Light and fluffy

Usually the 5:30 PM practice followed by a 5:30 AM practice is pretty daunting. At least one of them is usually rather lacking. But this morning, I must have still been warmed up from last night's practice. I felt raring to go after my first surya A.

Volleyball Guy was very hands-on today, and highly experimental. I got deep adjustments on trikonasana and parivritta trikonasana--usually he just does adjustments to the surya down dogs and then leaves us alone until the prasaritas. But today he was busy right from the get-go.

And I got great adjustments in Marichy A and B. He left me to my own devices on C, but was back for D. D is what I am really working for--he knows it's where my focus is--and he adjusted me until I was nice and compact and pretty well-balanced. My wrapping arm isn't making it around the knee tightly enough, but my back arm is working well, and the base of the pose is strong. Volleyball Guy never says too much about one's progress--so it was especially sweet to hear him say, "This is good. Keep working the problem. I think you'll get the bind in November."

And then he went into total experimental mode. Before backbends, he had me doing Eka Pada Raja Kapotasana and Eka Pada Setu Bandha Sarvangasana. Uh, okay, I thought, bemused. So then we went on to backbends and dropbacks and everything was back to normal until sirsasana. I felt his hands on my heels and he said, "Go into a backbend from here." I've never entered a backbend from headstand, but I've got to say, it was quite instructive. The weight of my lower body floating in the air somehow showed me how to work into the thoracic area in a way I can never quite find during backbends. It was almost like doing a backbend underwater--free of so much gravity.

So I have no idea what Volleyball Guy was thinking, or even if he was thinking at all. Maybe it was just instructor intuition. I feel more coordinated and kinesthetically aware in headstand than I do in Urdhva Dhanurasana so it was easier for me to work with and feel my spine in that crazy backbend. For whatever reason he thought of it, though, I am impressed, and I am grateful I get to practice with him.