Hitting the sweet spot.

There are times in my life where things have gone SO right. It's as if I had suceeded despite myself. On the golf course, I might hit a ball and there's that satisfying sound "THWACK" as the ball hits exactly on the sweet spot. Then I'm looking and the ball is going neither left, neither right but beautifully straight ahead. Oh, dear reader, how rare that occasion is when that happens. Strangely, if I try to make the shot it never works out the same and I find myself traversing the creeks, the roughs and the forests of golf courses around Sydney.
I have had lots of these sweet spot moments in my life where everything just works. It's such a satisfying feeling when everything conspires to assist you to achieve your stated outcome. The trouble is that when I try to replicate that sweet spot feeling it rarely works out. It's that classic situation where you've done something amazing and you say  "Hey everybody, look at me!" and guess what happens next. @#$%!


In movement this kind of easy achievement of outcomes might be described as "coordination." Coordination is where the whole body and mind conspires to work together so that you achieve your outcome. We can often see "coordination" in highly skilled athletes and musicians. They spend hours and hours and hours going over a movement (or a piece of music) refining how their body will behave at important cues, establishing where energy can be saved and energy can be expended. I'm talking about Cathy Freeman running, Tiger Woods hitting a golf ball, Beckham bending it, Placido hitting the note, Menhuin playing the violin. I see these virtuosos and gain a kind of vicarious pleasure from seeing the beauty of their movement, the symmetry, the balance. I hope that you do as well.

So there's a kind of movement that's rehearsed and beautifully coordinated. You must spend many many hours studying technique, observing your self, sculpting, refining, defining your particular gift in this class of virtuoso movement.

There's another kind of movement you see every now and then-some people have a natural poise. I wish I had natural poise. In my case more like natural goose. I'm tall and awkward and seem to hit my head on doorways a lot but some people just seem to have an inate poise to their movement and posture.

Now, there's another state. It's a state of movement discovered by FM Alexander where by adjusting the relationship between your head and your spine, delicately, you automatically "coordinate". He called it the 'priming movement'. Later on it became known as the Primary Control for the Coordination of Human Movement. By working with your priming movement a trained Alexander Teacher can demonstrate a "coordinated' movement in your body. It's as if suddenly you are hitting the sweet spot all the time as your body works together to achieve your goal. It doesn't mean that you'll run like Cathy Freeman or hit a golf ball like Tiger. Shame. What it does mean, however, is that your at the most advantageous and efficient relationship to the task you are doing.

Working with that priming movement gives you an immediate experience of 'Integration" or the sense of everything working together in harmony. It's my experience that people of all ages and conditions benefit from introducing this "priming movement" into their movement repertoire. As the body works together, and the weight redistributes over centre of balance many people feel significant improvement in how they are moving. Pressure comes off injured areas and muscles unlock so that joints can move easily and then suddenly there's the sensation of balance being allowed, ease in the muscles and fluidity at the joints. It's something that is unusual and valuable especially if we are in discomfort or are being asked to perform skillfully with our body and an instrument.

I'm holding a workshop on the Alexander Technique in Sydney on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th September 2010. I'd love to see you there if you can make it. Teaching as many people as I can the brilliance of Alexander Technique is my mission. If you can help, I'd love to hear from you. Have a look at my www.sydneyalexandertechnique.com website. Come along and bring a friend but remember to book because there are only a limited number of spots available.