Hands On

Overview

When we communicate with someone about their body, we can do it in one of three ways. We can talk at them, we can demonstrate for them, or we can communicate directly to the intelligence in their body by giving them an actual experience of the principal we want them to understand.

These Hands-On workshops develop universal skills of how to touch safely, gracefully, and effectively, irrespective of which discipline one is practicing.

Skills of how to communicate respect in the first moments of contact, how to gradate pressure, how to work with multiple points of contact, techniques of leverage, transitions, how to harness gravity, how to traction joints, relax muscles, communicate rhythm, timing, qualities of movement, and so much more.

Depending on the discipline one is practicing, the principals one communicates may be different, but the techniques of how to touch safely, gracefully, and effectively are universal.

BIO-MECHANICS

This workshop in Biomechanics shares techniques of how to most effectively organize one’s own placement, alignment, bones, joints, etc. to offer hands on assistance to others.

At its heart, this is a workshop of how to dance safely, and gracefully with a partner.

By developing these techniques, one not only

improves the effectiveness of ones hands-on skills, but simultaneously protects, and preserves one’s own body, as one serves, and takes care of others.

PILATES MAT

Offering hands-on corrections during Pilates Mat work can require significant skill, and fineness. Students are in motion (often at high speed), they are not stabilized by a piece of equipment, and there is often the greater responsibility of the needs of the class as a whole.

This workshop presents sensory specific touch skills, hands-on techniques, individualized instruction, and

lots of practice in how to communicate through touch in a group class setting. Skills of how to safely, efficiently, and gracefully communicate corrections about muscular engagement, skeletal placement, joint tractioning/lengthening, body alignment, spatial intent, rhythm, tempo, dynamics, and many other elements, are presented.

The greater goal of this training is to support the development of your own voice, your own unique approach to communicating with your hands.

PILATES BARREL

The Pilates Barrel is utilized in the industry primarily for passive stretching, but it can be used for so much more! The Barrel can also be used as a curved Massage/Physical Therapy table, to traction the joints of the upper body.

As the under surface of a person’s body molds itself around the Barrel, the opposite side stretch’s, and lengthens. This presents a tremendous opportunity to

pull, push, leverage, hang, lean, press, shake, stretch their muscles, tendons, connective tissue, myofascia, and ultimately traction their joints into greater length.

This workshop presents techniques of how to most effectively use ones fingers, hands, forearms, elbows, body weight, and gravity as tools to serve ones client in opening their body to life.

Also offered are training in how to harness gravity, to pour ones weight, transition between points of contact, cooperate with breathing, trigger pressure points, and much more.

PILATES Reformer

This workshop offers experiential training in multiple hands-on approach’s to working with clients on the Pilates Reformer. The first, and most commonly practiced is that of “cueing” the engagement of specific muscle groups. This might be thought of as a form of Neuro-Muscular communication

A second is how to manually support and assist clients in taking their bodies beyond the limits of their current range of motion.

This might be thought of as a technique of dance partnering, or assisted yoga.

A third is the application of deep pressure to a clients tendons, myofacia, and connective tissue (while in motion). This might be thought of as a form of Deep Tissue Bodywork.

A fourth is that an instructor uses their hands to communicate suggestions about the quality/timing/rhythm of the movement. This might be thought of as a form of musical conducting.

The mission of this workshop is to share these different techniques (and others) with the Pilates community, in support of each instructor developing their own unique approach to hands-on communication.

Weight/Cable Systems

Some of the skills necessary for effective hands-on communication are universal. Others are unique to a paticuler piece of equipment, or system.

Using hands-on techniques, together with a Weight/Cable system one can communicate skeleton-muscular corrections, but also release blocked musculature, open/stretch/lengthen connective tissue, and create additional space in (traction) the joints.

This workshop will offer experiential training, and individualized instruction in how to communicate (with ones hands) corrections regarding rhythm, timing, qualities, placement, alignment, etc.

Other skills include the sensing of different types of tissue (muscle, tendon, myofacia, ligament, etc.), cooperating with momentum, using multiple points of contact, communicating comfort, support, encouragement and much more.

Circular Movement

This workshop presents two styles of hands-on techniques that can be helpful in assisting someone performing Circular Movement. The first is the more traditional hands-on approach of communicating corrections about bone placement, joint alignment, etc.

The goal of this approach is to communicate information/ideas/etc. directly to someone’s body/mind about how to perform the movement

more “correctly”. This might be thought of as communicating, or teaching.

In the second approach, the instructor uses hands-on skills to physically assist a student in going beyond the current limits to their range of motion. This technique is more akin to a slow-motion approach to assisted yoga.

This workshop trains instructors how to safely, lean, pull, hang, press, twist, push, leverage, traction, etc. a student’s body, so they can experience a range of motion beyond what they can achieve on their own.

ith 2 coats of Ceramic to protect against fingerprints, and stains. The base is constructed from five 1.5-inch dowels which can easily be unscrewed for shipping, or storage. These dowels can be fabricated from either acrylic, brass, aluminum, or oak, creating a variety of different esthetics. The breaking mechanism for the Third Generation Swivels is a collet-style clamping mechanism. When disassembled, a pair of swivels can be shipped in a 19″ x 19″ x 12″ container, weighing 44 pounds.

Yoga

This experiential workshop is intended for advanced yoga practitioners, and instructors. The goal is to share advanced, hands-on skills, techniques, methods, etc. with yoga instructors who wish to explore the deeper frontiers of assisted yoga stretching.

Included are techniques/skills for efficient weight transference, harnessing gravity, momentum, smooth

transitions, trigger point release, leverage, hanging, leaning, pressing, tractioning, musicality, and much more.

The mission of this program is to empower/inspire advanced yoga practitioners to explore, create, and develop their own unique approach to advanced yogic practice.

LOWER BODY

The laws of physics effect the human body equally, at all times, no matter which exercise system one practices. The most functionally efficient skeletal relationships of the sacrum, to the hip socket, to the legs, and feet is universal.

The most powerful, graceful, elastic organization/connection of the muscles of the lower body is universal. The challenge of opening blocked

connective tissue in the lower body is universal. Qualities such as, openness, coordination, strength, suppleness, etc. are cultivated in all movement disciplines.

This workshop presents a universal vocabulary of hands-on techniques to communicate, facilitate, develop these qualities, irregardless of which exercise system/language one is practicing.

Upper Body

Qualities such as, openness, coordination, strength, suppleness, etc. are cultivated, developed, and consistently valued across all movement disciplines. This workshop presents a universal vocabulary/language of hands-on techniques to communicate, facilitate, develop these qualities in the upper body, irregardless of which exercise system/language one is practicing.

In each moment there is an optimal functional, skeletal relationship between the collarbone, the shoulder blade, the vertebrae of the spine, and the bones of the rib cage. The most powerful, graceful, elastic organization/connection of the muscles of the upper body is universal, regardless of which discipline is practiced. The challenge of opening blocked connective tissue in the upper body is the same in all movement systems.

This training offers an experiential map of the internal shifting landscape of the upper body, and a vocabulary of hands-on techniques/skills/methods to communicate/facilitate openness, grace, power, and elasticity.