Wow, I'm pretty elated from today's class. We each led the class through a two pose sequence of our choice. There was a good variety- some taught on, some off their mats, some taught new moves, some winged it. We each got feedback from John, and some general tips:
- remind (don't tell) people to breathe - find ways to say it so that people don't tune it out
- remind them to breathe as often as possible
- begin every command with the breath
- don't say "um," say "breathe" instead
- own the room - fill it with your voice, walk around it
There's many things to say for each pose, besides the breath. Natalie suggested to us on Saturday to have three cues for getting into and out of each pose. And to ease transitions by first naming the pose then giving your cues.
We do all of this well when leading sun salutations. For sun salutations we've settled into a consistent set of cues and language, which is appropriate for their pace and repetitiveness. But for poses that we hold longer I like how John finds creative ways to draw our attention to our breath and finding our "sukha" in each pose. I think that is the next challenge.
