As I mentioned yesterday a few short posts for M. on practice for the next few months, until I get to join her in Japan. She should have landed around 3am last night (my time). Hope it was a nice flight, love to the family, look forward to seeing them all soon.
I wish I'd recorded the asana sessions on Norman's workshop, amongst the grunts and groans of the long stays and openings there were some real gems. As I mentioned in an earlier post Norman spent six years or so with Iyengar back when he was teaching out of his house, before the Iyengar institute was built.
There are a few things I have a rough memory of that I'm trying to explore and pin down in practice.
This post will be very vague but I suspect I'll be able to make more sense of them with this book, Critical Alignment, by Gert van Leeuwen. Gert was Norman's Sjoman's student and Norman referred to the book several times both in the workshop as we in his own books Yogasutrcintamini , Yoga Touchstone and Dead birds (all available from Black lotus Books).
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In inversions, Norman has you bring the arms a little closer together than I'm used to, In Urdhva Dhanurasana too .
He noticed that I tend to rely on upper body and arm strength, I'm tense supposedly, up high over and around the shoulders, he kept having me relax that area and it does seem to make a difference.
There was more on the pelvis in space, something I've written about here over the years, here though there seems to be a connecting of the abdomen with the pelvis more. He had me take the pelvis a little further back before bringing the legs up in sirsasana. Add that to the relaxing of the arms and shoulders somewhat and it makes for a much lighter more relaxed/balanced headstand.
We did some handstands to warm up on the Sunday and again there was a relaxing of the shoulders and something like a shifting of attention from between the shoulder blades where I seem to have the habit of working, down six inches or so, focus there as you go up. or perhaps it's that your dropping down through the shoulder blades relaxing the shoulders more and that makes it seem like your focusing lower. Post to come on this with diagrams
This was interesting and I'm sure I'm not doing it justice but it seems to make a difference in everything, perhaps its just because focusing a little lower down the back I bunch up the shoulders less. The lotus comes down much more easily in karandavasana and goes up more smoothly too, jump backs feel lighter, flightier...
Following Norman's openings I'm going deeper into my standing sequence especially the triangle postures, I wish I could remember if Norman had recommended relaxing the abdomen or holding the posture more with the abdomen, I suspect the former.
My backbends are OK, they can be relatively deep but I've been lazy, or rather I've been focusing so much on the Krishnmacharya Primary series lately that I've let my 2nd series and my kapo slip. In the picture at the top of the blog I've come down and landed on my heels and settled in to take my ankles. Recently when I've included kapo for the Krishnamacharya middle 'group' but I've been landing on the floor behind my feet and settled for my toes.
This morning my kapo was much better, I landed on my feet and settled in there. I seem to have forgotten how to walk back up them too my heels, which seemed like they might be available again. Didn't want to push it first time back but I imagine by the end of the week.....
![]()
So what's different? Norman had us stretch up through the thoracic region, a stretch higher up the back. I think over the last few years I've focused a lot on protecting the lower back by stretching through the length of my spine, nutating my hips and taking the pelvis as far forward as possible. It's almost as if I've tried to avoid bending in favour of elongating. So now I'm doing the same thing but when I get to the thoracic region I'm, making that stretch along the front of my body more intense which is arching the top of the back somewhat , bringing out my chest (pigeon) and taking my shoulders back.
It feels comfortable, lower back is still protected but I'm getting deeper into my back bends, nice drop backs and Urdhva Dhanurasana ( btw, Norman recommends lifting the heels, very Iyengar) and landing more deeply into my kapo. Still not heels or ankles but they'll come back. best of all it feels a nice place to hang out and breath for a while and see what comes up.
Shelly Goldsack, Norman's assistant on the workshop was doing a lot of work on backbends Sunday morning, including 54 tic tocs or rather the Viparita Chakrasana aspect, supposedly she usually does 108, with Norman giving her the little extra nudge on her knees to take her over. When I did learn to take it back over a couple of years back, after a month of work on it, I thought 'nice' but just a party trick. Norman seems to give Viparita Chakrasana a lot of importance, something to do with the movement of the asana (more to come on this). Thinking I should visit it again.
Actually there were a lot of 'postures' that I had written off as party tricks, enjoyed for a little while but not taken too seriously, arm balances for example. Norman has made me think about these again.
So practice seems to have settled into a general structure of Headstand, Standing sequence, first half of second series, first half of Primary, finishing sequence. Pranayama, meditation.
Exploring this idea of putting the headstand at the beginning, not sure about it but curious.
Standing has a strong Norman Sjoman workshop focus, spending a lot of time on the triangle postures and dropping some of the other Ashtanga standing to make space for the longer stays.
First half of 2nd has a strong Vinyasa Krama Bow and Meditative sequence feel to it
The first half of primary is relatively by the book but trimmed down a little to allow for some longer stays
Finishing, again trimmed down.
So it's Vinyasa Krama with a loose ashtanga framework and Krishnamacharya kumbhaka element but with a strong Norman Sjoman influence.
I'll write a little more the Pranayama tomorrow.
See my earlier workshop notes on Norman Sjoman's workshop here
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/norman-sjomans-workshop-in-coventry.html
Dr. Norman Sjoman will be in Poland next month
at Studio Jogi Yam
https://www.facebook.com/events/567630416659342/
http://www.joga-yam.pl/aktualnosci.html
Termin 8/9 marzec – warsztat jogi z Dr Normanem Sjoman. Ten warsztat to “okazja do uzyskania dokładnych i szczegółowych informacji na temat jogi od jednego z największych specjalistów w tej dziedzinie”...Inwestycja: dwudniowy warsztat 400 zł przy płatności do 15 lutego, po tym terminie 450 zł, jednodniowy 230 zł przy płatności do 15 lutego, po tym terminie 260 zł. Norman poprowadzi równiez zajęcia 1,5 godz. cena 40 zł, oraz zajęcia jogi masterclass dla grupy 6 osób cena 80 zł. Konieczne wcześniejsze zapisy. Termin zgłaszania na warsztat do 15 luty.
and here at Bandha Works at the end of Feburary
https://www.facebook.com/events/1376177065982826/
Saturday, 22 February 2014
Time16:00 in UTC+01
Description
Téma: Mysore-i jógatradíció
Februárban egy különleges vendég repít vissza minket az időben a maharadzsák világába. A helyszín Dél-India, Mysore városa, az astanga vinyásza jóga újkori hajnala...
Előadó: Dr. Norman Sjoman (Kanada)
Dr. Norman Sjoman neves szanszkrit professzor, aki többek között a “The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace” és a “Yoga Touchstone” című elismert könyvek szerzője. Több, mint 14 évig tanult India különböző egyetemein, az 1980-as évek közepén a mysore-i palotában folytatott kutatómunkát a jóga ászanák történelméről.
A szatszangról:
A rendszeres órákon elsősorban az ászanákon van a hangsúly. A havonta megrendezésre kerülő Bandha Works szatszang célja, hogy kötetlen délutáni beszélgetés és teázás keretein belül az astanga jóga elméletével is foglalkozzunk.
Belépő: 1000 Ft., diákoknak: 500 Ft.
He's also supposedly here at Szczecin 1st and 2nd of March but I can't find anything on the website
http://www.yoga.szczecin.pl/index.php/en
I wish I'd recorded the asana sessions on Norman's workshop, amongst the grunts and groans of the long stays and openings there were some real gems. As I mentioned in an earlier post Norman spent six years or so with Iyengar back when he was teaching out of his house, before the Iyengar institute was built.
There are a few things I have a rough memory of that I'm trying to explore and pin down in practice.
This post will be very vague but I suspect I'll be able to make more sense of them with this book, Critical Alignment, by Gert van Leeuwen. Gert was Norman's Sjoman's student and Norman referred to the book several times both in the workshop as we in his own books Yogasutrcintamini , Yoga Touchstone and Dead birds (all available from Black lotus Books).
So in all I'm about to write be aware that I might have got it slightly or completely wrong but if it sounds interesting you might want to take a preview of Gert's book.
In inversions, Norman has you bring the arms a little closer together than I'm used to, In Urdhva Dhanurasana too .
He noticed that I tend to rely on upper body and arm strength, I'm tense supposedly, up high over and around the shoulders, he kept having me relax that area and it does seem to make a difference.
There was more on the pelvis in space, something I've written about here over the years, here though there seems to be a connecting of the abdomen with the pelvis more. He had me take the pelvis a little further back before bringing the legs up in sirsasana. Add that to the relaxing of the arms and shoulders somewhat and it makes for a much lighter more relaxed/balanced headstand.
We did some handstands to warm up on the Sunday and again there was a relaxing of the shoulders and something like a shifting of attention from between the shoulder blades where I seem to have the habit of working, down six inches or so, focus there as you go up. or perhaps it's that your dropping down through the shoulder blades relaxing the shoulders more and that makes it seem like your focusing lower. Post to come on this with diagrams
This was interesting and I'm sure I'm not doing it justice but it seems to make a difference in everything, perhaps its just because focusing a little lower down the back I bunch up the shoulders less. The lotus comes down much more easily in karandavasana and goes up more smoothly too, jump backs feel lighter, flightier...
Following Norman's openings I'm going deeper into my standing sequence especially the triangle postures, I wish I could remember if Norman had recommended relaxing the abdomen or holding the posture more with the abdomen, I suspect the former.
My backbends are OK, they can be relatively deep but I've been lazy, or rather I've been focusing so much on the Krishnmacharya Primary series lately that I've let my 2nd series and my kapo slip. In the picture at the top of the blog I've come down and landed on my heels and settled in to take my ankles. Recently when I've included kapo for the Krishnamacharya middle 'group' but I've been landing on the floor behind my feet and settled for my toes.
This morning my kapo was much better, I landed on my feet and settled in there. I seem to have forgotten how to walk back up them too my heels, which seemed like they might be available again. Didn't want to push it first time back but I imagine by the end of the week.....
So what's different? Norman had us stretch up through the thoracic region, a stretch higher up the back. I think over the last few years I've focused a lot on protecting the lower back by stretching through the length of my spine, nutating my hips and taking the pelvis as far forward as possible. It's almost as if I've tried to avoid bending in favour of elongating. So now I'm doing the same thing but when I get to the thoracic region I'm, making that stretch along the front of my body more intense which is arching the top of the back somewhat , bringing out my chest (pigeon) and taking my shoulders back.
It feels comfortable, lower back is still protected but I'm getting deeper into my back bends, nice drop backs and Urdhva Dhanurasana ( btw, Norman recommends lifting the heels, very Iyengar) and landing more deeply into my kapo. Still not heels or ankles but they'll come back. best of all it feels a nice place to hang out and breath for a while and see what comes up.
 |
| and here's Iyengar, at 94, that's a small clock in front of his face that he uses to time his stays. Anyone know how long he sets it for? |
Actually there were a lot of 'postures' that I had written off as party tricks, enjoyed for a little while but not taken too seriously, arm balances for example. Norman has made me think about these again.
So practice seems to have settled into a general structure of Headstand, Standing sequence, first half of second series, first half of Primary, finishing sequence. Pranayama, meditation.
Exploring this idea of putting the headstand at the beginning, not sure about it but curious.
Standing has a strong Norman Sjoman workshop focus, spending a lot of time on the triangle postures and dropping some of the other Ashtanga standing to make space for the longer stays.
First half of 2nd has a strong Vinyasa Krama Bow and Meditative sequence feel to it
The first half of primary is relatively by the book but trimmed down a little to allow for some longer stays
Finishing, again trimmed down.
So it's Vinyasa Krama with a loose ashtanga framework and Krishnamacharya kumbhaka element but with a strong Norman Sjoman influence.
I'll write a little more the Pranayama tomorrow.
See my earlier workshop notes on Norman Sjoman's workshop here
http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/norman-sjomans-workshop-in-coventry.html
*****
Norman Sjoman's European Workshops
Dr. Norman Sjoman will be in Poland next month
at Studio Jogi Yam
https://www.facebook.com/events/567630416659342/
http://www.joga-yam.pl/aktualnosci.html
Termin 8/9 marzec – warsztat jogi z Dr Normanem Sjoman. Ten warsztat to “okazja do uzyskania dokładnych i szczegółowych informacji na temat jogi od jednego z największych specjalistów w tej dziedzinie”...Inwestycja: dwudniowy warsztat 400 zł przy płatności do 15 lutego, po tym terminie 450 zł, jednodniowy 230 zł przy płatności do 15 lutego, po tym terminie 260 zł. Norman poprowadzi równiez zajęcia 1,5 godz. cena 40 zł, oraz zajęcia jogi masterclass dla grupy 6 osób cena 80 zł. Konieczne wcześniejsze zapisy. Termin zgłaszania na warsztat do 15 luty.
and here at Bandha Works at the end of Feburary
https://www.facebook.com/events/1376177065982826/
Saturday, 22 February 2014
Time16:00 in UTC+01
Description
Téma: Mysore-i jógatradíció
Februárban egy különleges vendég repít vissza minket az időben a maharadzsák világába. A helyszín Dél-India, Mysore városa, az astanga vinyásza jóga újkori hajnala...
Előadó: Dr. Norman Sjoman (Kanada)
Dr. Norman Sjoman neves szanszkrit professzor, aki többek között a “The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace” és a “Yoga Touchstone” című elismert könyvek szerzője. Több, mint 14 évig tanult India különböző egyetemein, az 1980-as évek közepén a mysore-i palotában folytatott kutatómunkát a jóga ászanák történelméről.
A szatszangról:
A rendszeres órákon elsősorban az ászanákon van a hangsúly. A havonta megrendezésre kerülő Bandha Works szatszang célja, hogy kötetlen délutáni beszélgetés és teázás keretein belül az astanga jóga elméletével is foglalkozzunk.
Belépő: 1000 Ft., diákoknak: 500 Ft.
He's also supposedly here at Szczecin 1st and 2nd of March but I can't find anything on the website
http://www.yoga.szczecin.pl/index.php/en