Johnny Dawes

  "What you learn helps you to find out who you are. The rock will show you exactly in what way you are not being you." --Johnny Dawes (via archclimbingwall)

single leg squat progression

Love these preparations and progressions.

hand skin

Heavy lifting (without gloves), hand balancing on carpet (no yoga mat!!) and bouldering.

Saturday Cartoon

take pride in your details, practice them with gratitude...

dream studio space!

Saturday Cartoon

details

The inspiration for all that deep groin release in class this week was this post from Anna Karkovska McGlew at fleshcontext.

"...this is an active groin release, not a passive one. It involves a strap, so go get one (the longer the better; if not, you might need to connect two straps to make a long one). The video will show you how to loop the strap around your feet, shins and thighs. Notice that the heels are not together in this variation, only the toes and the balls of the feet are touching, the heels never touch. Once you get there, anchor your upper arm bones against the floor. As you pull on the tails of the strap, actively press the balls of the feet into each other and resist the heels away from each other (same idea as above). At the same time, lift your heels away from the floor, as if someone is prodding the outer heels and the outer edges of the feet up from underneath. By this time, you will probably feel a stretch from the pubic bone through the upper inner thigh. Don't forget to breathe and keep space between the upper and lower jaw. Also, your buttocks will be working, but don't confuse working with overworking and gripping. If you feel like you are gripping, think of broadening the buttocks away from the sacrum and lengthening the center of the buttocks away from the top of the pelvis in the back. Finally, check once or twice to see that the heels are evenly lifting away from the floor. Often one will be higher than the other, as in the upright version--you  might also be able to discern this from the tone of your buttocks against the floor/mat..."

It's been helping me with my hip movements in overhang climbs too.

Phrases

I've been thinking a lot about transitions in my own practice recently, like really really precise foot work when climbing and noticing the subtle shifts in weight when doing floor work, and how important awareness in those small linking movements improve the quality of the shapes with bigger demands on the body.

It's been a really nice theme for my classes this week too. To prepare for class I've been making little 'movement riddles' for my self. I'll start with a particular asana or pattern (I think of it as a phrase) and then break that phrase down to the most basic elements try it with pauses, linked with more fluid movement,  then reversed and maybe inverted...I end up holding acres of movement in my head, what I'm going to teach always starts like a broken jigsaw. In getting students to use these phrases to inquire about their own movement we learn together. I love that. 

 

Adeptness

Catherine Destivelle

My gift for you today.

Jam packed with fascinating movement! The climbing prowess of Catherine Destivelle (and her short shorts, love them!) and the excellent textile moves of the Dogon tribespeople. Oh and the goodluck music. Brilliant.

Rock Climbing

I am an enthusiastic (novice) climber and it is brilliant for so many reasons.
These are the main benefits for me...

1. Upper body 'pulling' strength. This is completely lacking in yoga but I get my fix here. Helps my hand balancing skills and shoulder health tremendously.
2. Being present. You have no choice but to be in the moment with this stuff, especially when up high. When i'm focused on exactly what i'm doing as i'm doing it i know i'll be safe. This being present stuff is also a mighy fine trick for beating fear with a stick! 
3. Climbing is a movement puzzle. It requires great body awareness and movement intelligence, again in a very different way to the yoga, besides the obvious physical stuff involved.

I highly recommend giving it ago!!!

The downside (for me anyhow) is it always ruins my manicure. You can't have it all huh... 

(image of Natures rock climbers...they certainly don't look like they have the fear! from erinconsidine via keelsterkeel)

Beverly Johnson

Beverly Johnson, one of the first female climbers of El Capitan.

Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed

In 1907, Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed became the first president of the Ladies Alpine Club. She wrote seven books on mountain climbing and over her lifetime climbed twenty peaks that no one had climbed before. Under the name Mrs. Aubrey Le Blond she made at least 10 films of alpine activities in the Engadine Valley of Switzerland. She is probably among the world's first three female film-makers. 

"There is no manlier sport in the world than mountaineering. It is true that all the sports Englishmen take part in are manly, but mountaineering is different from others, because it is sport purely for the sake of sport. There is no question of beating anyone else, as in a race or a game, or of killing an animal or a bird as in hunting or shooting. A mountaineer sets his skill and his strength against the difficulty of getting to the top of a steep peak. Either he conquers the mountain, or it conquers him. If he fails, he keeps on trying until he succeeds. This teaches him perseverance, and proves to him that anything is possible if he is determined to do it." 

—Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed (a.k.a. Mrs. Aubrey Le Blond) from the preface of her book True Tales of Mountain Adventure for Non-climbers Young and Old, 1903.

These photos are incredible!

What must that have been like in 1907 to be a female mountaineer?! 

To be in landscapes that maybe no one had ever seen before, climbing mountains waist deep in snow, all in a corset and skirt no less! Respect to you Mrs. Aubrey Le Blond.

via tomboy style