Yup I went down to Singapore and went to a real shala for the first time. My arms are hurting so much from all the "attempted" jumpbacks that I'm planning to skip practising today and give myself a break...
There are 2 shalas in Singapore and I wasn't sure which one to go to. Nonetheless as luck will have it, I could only find the phone no of 1 of them. So I ended up in Shala ____.
I certainly have no regrets..I learnt a whole lot from J who teaches there. I'd already expected that he would pick up on the fact that I have lousy bandhas...but he went at it with a vengence...and I had to attempt each and every jumpback with earnest..instead of cheating my way through them..The cool part was that he pulled me back from a lift up 5 or 6 times..and got me through my arms..to sort of throw me back to chatturanga, so that means I can ACTUALLY do it..if I had the strength. I'd always suspected that my long torso and short arms meant jumping back was next to impossible.
Besides that he did the same assist for me in all the tithibasana and bakasana jumpbacks ..and it feels really cool. However, I really don't know how I'm supposed to do it on my own...I also learnt that I'm putting too much weight into my wrists, and was told to claw the floor to activate my arm muscles so that it gives more support to my forearms and wrists. Its really great stuff, cos no one's ever told me that before..and I hope it'll help fix my wrist problem.
Also..he told me that I should try to jump through with crossed legs instead of having them straight..apparently I'm using my ability to fold myself into half to help me get through and not using any bandhas...shucks..just when I've managed to do it really softly and with control..J said it looks beautiful..but doesn't help to work on my bandhas at all..so my homework is to work on doing it with legs crossed.
Other than that..he helped me walk my hands in to my feet in UD yesterday. Amazing, I've never tried it before. Didn't attempt any ankle grabbing though cos I was so shocked at feeling my own feet I think he thought better than to have me do anything more. But it wasn't that bad..I felt a bit of pinch in the lower back, but it wasn't as intense as kapotasana..the intensity was more in the chest and shoulders, rather than in the lower back. J said I should start working on grabbing my ankles..and then the knees and then my own butt!! Unfortunately though, I doubt D will be so adventurous with me in mysore..he is rather conservative when it come to backbends. Other than that, J taught me to lift my chest while dropping back, which I have to say makes the drop back feel extremely good. And even the standing up felt much better and lighter when I lift my chest. Very cool..I will definitely incorporate this new tip into my practice!
Lots of interesting tips I got from this trip. I did have to forgo some shopping excursions to make 2 trips to class while I was in Singapore. Well worth it though!
So generally, J says I have absolutely no control over my bandhas (ok..that bit hurt a little..because I thought I did have some control!). He did say I had strength that I don't know how to use, and instead use my flexibility in everything I could get away with. I had some miserable attempts at jumping back which I'm sure looked really bad...like I had to drag my ass through my arms to get the feet through, but still no light at the end of the tunnel as to how to swing back gracefully. So J told me to focus my attention on jump backs..and I shouldn't do second series until I could do that. Ahem...I'm certainly not going to tell D that..I'm gonna hold on dearly to my 2 second series poses!
Anyway I went through the whole primary series on Tuesday, and didn't get stopped. Yesterday though J told me to work on all the jumping back and I was so pooped by bhujapidasana that he told me to just do backbends after that. Apparently I have no issues with the asanas as far as he is concerned. The fact that I had a hard time crossing my feet in supta k was not something he was very concerned with. He just told me my torso was long (common Asian trait it seems) and that I should instead work on dwi pada, because its pretty impossible to cross my feet when my head is in the way while I'm on the floor. Hmm...problem is I'm already struggling with eka pada...let alone dwi pada!
Overall, I'd love to have the opportunity to practice with J again. I'd definitely try to make another trip down to Singapore..but not in the near future. Anyhow J says to do my homework on the jumpbacks, and that should help with my bandha control..I'm taking that to heart and really make an effort there and see if there will be any improvements..
Oh..and yes..I have to gloat a bit cos he told me I did very well..and I can be very good (I guess provided I learn to use my bandhas!)
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