:  Judgemental thinking of any kind  will massively hamper establishing these baselines. We have been heavily conditioned to topdown judgemental thinking and it simply prevents us from being present for what is. Instead we are preoccupied with what should be and in particular with whether we are “any good.” The first thing is not:

Am I any good? But :

Where am I now? 

It helps to be aware whenever you are judgemental about your abilities or any one elses’ for that matter.

 

THE BASELINE SESSION

Establishing a baseline gives us a starting point. From there we can then explore where we have come from ( including our evolution as a species), and where we might get to in the future as we unravel and reveal integrated natural movement patterns.

We started off the course with six baseline explorations.

  1. Video Filming
  2. Baseline exploration 1: The Deep Squat
  3. Baseline exploration 2: The Step Over
  4. Baseline exploration 3: The In-Line Lunge
  5. Baseline exploration 4: The Thoracic Twists
  6. Baseline exploration 5: The Effortless Leg Lift ( The ‘ELL’)

 

VIDEO

In the video we explored the walking action, a slow ‘jog,’ the walk to run transition, and finally a moderately quick run.

The walk-to-run transition holds some important keys and mastery of a smooth transition from a walk to a run will open many secrets of economical and efficient running.

TIP: If you pump your arms fast in a high energy power walk, then somewhere around between 5 or 6 mph the action becomes quite uncomfortable. This is because gravity won’t allow you to fall forward fast enough to continue to keep one foot on the ground and therefore something else happens and that is running. In other words  at this point a flight phase is introduced into the action in which both feet are off the floor and that defines running.  At that point you release yourself into running and it is indeed a source of relief. The alternative is to contort the body into various the various twists of race walking. I want  to explore this action more but it seems to me a highly unnatural thing to do to deny the bodies natural instinct to transition to running at that point.That moment where you release into running is interesting to explore.

 A completely smooth transition from walk to run happens effortlessly when the foot is brought to 100% full function. There seems to be a natural tendency to land  more toward the forefoot the faster that you go. Because the heel is placed down in a walk the whole foot might well land efficiently on the outside of the heel. This progresses through to a fast sprint in which a fully functional foot lands on the forefoot and the heel may well not touch at all. The key here is that a fully functional foot is first established and then, the  responsiveness inherent in the whole foot allows it to open up and sometimes land on the heel ( e.g. when you need to slow down) and other times on the ball of the foot ( eg running up a hill). If the foot is forced into a compensated gait pattern that habitually always lands heel first then we  do get into massive problems. The foot very rapidly loses responsiveness and adaptablility. and the entire head to-toe integrity is compromised.

We want to transition to full-foot function as quick as possible which is of  course a key mission of the Natural Running Course!

 

Baseline 1 The Deep Squat

A failure to be able to lower the knees below  a position parallel to the ground in a heel-to-rump squat is invariably linked to a locked-up ankle joint. It becomes fixed because it loses its partner ‘rocker-function ’ in the forefoot which has become deactivated. The resulting stiff ankle simply won’t allow the rump to drop to the heel in a full squat. Reestablishing a full working synergy between ankle and forefoot is vital to recapturing this natural and holistic squatting movement.

There are major motor coordination issues here that concern the natural movement flow of energy and connection between the arms andthe legs by way of the lower back. These disconnections seriously degrade the use of the arm and shoulders and these in turn are a key and integral part of the natural running action.

We returned only briefly on the Sunday to this natural deep squat movement but the work we had done on to wina greater freedom in the ankle and foot caused some striking improvements for everyone.

TIP. Watch yourself in a mirror and note just how the knees track in relation to the toes.

 This is the one baseline that doesn’t readily reveal  right left asymmetries. Watching those knees might well reveal important details about the way the feet turn out. This is often due to the compensated adaptations ofa shod gait

“Heels down/Back back/Head out” is a great  mantra. Watch any 3 year old to observe perfection!!

 

Baseline 2 The Step Over

You’ll have no problem with the fact that you can do this action. That is of course not the point. It is how you are achieving it and the main interest centres on the capacity of the feet to maintain support in that  neutral position as well as on the vertical ‘stacking’ or alignment issues that cause unnecessary side sway. Such details have a high metabolic cost. If they are present in this procedure then be assured they will be there in your walk and in your run.

There are key Stability/Mobility/Agility issues in the way that your back, hips and legs cooperate in this action, as they maintain that 5” apart feet-parallel-neutral stance  that we explored in great detail during the course.

Another revealing level of challenge for this procedure involves placing a broom stick over the shoulders. This highlights some of sidewise tilting issues that are invariably foot related.

TIP. The key to an improved and more efficient vertical alignment is to ease up maximally and ease over to the side minimally as you stand on one leg. Use a mirror to observe what happens. This minimises energy wasteful side-sway and optimises balance and head to toe coordination. The Head-to-toe procedures that we  explored  during the course are of course dedicated to achieving this.

 

Baseline 3 The In-Line Lunge

This is a great one for rooting out right /left differences. Bringing the feet into line maximally challenges balance to the full.

TIP: If this is tricky then practice it with a wider base and narrow it down progressively. Try it with the broomstick over the shoulder to add another level of difficulty.

 

Baseline 4 Thoracic Rotations

After ‘The ELL’ this is the next most important baseline in that it challenges and reveals the deepest disconnections from natural movement flow. These involve a breakdown of connection between the middle-back, the ribs and the shoulder blade. These follow on from the loss of the counter rotation connection between hips and shoulders.We opened up these issues during the course particularly with the rolling movement floor work in the afternoon sessions.

We paid much attention on the course to cross patterned reconnections and how they reveal key functions in that core abdominal region.  Recall in particular the internal and external oblique cross over connections. On Sunday afternoon we briefly touched upon the close link between the diaphragm breathing and those deeper crossover connections.

Not only have we disconnected and lost the ability to move naturally, but we have also lost the capacity to breathe naturally. It is uncontentious that efficient breathing underpins efficient running!

 

Baseline 5 The ELL (The Effortless Leg Lift)

This is by far the most important baseline and establishing mastery of the ELL  is top priority. It opens so many doors to efficient running.

Here are some of the key and important features of the ELL:

  • It illustrates a new way of thinking about core-stabilty, leg movement and agility.
  • It is a key to efficient stride coordination
  • It reestablishes a lost connection of the dropping heel and the backbone. This loss is linked to the compensated gait that involves a premature change of support ( ie.the foot is ‘hoiked’ up by hip flexion too soon). It does this  because the restricted foot knuckle is deactivated and won’t allow that rolling-up function to complete its natural cycle as it  lifts most of the foot from the floor.
  • There are important timing issues: Instead of the mechanical version in which the hip flexors fire first to lift the leg, this procedure reestablishes a key natural movement connection of the leg to the lower back. It effectively connects the heel to the backbone in an easing outward way. This then leads the natural movement action that will eventually flex the hip and knee as the leg lifts up from the floor. This reconnection reestablishes the head to toe progression inherent to all natural movements. They always flow out of the backbone. Some powerful neuromuscular work is needed to rearrange and reorder such core habit firing or timing issues. Some of the important principles regarding the process of revealing and reconnecting natural movement patterns are opened up in the next session on the Saturday morning of the course.

TIP: The importance of the ELL procedure cannot be exaggerated. The way to  achieve a mastery of it involves a special effort of attention  and it  does not involve “muscling it. This means you can’t come at it in a ‘topdown’ way by trying to make it happen, by correcting things. It all begins not by ‘pulling strings’ to make it happen but by ‘a bottom-up’ process of letting go of the strings and thereby undoing whatever is hindering or obscuring this vital link. It is vital to first  hold back from that powerful and ingrained habit that first flexes the hip and  pulls the leg inward as an initial move. I think that this universal habitual tendency to haul the leg up from the hip is linked to a compensated gait pattern. Due to protective  and restricting foot wear, it creates an habitual gait that lifts the  foot from the floor prematurely using much more energy than in a well coordinated natural stride.

The faster you master this technique the quicker your running technique and efficiency will improve.

 

Baseline priorities

We didn’t explore these baselines in this session in the order of priority of importance. I’d prioritize them in this order;

  1. The ELL
  2. Thoracic Twists
  3. Deep squat
  4. The Step over
  5. The In-Line Lunge

Note: I’ve gone through these baseline procedures in some detail here because they give shape and direction to the rest of the course as it builds toward specific corrective strategies. Sometimes these corrective strategies are ‘bespoke’ and tailored to individual patterns of disconnection.

The next session lays out some of the core principles underpinning the process of cultivating natural movement patterns.

 

CULTIVATING NATURAL MOVEMENT SESSION

In this ‘signposting session” I demonstrated and opened up some of the key principles and ways to grow or cultivate Natural Movements. Somehow we have become disconnected from core connections.

There is a special effort of attention introduced here and it begins with the effort to hold back from something. The slogan is:

“STOP MUSCLING IT”

And yet another ‘T’shirt slogan I made up:

THERE ARE NO MUSCLES IN YOUR BRAIN BUT  YOU HAVE PLENTY OF BRAINS IN YOUR MUSCLES.

This is of course about linking into, and learning to develop a skill of facilitating and working with the Body Sense. This initial and tricky effort enables two major ‘Operating Systems’ in the brain to link up, to shake hands and establish connection. These ‘two Operating Systems’ are your Cortex or Thinking Cap. and the Body Sense ( aka the Brain in the Muscles).

There is a key sequence in the way a Natural Movement develops. It goes like this:

BRAIN-to-BRAIN-IN-THE-MUSCLES (BODY-SENSE)-to-MUSCLE-to-MOVEMENT.

A Mechanical/habit-locked movement simply misses out the Body Sense link and goes:

BRAIN-to-MUSCLE-to-MOVEMENT. This is what I mean by muscling it.

I  demonstrated  a natural stride and the ELL procedure and tried to show the  differences between mechanical and natural or mindful movement.

I emphasized that when the Body Sense link drops out, then so does awareness and any possibility of staying  mindful or “in-process” and “on-purpose. We just dig an ever deeper track through the ‘synaptic cornfield.’ The fun really begins when we go ‘off-piste’!

On the course you experienced the lightness and ease that comes about from the right efforts of attention that reconnect you into Natural Movement. This only comes about by  reestablishing the crucial initial link between Thinking Cap to Body Sense.

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE NATURAL MOVEMENT HAPPEN -THAT IS TO IMPOSE THESE MOVEMENTS IN A “TOPDOWN WAY. ‘

IN ORDER TO RECONNECT TO NATURAL MOVEMENT YOU WILL NEED TO EMPLOY A HIGH LEVEL EFFORT OF ATTENTION THIS INVOLVES GIVING UP “MUSCLING IT.”) IN ORDER TO WORK WITH THE “BOTTOM UP “PROCESS THAT CULTIVATES NATURAL MOVEMENT)

Without this effort everything you practice and train will only reinforce disconnected movement patterns-which is no fun at all!!

In this session we also opened up the seven “ thin slices” through the stride sequence:

  • 1 ) Support and balance (this is the starting posture and it involves the associated vertical “stacking and alignment issues that feature in the Alexander Technique.
  • 2)  Weight Transfer (Optimum use of gravity to ease your head over to the advancing foot)
  • 3)  Foot Roll Up. This the key preparation for change of support that we spent some time on the course. Remember to let the “wobble” of gravity travel freely right through to the toes
  • 4) Change of Support. This is when you lift your foot clear of the floor by engaging the hamstrings. Recall the work we did on the shore with the foot-straps and the exercise elastic
  • 5)  Centre moves BEFORE the leg swing.We spent some time on this too!
  • 6)  Footfall. (The ball of the foot landing with ankle open in front and heel dropping into length behind. Foot falls directly beneath the knee.)
  • 7)  Propulsion. It is here at this point that you need to consider putting in the energy to move yourself forward and NOT when  the foot is behind you. This  creates the vertical bobbing up and down that is so energy wasteful).

 

PRACTICAL SESSION: THE ELL CHALLENGE, FOOT COMPETENCE AND HEAD-TO-TOE INTEGRITY

In this session you had a go at the effortless leg lift challenge.

This session is the first of many sessions on the course to open up the importance of the forgotten and degraded foot knuckle joint that is technically known as the Meta-Tarso Phalangeal Joint or MPJ for short. In this session there were a spectrum of opportunities for every sense modality to experience this joint. You feel it on the skeleton foot. You listen to some of the implications of its functioning in the process of cultivating the silent footfall. We take the foot from out of the Treasure Casket of the shoe. We remove the shroud of the sock and ‘the string of pearls’ of this joint are encouraged into the light of day.With the help of a golf ball and a bigger spongy ball this joint starts to free up and stand out. This spreads and broadens the platform of the foot. The lightness ease that follows from allowing this joint to work properly are experienced in your walk.

These experiences link into the earlier demonstrations that gave much emphasis to the key role of the MPJ or foot knuckle in allowing the foot to roll up and raise the heel from the floor without any direct upward and inwards lifting energy. There is the  hip-swiveling action that enables a free swinging stride. This does not involve the leg being pulled in by the hip joint. This is confronted in the ‘ELL’ challenge.

The important synergy or cooperation between foot and hip are introduced here along side the  vital synergy between the rocker of the ball of the foot and the rocker of the ankle joint. The ankle and knee joints are referred to as “unidirectional joints”. They work like the hinge joints of a door – in one plane of action. The wonderously complex sub-talar joint in the foot works with along the equally wonderous “universal joint coupling of the ball and socket arrangement of the hip to enable the ankle and knee to continue to work safely and in their one plane of movement despite complex torsional twists and turns. This hip/foot synergy is like the gimble or cradle system that keeps a ship’s compass steady as the boat pitches and rolls. The devastating and downgrading effect of undermining this system for the ankle and knee are noted.

In this session the detailed way the MPJ works to enable most of the heel to raise is then developed into a procedure that involves lowering the heel after the centre of gravity is eased back to align the centre over the dropping heel. The heel is then slowly lowered. This is an eccentric loading that obviously goes powerfully through the calf and Achilles tendon but its implications are explored as if there was one length of elastic connecting your dropping heel to the crown of your head.  A concentrically loaded muscle pulls the muscle fibres in toward the centre of the muscle. An eccentrically loaded muscle can work just as hard but releases outward while it is still under load. A foot-strike that allows the heel to drop behind forefoot is involves an eccentric contraction through the calf.  This is diametrically opposite to the shortening of the ankle in front that  ensure an initial heel strike that is concentric in nature. The implications of this from head to toe are opened up and explored.

This session is particularly important because if forms the basis for a detailed series of procedures that are to follow and which “layer up” in top of this foundation.

Here are just a few of the important functions that are opened up in this session regarding the Foot Knuckle or MPJ joint:

  • A whole array of other key functions depend on the integrity of this joint: The ankle rocker function, the free swinging of the soft knee and the swivel action of the hip are all emphasized. A whole cascade of functions are lost as this joint degrades.
  • It plays a key role in springing the arches of the foot.
  • It is the first point of ground contact in an integrated foot fall and organizes a whole array of shock absorbing and weight transmitting functions in the foot as it strikes the floor.
  • In a degraded foot the final spirally-wound connection to the big toe is lost. This seriously degrades the propulsion phase of the stride sequence, the one  that occurs during the toe-off  or fully supinated phase of the gait cycle.

There really is a lot at stake here!

 

THE FINAL RUN OF THE SATURDAY MORNING SESSION

This session is deliberately designed to have no directive instruction or teaching. It is a chill out and “mulch-it-all-down session”  designed to continue to enrich and expand the experience of a liberated foot. In a setting of sand, the sea-washed turf and the waters of the Duddon Estuary shoes are pretty much of a hindrance anyway!

 

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

SESSION 1 ROCKING AND ROLLING

In this session the key idea of working with the Spiderman Suit is introduced. The Spiderman Suit is the intricately interconnected Myo-Fascial Web formed by the body’s natural elastic: the tendons, muscle sheaths, cartilage , etc. It is the body’s most basic organ of support. If you could imagine sucking out of the body all the meat from the muscles and all the bones you would be left with an elastic suit that would still be recognizably you, your shape, your identity. A youngster on one recent course dubbed this system The Spiderman Suit and I love this idea. It conveys an important idea of releasing into the suit in order to get an instant return in the form of buoyancy lightness and recoil elastic return. Since these kiddies’ Spiderman Suits usually have a web painted on them that begins in the navel area that radiates outward to the arms and legs, this has the added bonus of conveying the idea of releasing out from the centre as a first move. This also deftly encourages the right kind of attention and thinking that enables that all important linking of Brain and Body Sense that needs to happen first to reveal natural movement flow.

 

The Rock.

We explored releasing out from the centre and into those for and aft rocking movements in which the length of the backbone becomes like the rocker on a rocking chair. We hooked elastic around the ankle to add to the sense of elasticity. This is great for setting up front and back integrity and coordination and for freeing and reconnecting the vital back/rib shoulder connections and opening up core connections in the abdominal region.

 

The Roll.

We also open up the side-to-side rolling action in this session in which the back/ribs/shoulder/upper-arm links form a curve or rocker to facilitate rolling over to the side. If the right efforts have connected together Brain and Body Sense then the exquisite Body Sense becomes  a kind of ‘bubble in the spirit level’. It tells you the level of integrity you are achieving in the sidewise roll. The less effort you have to put into the roll the better the integrity of the back/ribs/shoulder and arm. The same bubble in the spirit level informs you of important right left disparities too!

This session opens up deep and important cross-pattern connections that reveal core natural movement flow-lines that maintain the integrity if the abdominal region.

 

FOOT COMPETENCE AND HEAD TO TOE PROCEDURE I

In this session the highly detailed and site-specific work on that MPJ joint and its cooperative work with the ankle joint are dovetailed into a procedure that builds on the earlier Head-to Toes procedure , the one in which you began to get mastery of the dropping heel and connect that heel right the way up-to the crown of the head.

TIP: These sessions layer up on top of one another progressively as ever more sophisticated and deeper connections are revealed up as natural movement pathways open up. These procedures cannot be effectively carried out with an exercise mentality. By this I mean that they only make sense when they are done with the efforts of mindfulness  I hope the meaning and implications of mindful action are clearer by the end of the course! To me mindfulness is not a state of mind but a deeply practical way of into action that connects our Nature to the Nature that surrounds us. There are different springboards here but they all leap into the same pool.

There are psycho-spiritual starting points that emphasize the present moment and entry into the sensations of the moment, of acceptance and interconnection of every thing. Not for you? Then there is the mental dimension, a more intellectual way. The Alexander Technique can fulfill this with its cool emphasis on thought in action. There is also the highly physical dimension that reveals the pathways to holistic or natural movement. This work draws heavily on a awareness of how we evolved and on the endorphin rush of joy that occurs the closer our action move with, rather than against our nature. These 3 springboard of course represent Head Heart and Muscle. However you leap into the Quantum Soup these 3 elements will pull into a better cooperation and synergy.

Go with whatever springboard suits you best!

 

The FOOT ABCD:

This starts with that gentle freeing  work of easing the knee back and forth with the ball of the foot on the deck and the heel gently rising up and down. This is like oiling the rusty hinge. This joint has been so abused and fixed. The freeing start is really important and can combine well with that work-out with the golf ball from the earlier session.

As I say, things have got unbelievably jammed up in this region and there are usually massive adhesions around the muscles and cable work that lifts the toes. These muscles and tendons   are the aptly and simply named short extensors. They should work in an intimate detailed synergy with the long extensors which lift the whole foot. The adaptations and compensations to walking and running in protective shoes disable this joint so completely that the action of the long and short extensors becomes a kind of mush. Basically any sense of independent acion and cooperation has gone. This leaves us not only with a feeing and strengthening task but also with a dystonia. This simply means we have no mental map of these movements. But no worries because our clever Thinking Caps can create one. This is often referred to as neuoroplasticty.  The necessary linking of Brain  and Body Sense is a fascinating part of the process.

As this procedure develops you first develop the control to lift and spread the toes, making the short extensors do their job independently of the long extensors. This is tricky. ‘Though you may ask your toes to lift up and down and keep straight they will have no clue how to do this!

TIP: Most people naturally try to get the knuckle and fingers of the hand to do the action at the same time. This really helps to deal with the dystonia. It helps build a map on the cortex.

The next stage is quite different from the opening free and easing moves. Now you lift those toes as you raise the heel and then you push and drive the heel down while yanking the toes up as much as you can, Do this in a mirror as we did on the course and you will see the cable work stand out and you’ll feel those connections in the calf and shin right up to just below the knee. You literally rip those adhesions apart in this procedure. It’s one of those procedures where ‘never mind the pain feel the gain’ really does work. If this sets up a temporary inflammatory response a bit like shin-splints that is a good sign.

Next: Keep those toes raised up in that stiff high arch position and step back so that the foot with the raised toes is now ahead. You’re ready to start the ABCD.

If you recall:

A) Lifts the toes only

B)  Lifts the whole foot

C)  Places it back down maintaining the high arch toe lift

  1. Lowers the toes while you learn to lower the straight toes and maintain the inner arch.

The foot ABCD procedure massively improves the effortless ease that the heel raises from the floor and this now features in the next procedure in which this action becomes a whole body action. one that eventually will involve everything from head-to-toe including the hand and fingers!

 

HEAD-TO-TOE PROCEDURE I

This procedure builds on the MPJ freeing work and the reconnection of this key joint with the ankle joint to develop a way of strengthening the ankle and foot and developing a head-to-toe control of that dropping heel.

To start with you free the rusty hinge ie move the heel up and down. As it frees off this action can be achieved very freely. You need to  minimise any push and maximize the freeing and swinging. We also introduced a rotational element to this as you circle the knee around the ball of the foot in a characteristic Elvis Presley move!!

This ease with which you can get onto the ball of the foot is then given a more definite form as yo move back in a slight backward lunge. There is a pause or moment of suspension as you align the centre over the ball of the foot. Then you let the heel descend slowly. We played with this in this session: Starting with the crown of your head as being on the one end of a run of elastic and simply exploring in a free way all points in between.

This is a key procedure and it layers up once the framework of it is established we add later add layer upon layer. The essence of it is all natural movement flows out of a lengthening spine and that the dropping heel is an important and lost connection.

 

THE RUNNING DRILL SESSION ON THE SHORE

In the final session we have a detailed look at the important 4th ‘slice’ of the stride action the one that finally lifts the ball of the foot from the floor.

Before this we have a detailed look at the way the hamstring muscle works and we emphasize how it really is a muscle that allows you to put your back into it! It works to lift the heel toward the rump and acts on the lower leg making it clearly the most efficient way to do the job of getting the foot off the floor : a big muscle lifting a relatively light unit-the foot and lower leg. The other way to do this involves the Quad muscles in front which lift the thigh.

Using elastic and the foot-straps we work with the body sense to isolate and feel this movement pathway. To feel the leg rising and falling underneath you is an unfamiliar and new sensation.

 

SUNDAY SESSION

OPENING SESSION NOTE

Every morning or afternoon session incorporated the Freedom First principle. This can take many forms. Usually this involves stamping, chanting. It is a great and natural way to prepare the body by a dynamic as opposed to a static form of stretching. It is freeing and opening as well as a lot of fun. And it paves the way to Form and Fitness.

 

Head-to-toe development

This starts off in the step forward/feet neutral position and proceeds with that backward adjustment that eases the centre over the back-foot – it’s kind of one half of a backward step. Let the heel come up as you first ease forward freely then ease the centre back ‘until it’s over the ball of the foot and start the slow descent at a Tai Chi sort of speed. This challenges balance, builds eccentric strength and promotes motor control. At that stage the front leg has no weight but acts as a stabilizer. Later you may pickup the front leg from the floor to add another level of challenge and difficulty.

Next we introduced an arm twist. What happens at the upper arm will help you to clinch this move: You take a hold of the little finger side of the hand with  your other hand and rotate until the palm is facing forward. This will inwardly rotate the upper arm powerfully. You then lift the upper arm progressively upwards as you try to maximize the twist to synchronize with the moment the heel touches the ground. As this connects, you eventually aim to lift the arm above your head until it is behind you ear.

Another level of difficulty lifts the front leg as you lower that heel.

TIP:Keep engaging the Body Sense to keep track of what opening changes this causes as an improved head-to-toe integrity grows on the side you are working on.

 

Foot competence session

We revisit and review the foot ABCD with some more detailed anatomy on the long and short extensors.

In this session the ‘D’  part of the ABCD sequences transforms into  that (newly named “remote control”)  lunge. This supinated phase of the gait cycle will later incorporate into the Head-Toe procedures and the 60 step routine.

 

VIDEO VIEW SESSION

To get the most out of the video it is perhaps as well to recall  the reminder about judgemental thinking on page 1. There is a completely different way of looking at the video that is very powerful and it develops out of the mindfulness dimension. You look at your performance through the lens of nondoing. This opens up key questions like:

  •  Could I achieve the same thing for less energy?
  • Am I doing too much?
  • Could I save a whole lot of effort by attention to timing?
  • What could I let go and still achieve the same thing?

Avoiding the top-down judgemental thinking – the: “ Oh I look crap in that shot!” simply opens a way of observing that enables the essential “bottom-up “ processing to click in. The spectacular changes that you see on the video you recieved only come about because this empowering non-doing bottom-up processing has clicked in. This is actually probably the most important aspect of these courses! It is mindfulness in action.

  • In the video view session we centred upon:
  • Heel strike and forefoot strike and the fact that the closer your foot lands under or just slightly ahead of centre the more natural a forefoot strike feels.
  • TIP Try to allow  your foot to drop when it is underneath the knee. The action that kicks it forward in preparation for a heel strike is energy going in the wrong direction.
  • Vertical displacement. The bobbing up and down reflects another good- energy-going-to-the wrong-place issue. The leading foot tends to land passively and on the heel which creates a ‘dead patch” as the foot waits until it is behind before it starts to push. I call this planet pushing to try to convey the futility of this. It makes your centre go up and then the energy of that has to be dissipated as you inevitably come down.  This needs to change to planet stroking. The best kind of foot fall meets the ground with  a gentle glancing action that is the antithesis of the clunking energy dissipating heel strike.When the timing of the propulsion coincides with an active and fully functional foot strike, then the centre is conveyed forward and parallel to the ground. It don’t get much better than this!
  • The precise details of the foot fall phase were opened out and considered. This brings into precise focus the foot competence work and the Head to Toe procedures as they meld into the natural stride.

Other details concerning individual problems and corrective strategies are not considered here. They are best considered with the individuals concerned.

TIP: Turn off my soundtrack on the video so you can analyse your performance. If you have the facility to stop frame go through each of the 7 thin slices of the stride asking the kind of non-doing questions detailed above. You will always find something to let go of, somethings that are energy wasteful in some way. It really sharpens up your observational skills and capacity to follow the lines of least effort as well as shapes your own corrective strategies.

 

SUNDAY MORNING RUNNING DRILLS

This session went into the 5th thin-slice of the stride action where the swing phase of the leg action follows behind the forward-falling movement of the centre. We don’t like falling. I’ve heard it claimed that every fear we have is somehow conditioned to that one instinctive fear! So it is quite a challenge to control the energy of falling forward in the way we explored. The belt-and- elastic gives you security to let it all happen and most of all, the vital slowness necessary for the brain to learn a completely new re-patterning of the swing phase of your gait.

Note that with this procedure as with many of the others we explore. you are learning something the mirror opposite to what you are used to doing. It’s not just a little different: When you actively place a leg in front with the heel down you prevent a forward fall. The centre than has to be lifted up and over for forward movement to proceed. It’s kind of a pole-vault. The action we explored doesn’t prevent a fall it encourages it. You learn to control and harness the energy of the fall. In this way you get every last user -friendly drop of energy from gravity before you put on your two-pennoth of energy into the tug that happens before and during the foot fall. The moment of stepping if you master the timing of this is a moment of consent: You allow the leg the swing to catch up with the centre so the action. It’s  like releasing a pendulum.

This important drill closed the morning session.

 

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

ROCK ROLL AND LETS TWIST AGAIN

This is radical and important work to recover and reveal natural movement flow lines. This session layered up on the Saturday floor work session and went deeper into tsome cross lateral twists and tied them into the breathing process. These thoracic twists are deep and powerful. They are have become so disconnected in modern lifestyles and mindscapes.

Individual corrective strategies were opened up.

The work going on in this session would be better conveyed by a DVD.  SO WATCH THIS SPACE!

 

THE LOCATION RUN ACROSS THE DUDDON ESTUARY

Here we developed the up and over action that allows that controlled forward falling to feature in the running gait, We worked on one leg stepping over an imaginary pole sticking out of the ankle to produce a prancing pony sort of gait. If you develop this it is quite easy to have one leg walking and the other running which seems impossible but is actually very easy!

This can naturally lead to the uneven and natural running rhythm of galloping.

We also spent some time on the all important walk to run transition. There are some great shots on the video of people getting  a complete mastery of this action. How they contrast with the Day 1 clips! It is wonderful example of the power of the Non-doing lens or prism: to take something that is demonstrating a whole lot of energy effort and take it and transform it into something so effortless- like falling off a log!

 

THE 60 STEP ROUTINE

The workshop closed with this procedure which neatly draws together so many of the threads blowing in the breeze from the whole weekend: The foot competence, the Head-to-toe integrity and whole raft of natural movement learning strategies.

  • The 60 steps are divided into blocks of 20 reps.
  • The first block centres solely on the foot roll up, change of support and forward lunge aspects. This is not repetition but mindfulness in action. Stay on purpose and in process.
  • The next 20 steps bring in a lunge action for the arm on the same side. This opens up the homolateral (same side) natural movement flow line.
  • The final 20 step feature the action of the opposite arm into the full cross=patterned action of a natural stride.

 

Final note:

It was a very full and rich weekend because of all that you brought to the weekend. Thanks for so much for that.

You will I’m sure appreciate that a lot of work has gone into completing my half of the Deal: Preparing this report and the video is indeed a labour of love. But it does help enormously to have your feedback as to what works well for you and also what doesn’t.

Go mindfully.

Go well

Best

John

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