Sharath posted a 'tutorial' on Uttkatasana and Virabhadrasana this morning, I suspect he has a bee in his bonnet (bee reference for M.) about the lifts at the end, he does seem to come back again and again to these neglected lifts.
Hands up who neglects them
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| Sorry Sharath |
But they are there in Yoga Mala....
"Then doing recheka and puraka, press the hands to the floor by the sides of the feet, put the whole weight of the body on the two hands, and lift the body off the floor" p63
And here it is Virabhadrasana
"Next, place place the hands on the floor on either side of the right foot and, without allowing the legs to touch the floor, lift both the left leg and bent right leg completely off the floor with only the strength of the hands; this is the 11th vinyasa". p67
"This is the 11th vinyasa", we might try to pass the Uttkatasana lift off as' style' but here the lift gets a vinyasa count of it's very own, no excuses (hangs head).
Some screenshots of Sharath's and his grandfather's Virabhadrasana from Yoga Mala, Pattabhi Jois has a much wider stance.
But, you might exclaim, the picture of Pattabhi Jois is from his Surynamaskara pictures, true but the text does say that it's the same
"Next stand as in the 7th vinyasa of the second suryanamaskara..."
Same goes for Uttkatasana
"Jump into the 2nd vinyasa of the first Surya Namaskars..."
Manju said something interesting about Virabhadrasana, this was from a workshop a few days after the one I attended and passed on to me by J. (Thank you J.).
"He (Manju) also told me in Virabhadrasana that the back leg should feel so grounded that you can lift the front leg up in a kick—and the true warrior of old would take this stance for fighting to free the front leg for that kick".
*******
We should be careful of course reading too much into pictures, I've taken screenshots from my videos that aren't perhaps the best presentation of my asana just close enough ("they'll do"). Interestingly though, Krishnamacharya, in Yoga Makaranda makes a point of point of saying in several places "study the picture carefully", he seems to have been happy with his pictures, how I would have loved to be a fly on the wall at that photoshoot.
I have this fantasy of Manju adjusting his father's Virabhadrasana and Utkatasana
....and nightmares about what Iyengar might have to say about them ( and my own for that matter).
While on the topic of Sharath video's here's Sharath's Pranayama tutorial from earlier in the month.There seemed to be a big hush around this video, usually everyone goes nuts about Sharath clips, this one though received barely a mention, confusion?
And two last thoughts about about 'the little differences'....
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| Bumble bee combe |
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| Honey bee combe |