Where I Learned to Move

I learned how to move in a room: not a gym or a large exercise room but usually a room that was about 8” by 10” lying on a table or sitting on a stool or later lying on the floor. I didn’t not learn how to move in a Yoga class, which I took many classes over a long period of time, or a Tai Chi class or an aerobics class or by running or cycling. I did not learn how to move from a swimming coach, which was my sport as a child. I did not learn how to move from my few gym teachers that I had in my Catholic schools. I did not learn to move from my fencing teacher, gymnastic teacher, or archery teacher at my junior college. I never learned how to move from my ski instructors or golf instructors.

What I learned in my many body work trainings was that there was such a thing as good posture and I didn’t have it, but they couldn’t teach me how to move in such a way that was up right and light. The information was good, but it still didn’t lend itself to me and my structure. What they could do is free my muscles and fascia so that then I had a fighting chance to learn how to move in a coordinated up right way.

When I was about 6 or 7 years old I had an accident where I fractured my skull and through my whole body out of alignment comprising my structure. I came from a family that encouraged lots of exercise and sports so pursuing many physical disciplines over time with a failing structure just made things worse until I had a chronically painful right hip and left knee.

Where did I learn how to move to get out of pain and correct my structure?

It happened over the years one on one with a variety of Alexander Technique teachers putting their hands on me and showing me how to lengthen and widen my muscles for movement. I was taught something F.M. Alexander referred to as “directions”. I learned, and my pupils learn from me how to go up in space for movement. That is where my structure came from and that is how I learned to move.