David Williams Workshop (Day 1)

    I made my way to the exciting town of Norman, Oklahoma to attend a weekend workshop with David Williams.  I wasn’t sure what to expect…but I wanted to attend the workshop to hear about the early days of Ashtanga.  So far, I have not been disappointed.  It has been interesting to hear about how Pattabhi Jois taught in the ‘early’ days.  I was actually quite taken aback by one of David’s comments where he said that the Ashtanga sequence changed significantly as Pattabhi Jois got older and “senile” (his word, not mine).  Interesting.

    Here are some quick bulletpoints from last night’s class.  Thought I’d write them down before I forgot.

• Yoga should be pain-free.  If you’re feeling any pain, you’re doing it wrong.
• The breath and the bhandas are the primary focus, not the postures.
• Bare Minimum Daily Practice = 3 Sun Salutation As + 3 Sun Salutation Bs + Final Lotus Postures.   This is the daily practice to strive for.  David’s practices usually last about an hour a day.   There’s nothing wrong with not practicing the full sequence every day…as long as you do the bare minimum.
• Chin locks in forward bends.  The crown of the head should be pointed toward the feet.
• In Sun Salutations, the palms stay grounded on the floor (i.e. no coming up on fingertips) in Uttanasana B.
• Uttanasana A:  Beginning students should not bend their knees, but rather grab behind the ankles/legs to fold forward.  This helps lengthen the hamstrings.  Beginning students can bend the knees in Uttanasana B because the palms are supposed to be on the floor here.
• Upward Facing Dog: David keeps his knees on the floor here.  The focus is more on the backbend.  I kind of like this version.  Also, for the transition to Downward Facing Dog, he flexes the feet and bends the knees instead of rolling over the toes.  This is a nice variation for students that have problems rolling over the feet.
• Samasthitih:  David made a comment about students that keep their hands in prayer position here.  He insists that hands and arms should remain at the side.
• There was no Parivritta Parshvakonasanain the standing series.  I’d heard this is a newer posture, so I wasn’t surprised it was left out.
• Prasarita Padottanasanas:  Hands stayed at the waist when standing up between these postures.  Sometimes during the inhales, I’ve seen people move the arms to a “T”.  Also, he repeated “B” after “D”.  Kind of nice.
• For beginners, the seated sequence begins directly after Parshvottanasana.  This is because the later standing poses are actually more difficult.  So, students would learn the seated postures (David didn’t say how many) and then after that they would learn the rest of the standing series.  I think this is a great approach because, as David noted, many students become discouraged when they try to do these difficult standing poses.  So why not hold off on them until students become more familiar with the sequence?
• Dandasana:  David said that one of the reasons the gaze is down toward the navel is to bring the focus to the breath and bhandas.  If you’re activating your bhandas then the belly shouldn’t be extending out during the inhales.  Good point!  I hadn’t thought of that before.
• Pashchimottanasana: Instead of clasping the opposite wrist in the third version, he just interlaces the fingertips.  I actually like this better as it helps evenly stretch my upper back.  Also, you use chin lock here.  If you’re folded all the way forward, you don’t rest your elbows on the floor.  They should still hover about an inch up.
• Practicing During Your Period:  Apparently some of the early American women ashtanga practitioners conducted an experiment by practicing during their periods for six months and then not practicing during their periods for six months. They ended up preferring not practicing ashtanga during their periods because activating the bhandas interfered with the blood flow.  But, he said, women should do what feels right to them.

That’s about all for now.  I’ll put it all together a little bit later.  But, as I said, I wanted to get it all written down before I forgot.  There was some discussion of bowel movements….but who wants to read about that?  Also, David went over some really nice spinal stretching exercises that he does before practice.  I’ll go over those later. 

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