teaching the teacher

"Ready for class?" I asked cheerily as the gleaming sun rose across the water. Then I saw the grimace come across his face: "Um, my body kinda needs a rest day... maybe tomorrow?" Had my simple vinyasa really broken this god?

In my first group yoga class, I had the privilege of working with two tri-athletes with well-tuned physiques and strong frames. I put them through a fairly simple sequence whose climax was a full wheel bridge... but the real bodywork was the extended poses of Virabhadrasana (Warrior I and II), sinking them deep into their lunges, teasing out optimal hip, leg and foot alignments. Then right when the shakes start to hit, moving them into Vrkasana (Tree) and Natarajasana.

After class, my brother came up and said "you know, some of those alignments you were asking for were *really* hard, like grounding the heels in down dog... you might want to say "try this if you can, but its OK if you do this instead." That immediately reminded me of the advice from my yoga mentor, who said "its about finding the perfect pose for each individual's body". This morning, I meditated on this again, and came up with the following three guidelines for my future classes:

There is no such thing as "wrong form" for a given asana. There is only:

• The optimal human form for that asana. Recognize that you are not the optimal human; you are the optimal you.
• Visualize the best possible form for your body and strive towards that.
• Create the best form possible for your body as it is today & now.

As I was thinking this, I reflected on my own circumstances; I've spent the past nine months pushing myself into more and deeper physical extremes of yoga, gymnastics, and acrobatics. This has made my damaged wrist (see illustration) all the more evident... I've dealt with it in three ways: by ignoring the pain, by rehabbing it into health, and by adapting my practice to this altered state of wrist.

Following my own wisdom, and treating myself as my own student, I'm going to be focusing more and more on rehab and adaptation. This is the core of true yoga teaching.

Oh, and that breathing thing :)

on basketball, children, and ambidextrousity

The doctor gave me a choice: "If you have discipline, I can give you this flexible brace, otherwise I'm going to set it in a hard cast."

I opted for the brace; of course I was disciplined. Silly me.

4 days after breaking my wrist in a snowboarding accident, I was back to 8 hours of day of typing at the computer, writing emails and books. It felt fine at the time. So good, actually, that I stopped wearing the brace alltogether after about 10 days. 45 days in, however, I wasn't so sure. Serious pain began to shoot up my arm, and my fingers curled in agony. At the 60 day mark, I went back for my checkup and explained the situation. The doc looked at me with a mix of compassion and sorrow: "You said you had discipline. I instructed you to keep off it. Now this may take a really long time to heal."

Doh.

Fast forward 6 years. The wrist is basically healed. And then I decide to get in a hellacious car accident, slamming my wrist right into the dashboard at an unencumbered 45 mph to dead stop. Unfortunately, my wrist did not break that time. Instead, it simply absorbed all the impact in the bones. The bruise was so deep it didn't even show up for another month, when all of a sudden this strange purple, yellow, and green coloration surfaced on my upper forearm.

And now, this wrist is my constant reminder to slow down and to be careful and gentle and enjoy some of the more subtle things in life. Which brings me to: children.

My daughter Alyson is a completely physical girl. When she's not playing outside, she's playing Wii Sports or wrestling or hooping. And naturally she wants me to share these activities with her. So the other day on the Wii, my wrist really starts to complain, and I beg out of the game.

Today, we play basketball, where by both height and skill she is woefully outmatched, and with pain shooting through my dribbling arm, I have a Eureka moment: I can play the whole game with my left hand lead!

Now, gentle readers: brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand is one thing. Playing basketball, dribbling and shooting is a whole nother story... and, a great education. It was some of the funnest basketball I've ever played. :)