Some teachers favor this approach, and sometimes forcefully (Iyengar)…sometime gently try to “put” you in the “proper pose alignment”.
What poses you have been assisted with hands-on yoga? Did you like it?
During teacher training, our teacher had us in shavasana and I was (at least I thought so) quite relaxed. He came up and grabbed my feet and swung them back and forth about a dozen or so times. He then gently placed them back on the mat. He went around behind me and pushed quite hard on my shoulder and with that my arms flailed out to the side. Initially I was startled and curious but it was the best shavasana I ever had. I continue that in my classes today. My students love it too.
As far as doing adjusting, I don’t as much as I used to. I tend to just give them que’s or put a gentle hand on the area they need to adjust. Most of the time it works well. With newer students I am much more hands on.
On a side note, as a teacher I so miss a really good adjustment. When I go to a class I even go up to the teacher and express my desire to be adjusted. They never do though. Perhaps knowing I’m a teacher intimidates them? I don’t know???
Oh… adjustment is savasana are great! Lets drop intimidation and sexual harassemnt here;)
I’m concerned with safety and physical comfort of the students. like adjustments in trikonasana, sarvengasana, bandha konasana…
I suggest not confusing the tool with the person wielding it. A poor teacher giving an otherwise profound adjustment doesn’t foster integrity in posture. I go out to eat and have had some bad meals but I continue to eat. I just don’t eat those things at those places.
As a teacher, knowing the plane of the pose and being able to read students is what allows me to discern if/when adjustment is helpful. Some students, in some poses, not only may be left but [I]need[/I] to be left just as they are. Still others have enough asana in their body that a profound adjustment can be an “aha” moment.
Many teachers adjust from their own ego. That, to me is not appropriate, though it is all too common.
Yes, I do welcome it. It helps a lot, especially around the thoracic area I often feel improvement with hands on correction.
[QUOTE=CityMonk;61177]Some teachers favor this approach, and sometimes forcefully (Iyengar)…sometime gently try to “put” you in the “proper pose alignment”.
What poses you have been assisted with hands-on yoga? Did you like it?[/QUOTE]
Recently I was physically adjusted in salamba sarvangasana… A couple of weeks earlier I had gotten a very similar adjustment explained to me (no hands) by another teacher. The combination of the two was more helpful to me than having just either one of them separately.
In my limited experience, the “best” teachers are the ones who correct me when I truly need it, whether it is because I’m new to a pose and need adjustment on a basic level, or if I’m doing something I’m very familiar with and can go deeper into.
I very much welcome hands on instruction. Often, in my mind’s eye, I think I am moving through my asanas properly, but sometimes my alignment is off and needs the trained external eye of my instructor to adjust me. Also, when I am ‘almost there’ as with some binds, it helps to have my instructor help me reach and complete the posture. I wish I could afford to have a trained instructor work with me exclusively.
The few times I have been in class, actually verbal instructions for alignment have worked well for me, better than hands on.
I welcome it as well!