What Does "Putting the Head" Look Like?
What Does "Putting the Head" Look Like?
Primary Explorations Part 4
Hello from Birmingham, Alabama! I miss teaching my regular students while I’m down here (relative from NYC), but I’ve had the pleasure of teaching friends of my father. It’s always a great challenge to explain the technique to someone in a way that hopefully will resonate with them beyond a few lessons. One of the things that comes up again and again is the mystery surrounding the meaning of the words “put your head forward”. I attempted to describe this with words in my previous post Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right but I think these words demand some real precision in understanding so I’m going to go through each one with a photo. Take your time to look at each one!
If you want to learn the Alexander Technique, this article is potentially the single most important thing for you to check out once you understand WHY it’s important to improve your understanding of yourself and your coordination and that you MUST STOP and think out what you wish to PREVENT! This information will clear up a lot of potentially confusing terminology.
Take. Your. Time. With. This.
It’s. F*cking. Simple.
In the following 6 images, you’ll get to see Yours Truly doing the wrong thing. I’m exaggerating the placement of my head (marked with the 🔴 and red ➡️⬅️⬆️⬇️) relative to the top of my spine (marked with the 🔵 ). The 🔴 shows the centre of the weight of the skull and the ➡️⬅️⬆️⬇️ shows you the direction I’m holding it. I can only do this by stiffening up in the neck, back, legs, and … well … everywhere. But I need you to KNOW this and see if you can do it too.
You can think of this exercise like a children’s game of ‘Horse’ on the basketball court. I’m uploading a picture and saying “I can do this, can you?”. If you can do it, that’s great! After all, I’m just moving my head about. Anyone can do these movements without understanding a thing about the Alexander Technique!
Have fun and explore!
In each one of these photos, you’ll see that my shoulders and upper back have rounded to various degrees, the lean of my back in the chair shifts slightly, and the arch of my spine changes. Some of this is due to my habit, and a lot of this is due to the fact that the placement of the head will force the back to change. This causal relationship is why sportsfolk say, “Keep your eye on the ball!”. It’s also why Alexander Technique teachers repeatedly say
The head leads and the body follows.
You can see this as a truism in the videos I posted of Sammy Davis Jr., the baby deer, and Arthur Rubenstien.
But Wait! There’s More!
In addition to placing the head forward, up, back, and down, you can place the head in the combinations that I alluded to in my prior post.
The other 2 movements you need to KNOW are the tilt of the head up and down. This can be referred to as a nod or a bow. It is generated by the way nature has designed our atlanto-occipital joint (where the skull rests atop the spine). As you look at these two photos, remember that you can tilt the head up and down while the spine is in any position in space. I’m only referring to an up and down tilt of the skull relative to the neck.
As you check all of these things out, you can either do these movements with a stiff neck or a free neck. I DON’T CARE. In time, you’ll be able to go through these movements with more ease in your coordination. But for today, you must be able to name these things and JUST DO IT.
I personally believe that if you can do these things, it will be easier to add in the noticing of the lifting chest or the arching spine.
I’m Willing To Bet An NBA Ticket
For whatever reason, 99 out of 100 people have a tendency to hold the head back and down. This will create a slight tilt of the head up and force a narrowing of the back. The reason I cannot say that this is YOU for certain is that some people have a tendency to HOLD their head in the PERFECT PLACE. This creates just as many problems as those of us that hold the head in the WRONG PLACE.
If you don’t know what I mean by this, you must ask me questions. Don’t be embarrassed! I certainly had to work a lot of this out for myself and at times I found this all so befuddling I didn’t even know what question to ask. These cardinal placements will pop up throughout my blog and it will only become more confusing if you don’t take the time to understand what this post means.
I'm concerned A LOT about "putting" my head anywhere. That sounds like an instruction To Do Something in a fixed way! My preference is to invite my skull [a more specific naming of what a "head" is] to balance upon vertebra #1 [more simple than the anatomical term but equally accurate]. And then hinging forward from the thigh socket [more accurate than "hip" socket---most people think of "hip" as either the greater trochanter or some place around their glutes] while the skull continues its Balancing Act upon vertebra #1. This conversation's been fun. Thx
The annotated photos help clarify these directions!