Question: Spinal Rock and Double Leg Swoop

[nesscln]

Hi,

Well, the girls and I have been enjoying our Body Flow. We practice at the park, and it’s fun to roll all over the grass. They go on great Jedi adventures and imagine they are rolling away from danger, or just practicing “cool” Jedi moves.

Here are the moves we have “played with” so far: the Spinal Rock, Long Leg Roll, Leg Thread, Double Leg Swoop, and Knee Switch.

I do have a question about the Spinal Rock and Double Leg Swoop though. The girls don’t have the tension I do, so they flop around in these moves...and what I don’t want to happen is for them to roll too high up on their neck / shoulders and hurt themselves. On the other hand, I have a lot of tension, and am able to do the move, but feel I tense while doing the move.

So, first of all, I was wondering how controlled should these movements be? Like, in the Spinal Rock, I get on my shoulders by the swinging of my legs...should I be able to get into the pose just by the strength of my stomach (or solar plexus) area? And in the Double Leg Swoop, I feel like I throw my hips to get around...should I be able to slowly rotate the hips, or is there going to be a fast turn in here to get around. Oh, I hope this makes sense; it is really hard for me to describe.

What “baby steps” can we do to get more control with these 2 moves...the girls so they don’t hurt themselves going too far, and tension for myself. Oh, by the way, the girls are 16 and 10.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Thank you,
Colette

[Matt_OZ]

Great to hear you and your girls are enjoying your practice, it is great fun isn't it? You have posed great questions, I have a few ideas but I want to play with the moves a little tonight before I put forward any advice.

One quick thing I will say is regarding the spinal rock. I always get my clients (and myself) to try and initiate the backward portion of the rock by posteriorly tilting the pelvis (think of rounding your back and melting your stomach around the outside of a basketball). When people struggle with this I often tell to them to imagine that a red hot ball of steel is slowly moving in toward their belly and they have to make a curve with the area between their thighs and chest to make room for the ball. The roll back needs to be like Scott says "a string of pearls, vertebrae by vertabrae", a bicylce chain is another way of looking at it.

I'll certainly look into all this further for you, if I get a case of amnesia and you haven't heard from in a couple of days then send me PM to jolt my memory.

Stay well Colette,
Matt

[nesscln]

(Matt sent me a PM in response, but I wanted everyone to be able to see his answer. I received his permission to post this on the main forum where I originally asked the question. Thanks again Matt, I really appreciate this.)

Hi Colette,
One of the best tips I can give for a sooth spinal rock is take it in baby steps.

Start off with sitting in the start posi of the spinal rock. Knees bent, feet on floor, good posture, long spine.

From this position grab the front of your ankles with your hands (this will give you support and make it easier to get a smooth rock).

Start to tilt your pelvis backwards (so that your back rounds like you were the shape of the letter C). Be sure that while you do this “rounding” you keep good posture by focusing on lengthening the crown of your head towards the sky.

Be sure that as you rock back it always controlled (this will protect the head and neck). Never roll back onto the head and neck, the furthest point of of your spine you should roll back onto is to cervical vertebrae 7 (the big bump at the bottom of your neck)

Hope this helps. It's certainly far, far better to teach this in person or on a video but living on the other side of the world makes that kinda hard .

Stay well,
Matt
As your body “rounds out” you will start to gently tip backward, go very slowly to build your confidence in knowing your balance points.

When you roll back just let yourself gently roll back and start to tilt your chin slightly toward your chest (but maintain the “crown to sky” focus otherwise you will just be kinking your neck). This forward flexion/tilting of your head and neck will stop your head from banging the floor when you roll backwards.

Keep experimenting with this rolling backward and when you feel comfortable start to see if you can roll back up to the start position. To assist you in getting back to the start position can pull on the front of your ankles/shins with your hands. As you advance you’ll be able to do all this without any help from your hands. Experiment to see just how slow you can go while still managing to perform the full move.

_________________
Matt Jones
"Integrity Above All Else"