Saturday led

Nice to go practice in a crowd! Sanskrit Scholar was teaching this morning. And we had a visitor from The Stern One's shala. I was terribly curious about her practice, of course, but drishti thwarted any notion I might have had about checking it out.

The great thing about Saturday led is the sangha aspect. Sanskrit Scholar mentioned this a few times as we went along.

I've been away from Saturday led for a number of weeks, and I actually felt nervous in a couple of spots. Notably, when Sanskrit Scholar asked me to count one of the Surya Bs. I tried to run through my memory bank and check to see if I remembered the Sanskrit numbers through 18--but then I just decided to wing it. Worked out just fine--though I could feel the tension in my body after I finished counting. I also felt nervous on the eka pada bakasana exit from virabhadrasana. Not sure why, exactly--but somehow it's easier to practice that move at home.

What I really went to class for, aside from the company, is the dropbacks. Sanskrit Scholar usually has us do seven urdhva dhanurasanas, and today was no different. My backbends, as has been discussed ad nauseum, stink. I have been fiddling with them, so I am building up a little stamina, and also finding slightly better alignment through my knees and hips, and through my shoulders. The sad news is that this is only going to be resolved through patience and hard work and repetition. Darn, I was so hoping there was some secret to perfect backbends that I might discover--perhaps on ezboard--thereby solving my whole backbend problem. Um, guess not ;-) The British Director, perhaps in an attempt to knock some sense into me, smacked me down on my head during the dropback preparations. Luckily I brought the Manduka with me today. Perhaps I also need a helmet. Coming back up from the dropbacks (with an assist--don't get any ideas about me coming back up on my own) was smooth and The British Director said it felt light. Still I have the impression that the way I'm going to have to use my quads to come up out of backbends is somehow "backwards" from how I use them in, say, squats. It's gonna take a while to work through all my dedicated years of weightlifting. Sigh.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, family yoga proceeds. Yesterday, My Gift skipped morning practice and said she would practice after school. Sure enough, when I got home from work she reported that she'd done the standing poses, using David Swenson's book as a prompt. This morning she came out and got on the mat first thing after waking up (at noon). She had her iPod mini with her, because she's already made a yoga mix for when she practices alone. She cracks me up. There is no need for me to teach her about yoga crim behavior. She'll hear about that some other day. In the meantime, I am happy she is enjoying her practice.