I am experiencing some confusion because of inconsistent use of these terms (pelvic tilt and pelvic thrust) throughout the yoga literature. Can someone explain the difference, if there is one, or maybe give some examples to illustrate? Also, I am wondering if any distinctions are dependent on overall body position (ie, whether upright or supine, etc).
Thanks in advance for any info you can provide.
Welcome.
Perhaps it might be more helpful (for us, and then ultimately for you) if you cited the discrepancies in question or directed us to the source(s). I can’t for the life of me image who’s using “thrust”.
Generally speaking, a thrust is a rapid (vector) acceleration. A pelvic tilt would be a movement of the pelvis around one of the three axes (x, y, z). I suppose one could tilt the pelvis and thrust it though it would be far more helpful to spec in specifics otherwise the whole thread will get bogged down in minutia.
In ten years of teaching I don’t think I’ve ever used the term “thrust” in class.
With sources too numerous to mention, I can appreciate your apprehension about minutiae; also, I’d rather not name names. But I can honestly say that the tone of your response itself was a satisfactory answer for me. It’s all about the tilt. I can probably glean the info I need by paying more attention to directional cues and implications, and ignore any accidental or careless references to thrust. If I come across any particularly confusing or frustrating references in the future, I would appreciate being able to run it by you for your feedback and clarification on this forum. Thanks so much for your reply!
Well stated. I simply can’t think of any sound reason to instruct a student to thrust. If I were teaching jet pilots, race car drivers, dancers, yes certainly. And perhaps a day will come that I’ll use the term. But for now I don’t see it as a profound instruction UNLESS the finer instructions completely and totally do not reach the student such that grosser terms must be used for conveyance.