Sport/Health Articles

Fresh Articles

• The Importance of Stillness

  

  When was the last time you were still?    Without stillness we are trapped within our habits, whether they are belief structures, physical habits or learnt emotional responses, about the way the world works and our place within it.   It is the separation from these habitual reactions that we...

• Castling in Chess

  

  How to Castle Whether on the king side or the queen side the king moves 2 squares towards the rook then the rook jumps over the king and goes on the square right next to the king. Castling King side (0-0) and castling queen side (0-0-0). When is Castling permissible? All of the following...

• How the Alexander Technique Saved my Life

  

  I didn’t come to the technique through any particular aches and pains, but rather because I was losing the plot completely. I was in my mid 30’s happily married and with 2 children when I found myself struggling to get up in the mornings after being unable to sleep during the nights. I spent...

• Using Alexander Technique with Academic Subjects

  

  The Alexander Technique is a process devised (funnily enough) by a man whose surname was Alexander.  F M Alexander worked out the Alexander Technique over a period of nine years as a response to losing his voice.  The first school was set up in 1931 and people have been training to become...

• The Alexander Technique ^{Editor's Pick}

  

  The Alexander Technique is a way of becoming more aware of balance, posture and movement in everyday activities. This can bring into consciousness tensions previously unnoticed, and helps us to differentiate between necessary and unnecessary tension and effort. We can then learn to make...

• Michael Gelb's "Body Learning"

  

  I would strongly recommend the following book as an excellent introduction to the Alexander Technique: Michael Gelb's "Body Learning" Gelb's writing is both informative and entertaining and while he does not over-simplify the subject like many Alexander "manuals," he also doesn't make it...

• Singing and Meditation, Do They Go Together? ^{Editor's Pick}

  

  I have coached singers of all levels for twenty years and they’ve all come to me with the same two challenges: lack of confidence and various degrees of physical tension. Neither of which any scale or vocal exercises seemed to get rid of. In fact, students would often leave their lesson...

• Starting yoga

  

  Starting yoga can be intimidating for some people who are not used to doing physical exercise or working and practising in a class situation.  Those coming to yoga for the first time should be encouraged to learn that yoga is non competitive and that students should work at their own pace and...

• Sport and the Alexander Technique

  

  It's the middle of the London Olympics and we are seeing the very best in a huge variety of sports.  The skill and talent of the athletes is impressive.  Watching the rowing with a friend who was a cox of the second Oxford eight was enlightening. I know next to nothing about rowing, but he...

• Pilates – Mindfulness in Motion

  

  Chatting to pupils.  This was how I first heard about Pilates and eventually I enrolled in a class.  The results for myself were impressive and I was curious to understand more.  I was also convinced that some pupil’s problems were aggravated by lack of strength and flexibility and a too...