I came across a trailer for a new course by Simon Borg-Olivier on Kino MacGregor's, Omstars channel (https://omstars.com/) , a channel she describes in their mission statement as "Netflix for yogi's". Following a link to the Omstars fb page I also came across a coupon (CELEBRITYONE) for the month of April, one month for $1, result.
I can't say, much about the channel, all I've watched thus far are Simon's videos but it's certainly as easy to subscribe as Netflix, an email address, make a password and you have an account. Fill in your credit card details, add the coupon and you're all subscribed and watching videos in minutes.
As with Netflix, this is an unlimited viewing subscription channel, you don't get to download and keep anything, although of course, you can always capture streaming content, a favourite clip or video playing on your screen, with the likes of the 'New Screen recording feature on the free Quicktime program that come with your mac ( I'm sure PC's have something similar).
There are a list of 'hosts', some I'm familiar with. Kino of course, Laruga, David Robson, Mark Robberds, Tim Feldmann, Eddie Stern, Ajay Tokas is there, also Alexander Medin. The others I'm not familiar with but all are in a sense hosts of their own channel under the Omstars umbrella offering one or more playlists (courses). There are Led Ashtanga series, breakdown of asana within series, anatomy classes and much more besides. A few years ago, back when I was hunting through YouTube in search of tutorials, I would have been very excited, these days I'm kind of over asana tutorials and led Series. However, I may well watch Alex Medin's Yoga Sutra series, before my subscription runs out.
This may not be my kind of thing currently but I imagine, to the home practitioner in the first few years exploring their Ashtanga practice (or yoga practice generally) this channel/website would be a godsend. It may not be free like YouTube but seems reasonable, with a lot of useful content. i believe there is another coupon available for April $80 for the year, that would be a bargain I imagine.
It was Simon I came for, I'm fascinated by how his practice, or rather what it is he chooses to teach, seems to be metamorphosing of late, each video i see seems to come at it from a slightly different angle, each demonstration of his practice slightly different,I couldn't resist a recent, up to date presentation.
And it is fascinating. After a trailer we get a twenty minute introduction/lecture (Learn the fundamentals), the science behind what he's doing, why he waves his arms about as he does, undulates his spine as he does, breathe naturally as he does. In the next video
The following video, just over an hour is Simon with two other practitioner's going through the key movements, alternative, active movement approaches to the surya namaskar and standing postures.
He even includes his active handstand approach, where the breath takes you up relatively effortlessly.
The next video is the Led actual practice, again it starts off simply, the same eight basic movements we had broken down in the first video. alternative foot positions are introduced, in the last ten minutes it becomes more improvisational, shifting the weight first here, then there. For me. having practiced this approach for a year or so now this and the previous video were revelatory, I feel I have a much better understanding of what is I'm actually doing or trying to do and how I can introduce this sense of play into my own practice of Simon and Bianca's Spinal sequence and active movements.
The final video is Simon practicing ( more practicing than demonstrating perhaps), he makes his 'clicking' sound to cue movements but that's about it. It's like playing along to one of your favourite sax players, (or trying to flollow a transcription) occasionally you get a little lost so just go off on your own for a bit until you kind of get back on track. Once you have the basic movements under your belt there really aren't any rules, just go, as they say, with the flow and your practice will no doubt be all the better for it.
Thank you Kino for bringing Simon to your platform, for the high quality production and excellent editing, was it filmed by who I think it was?
APPENDIX
Details
http://simonborgolivier.com/
I also want to recommend Simon's own video/download of the Spinal Sequence, slightly different approach to the way he's presenting it on Omstars, equally excellent.
https://yogasynergy.com/shop/spinal-movements/
At the end of the practice, simon settles into this classic qigong tree posture, a meditative posture that you can hold for five minutes as Simon does here or fifty, a whole practice in itself..
Update - a response to an fb comment.
We get to choose our concepts, another one might be the concept of bringing together useful tutorials and led classes from accomplished practitioners and communicators. A few years ago I used to scour Youtube for those who could explain how best to get in and out of a certain asana. In that sense this is nothing more than an extension of my early youtube playlists of certain teachers content. I have profound distaste for celebrity, yoga 'lifestyle' and yoga and business used in the same sentence but if you are at a stage of your practice where youyare into tutorials then this may well be useful.