Oftentimes, every time, I teach I feel like I am sculpting a vision with words and aligning a vision in my mind into the clay of the asana student’s body. What should a pose look like?
Basic good yoga teaching is a little bit of good alignment, how a pose feels, with a little mix of can I breathe in it comfortably without straing and pain.
One pose THAT irks me when it is sloppy is reverse warrior. Which begs the question, is it even a pose? Where the hell did this pose come from? Yet, it is a pose you will practice a lot in most vinyasa/power flow classes. It is the ultimate anticipation pose. I E when students are in Vira 2 they can’t wait to start throwing an arm back into this pose. It is part of the vira dance. Back off though people. Because I don’t see the pose looking like this all that much:
What a beauty. She kept her hips even, stayed in the lunge of the front leg, isn’t compressing back into her spine, and is controlling the upper arm so as not to strain the neck. Big plus, she looks comfortable.
Setting up this pose takes a lot of cueing and then finding it takes some good adjusting. I love it when this pose FEELS good. Most important, it should feel GOOD.
Gregor Maehle, who is a real Mr. Stinky Pants Alignment teacher I assume from his books, says you should breathe AND feel good in a pose at the same time. This pose may not feel good if performed in the manner of this pic for everyone. Now to just people to stop throwing back the arm and lifting, compressing, I could go on.
I mean, look at this dude:
Wow. Very advanced Marychy pose. I am still struggling with b and d and never can breathe in my form of either, but this guy looks comfortable AND has great hair to boot.
It takes patience on the part of the teacher and the student to make a pretty pose. My best practice has been when the teacher makes the easier poses feel profound. Any pose that makes you FEEL like the ones above are good yoga poses.
