> Bodymind Expo
Dr. Martha Eddy and Lesley Powell, the director Movements Afoot are teaching Somatic Fitness and more at the BodyMind Expo April 11 - 15, 2007 Santa Clara Convention Center (45 Minutes South of San Francisco, CA). Somatic Fitness 2-Day Pre-Conference is April 11-12. Then we go on to teach during the main conference April 13-15. Go to http://www.bodymindexpo.com / for more information.
Why should trainers bring somatic concepts into fitness?
Lesley
I was talking with a Pilates teacher about how her teaching has changed. When she started teaching, her expectation of her client’s fitness success was “learning the repertory.” Being a dancer, learning repertory was easy for her. Problems immediately came up, because clients were unable to do most of the Pilates repertory. Her teaching had to change to problem solve how to make change in her clients. Martha, can you explain how our traditional learning is unsuccessful with many clients.
Martha
Teaching that is formulaic is unsuccessful because we are living in a time of rapid change and multiple experiences. Different people have widely different goals, expectations, degrees of bodily awareness, and perceived needs. Repertory is limited without the skill of internal listening for trusting oneself to make sophisticated responses based in anatomical, kinesiological, and humanistic knowledge.
We teach trainers to go beyond repertory and to improvise with their skills to address specific client needs. Somatic awareness helps a trainer to respond to each and every client with a unique set of tools. At Moving On Center we say, “We begin with the body.” That’s it – the body is only a beginning point. Using the subtle art of improvisation we address emotions, motivation, cognitive learning styles and more. We practice how to adapt, respond, adapt again, remember, integrate and play to meet a particular person’s specific needs; and we like to have fun during the process. And when I say fun it doesn’t mean we are always smiling and laughing but we are almost always delighted by the uplifted experience that comes from our wonderfully personal interactions. We encourage our students to trust themselves and their own compassionate sense of what works best in the body and mind. Our repertory is vast because we have hundreds of effectives techniques on our palette AND we teach how to “mix our paints” in limitless combinations.
Lesley
Improvisation to me is taking the time to learn the client’s goals and how they learn. Imposing a structure of my goals does not always work in bringing about the most progress in a client. Also each client learns differently. My improvisation is supporting how they learn best. Some clients are not visual learners like most dancers. I use somatic techniques that makes the client more responsible for their learning. This way brings about more change.
I remember taking a class with you, Martha, about the nervous system and learning. You taught us a simple sequence to for hand coordination and strengthening. We then did it in different ways; 1) copying the phrase 2) giving it counts 3) giving each movement a name 4) giving each movement a sound and 5) having each movement involve touch. Then we talked to each other about which way did we learned and remembered the phrase the best. I was amazed how many different responses there were to how we each learned. I am such a visual learner and made the assumption that most people learn that way.
Dr. Martha Eddy and Lesley Powell, the director Movements Afoot are teaching Somatic Fitness and more at the BodyMind Expo April 11 - 15, 2007 Santa Clara Convention Center (45 Minutes South of San Francisco, CA). Somatic Fitness 2-Day Pre-Conference is April 11-12. Then we go on to teach during the main conference April 13-15. Go to http://www.bodymindexpo.com / for more information.
Why should trainers bring somatic concepts into fitness?
Lesley
I was talking with a Pilates teacher about how her teaching has changed. When she started teaching, her expectation of her client’s fitness success was “learning the repertory.” Being a dancer, learning repertory was easy for her. Problems immediately came up, because clients were unable to do most of the Pilates repertory. Her teaching had to change to problem solve how to make change in her clients. Martha, can you explain how our traditional learning is unsuccessful with many clients.
Martha
Teaching that is formulaic is unsuccessful because we are living in a time of rapid change and multiple experiences. Different people have widely different goals, expectations, degrees of bodily awareness, and perceived needs. Repertory is limited without the skill of internal listening for trusting oneself to make sophisticated responses based in anatomical, kinesiological, and humanistic knowledge.
We teach trainers to go beyond repertory and to improvise with their skills to address specific client needs. Somatic awareness helps a trainer to respond to each and every client with a unique set of tools. At Moving On Center we say, “We begin with the body.” That’s it – the body is only a beginning point. Using the subtle art of improvisation we address emotions, motivation, cognitive learning styles and more. We practice how to adapt, respond, adapt again, remember, integrate and play to meet a particular person’s specific needs; and we like to have fun during the process. And when I say fun it doesn’t mean we are always smiling and laughing but we are almost always delighted by the uplifted experience that comes from our wonderfully personal interactions. We encourage our students to trust themselves and their own compassionate sense of what works best in the body and mind. Our repertory is vast because we have hundreds of effectives techniques on our palette AND we teach how to “mix our paints” in limitless combinations.
Lesley
Improvisation to me is taking the time to learn the client’s goals and how they learn. Imposing a structure of my goals does not always work in bringing about the most progress in a client. Also each client learns differently. My improvisation is supporting how they learn best. Some clients are not visual learners like most dancers. I use somatic techniques that makes the client more responsible for their learning. This way brings about more change.
I remember taking a class with you, Martha, about the nervous system and learning. You taught us a simple sequence to for hand coordination and strengthening. We then did it in different ways; 1) copying the phrase 2) giving it counts 3) giving each movement a name 4) giving each movement a sound and 5) having each movement involve touch. Then we talked to each other about which way did we learned and remembered the phrase the best. I was amazed how many different responses there were to how we each learned. I am such a visual learner and made the assumption that most people learn that way.