Share this
Where have all the Adjustments gone??
by Brian Cooper on Apr 8, 2019 1:54:42 PM
(photo credit to Ashtanga Yoga Vienna, primary series workshop in Vienna 2015)
Once Upon a Time in the East, if you were lucky, you got adjusted. And I mean ADJUSTED. During my 5 month stay at Pattabhi Jois’s old Shala, I was adjusted at least three times each morning, and always in the drop back to Urdhva Dhanurasana. Some mornings I hoped I’d get away with a gentle version, but Guruji always appeared like magic, waiting to adjust me, and I never escaped. Within 2 months my hands no longer touched the floor but were taken in turn and pulled towards my ankles. Each morning my hands were taken higher, until after 3 months I was in full-blown Tiriang Mukhottanasana with my hands near my knees. The adjustment was strong; sometimes it took my breath away, but always lead to a sense of euphoria. Towards the end of my stay, Guruji gave me a particularly determined adjustment in this asana, and suddenly I felt a sensation of my entire body opening, expanding and letting go. I have never forgotten that sensation and how it was achieved. And it was achieved by consistent, strong, and highly experienced adjustments.
Looking back, I realise how fortunate I was. Before visiting Mysore I had spent time with one of the great Ashtanga teachers, Derek Ireland. Derek did not hold back in his adjusting. They were powerful: Derek once described doing adjusting like a workout. What he had in common with Guruji was that his adjustments, although strong, were like a gentle giant’s. They were born of
experience and an understanding of the benefits.
Over the years I have been teaching and running teacher training courses, adjusting has become an important part of what I do. I have incorporated what I learnt from Guruji, Derek and many other fine traditional teachers, with years of giving and teaching Traditional Thai Massage. I like to think that my adjustments continue to reflect the essence of what I was taught.
Recently, after teaching some short adjusting workshops at the Yoga Show in London, I was approached time and time again by teachers asking where they could learn the sort of adjusting I had been teaching. None of them had experienced such ‘strong’ adjusting before, and all loved them. In many training courses and workshops I routinely adjust students into asanas and later they tell me they have never been adjusted into the asana before, and are amazed they can achieve what they had assumed to be a never to be attained posture.
What’s going on? Why are students being deprived of good adjustments? And why are teachers preventing their students from progressing? I gained some insight during a training course I was teaching in Holland. I discovered the studio had been using an adjusting book on its previous trainings. I too used the book, not to show how to adjust, but how not to adjust. The book reflected what seems to be a growing distaste for ‘real’ physical adjustments, now replaced by what I would call ‘symbolic adjustments’. Now, I am all for using the whole range of adjusting including verbal and light touch. I would describe light touch as more guidance than adjusting, and it does have its advantages in some situations. But to replace a good strong adjustment with a namby-pamby, insipid, half-hearted, touchy-feely sort of effort is an insult. It is an insult to the receiver, and to the tradition of adjusting. And the main reason I can see for this trend is that its supporters have never personally felt what real adjusting is like, nor have they learnt adjusting from anyone who has. It’s a case of the blind leading the blind.
Adjusting is an art; it takes many years to learn to adjust effectively and skilfully. This teaches us patience and determination. There is no short cut to adjusting, which is what the ‘new generation’ of adjusters foolishly believe.
Share this
- World Of Yoga (74)
- Teaching Yoga (56)
- Yoga Business & Marketing (37)
- Thinking Of Teaching (14)
- COVID-19 (6)
- Stress Awareness Month (5)
- Yoga For Men (5)
- Community (3)
- Online Presence (3)
- Pregnancy Yoga (3)
- CPD Academy (2)
- Experience (2)
- Amrita (1)
- Anatomy (1)
- Asana (1)
- Discussions (1)
- Interview (1)
- Kids Yoga (1)
- Living The Yogic Life (1)
- Meditation (1)
- Mindset (1)
- Roots of Yoga (1)
- Traditional (1)
- Trainee (1)
- September 2024 (1)
- August 2024 (2)
- July 2024 (4)
- June 2024 (1)
- May 2024 (5)
- March 2024 (1)
- February 2024 (2)
- October 2023 (2)
- September 2023 (6)
- August 2023 (4)
- June 2023 (1)
- May 2023 (3)
- April 2023 (2)
- February 2023 (2)
- January 2023 (2)
- December 2022 (4)
- November 2022 (4)
- October 2022 (6)
- September 2022 (3)
- August 2022 (5)
- July 2022 (4)
- June 2022 (1)
- December 2021 (1)
- November 2021 (6)
- October 2021 (2)
- September 2021 (2)
- August 2021 (1)
- July 2021 (3)
- June 2021 (1)
- May 2021 (2)
- April 2021 (3)
- March 2021 (2)
- January 2021 (2)
- December 2020 (1)
- October 2020 (2)
- August 2020 (1)
- July 2020 (2)
- May 2020 (1)
- April 2020 (2)
- March 2020 (1)
- December 2019 (1)
- November 2019 (3)
- October 2019 (4)
- September 2019 (6)
- August 2019 (1)
- July 2019 (5)
- June 2019 (3)
- May 2019 (9)
- April 2019 (9)
- March 2019 (1)
- February 2019 (12)
- January 2019 (3)
- December 2018 (5)
- September 2018 (4)
- August 2018 (2)
- June 2018 (2)
- May 2018 (2)
- March 2018 (1)
- April 2017 (1)
No Comments Yet
Let us know what you think