Practicing Balancing

To Find Focus and Connection in Your Playing

We have done a lot of balancing practice in Parkour the last few weeks and I find it fascinating and informative. Oh yeah, and it can improve! 

I used to think of squeezing muscles tight to stay still in order to balance.  This didn’t work.  So I became curious. I asked questions and began experimenting. This is something I learned in the process.

Just yesterday, I learned how centering practicing balance is.  It became clear how in the practice I was able to focus on what’s happening inside the body, observe the micro or macro movements that take place to keep me from falling as I simultaneously sense the world around. This is sounding a lot like the awareness I teach in Body Mapping classes.

After practicing balance for as long as I could, I did a series of squats. Rather than pounding them out, wanting them to be over, I was mindful of the movements that brought me to the bottom of my range of motion and returned me to full stature.

Hmmm….what can this do for playing? 

I invite you to experiment with incorporating balance into your practice.  Don’t worry it doesn’t have to take hours, 1-minute is a good place to begin.  Set a timer for one 1-minute and choose a way to practice balance.  You can balance on your toes, on one foot on the ground, on a step, or on a narrow ledge.  When you lose your balance in the 1-minute, get back in.  If you can balance for the whole minute, congrats! Take it to 2-minutes.  

Once you finish your minute, go to your practicing.  Is there anything different or new in the way you experience playing?  Maybe you sense more of your body as you play. Do you learn the technique or phrasing more quickly?

One way to Integrate balance minutes into your practice is to do 1-minute between tone and technique and then before you begin etudes.  There are many ways to bring it in.

Building The Phrase - August 2020 is coming up beginning August 12th! Here is your chance to join me and Drew Ricciardi to undo the tension that limits technique and expression and reveals your best expression.