David Keith⚡️

“Students should learn one new thing in each class because humans are motivated by challenge.”

@ineliagarcia shared this quote from Romana with me, and I keep coming back to it when I think about teaching groups.

Challenge doesn’t always mean harder exercises, bigger ranges, or more impressive choreography.

Sometimes it means getting more specific about something the body already knows. 👀

That’s a huge part of why you’ll see me “create” variations of the traditional work.

I’m asking: What does the ideal require, and where are the bodies in front of me losing clarity?

Then I can change the setup, support, resistance, or relationship to the apparatus to give them another way into the same idea.

“Tree off the Footbar” does exactly that.

Instead of progressing the choreography, we’re progressing the understanding of it.

Can we articulate away from the leg while maintaining space between the thorax and pelvis and creating opposition between the leg reaching away and the spine articulating back?

Because when that organization gets lost and the leg becomes something to leverage off of, you’ll often see it in the carriage: keep traveling backward and eventually you’re jammed up against the shoulder blocks.

The apparatus tells on you. 😂

Build the strength.
Find the opposition.
Clarify the initiation.
Then take that information back to the ideal.

Especially in groups, I think we can feel pressure to constantly give people something NEW.

But novelty and challenge aren’t the same thing.

Maybe the “one new thing” isn’t another exercise.

Maybe it’s a new understanding of the work they already know. 👀⚡️

XOXO,
🦄

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Repertoire: Tree off the Footbar
Apparatus: @balanced_body Studio Reformer
Springs: 🔴
Student: Instructor @chelsea_mccloskey_

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#contrology #pilates #pilatesinspiration