Source

• Alexander Yanai Vol 11 Lesson 515
• Reel 33, Track 4, Lesson 1
• Duration of the recording: 36 min.

Synopsis

• Throughout this lesson, you do a movement face down, and then do it face up, imagining a floor in front of you that constrains your movement. The basic theme, as the title says, is the action of dragging knees up towards the stomach while face down. You do the same while sweeping the arms around under/over your head. And then in kneeling on knees and forearms, you drag the legs up and down, and imitate that lying on the back. It ends, in kneeling on knees and forearms, with lifting each leg knee to armpit and then lengthened up and behind.
• This lesson is for the crawling action, for the hip flexors, for the psoas in particular, and for the coordination of the turning of the pelvis when a limb moves in a locomotive way. It is a fun, dynamic lesson, that will challenge many people due to the bizarre nature of the instructions, namely a crawling action while lying on the belly, which is a big constraint in the thinking. However, a dynamic and mobile end result, in both brain and pelvis.

Lesson Outline

1. Lying face down, one hand on top of the other and forehead on back of hand, drag R knee up towards stomach on floor.
2. Same face up, imagining floor. The outside of your R leg will drag on the floor.
3. Other side. (Face down and face up.)
4. Lying face down, arms out straight from the shoulders. Sweep the L arm around under the head, noting turn of palm, until the L hand is palm-to-palm with the R hand, out straight to the R. Note that R leg bends and comes up along the floor.
5. Same face up, imagining floor constrains you.
6. Other side. (Face down and face up.)
7. Side to side. (Face down and face up.)
8. On knees, elbows and forearms. Slide R knee away. Up towards armpit. Both directions. (Foot lies extended on the floor–i.e. top of toes and top of foot rest on the floor.)
9. Approximate the same idea face up.
10. Other side, face down and face up.
11. Alternating legs so one goes up as one goes down. (Face down and face up.)
12. On knees, with elbows/forearms on floor and backs of hands down, one inside the other, resting your crown in the top palm. Lift R leg towards armpit and then extend it behind and up.
13. Other side. Alternate.
14. Check what the initial movements feel like now.

Alternative Lesson Outline

1. Prone, forehead on hands. Bend the right knee without lifting the foot or lower leg off the floor. Do not let the foot lift off the floor. Turn the pelvis. “Make the movement faster, but do not hurry. Simpler, faster, easier.”
2. Supine, do the same movement, as if there were a floor pressing your chest.
   • 2.1 Do it faster
3. Repeat point 1 on the second side
4. Repeat point 2 on the second side
5. Prone, the arms extended left and right at shoulder height. Slide the right arm towards the head, till it eventually passes over to the left and finishes lying under the left arm, palms touching. Notice the turning over of the arm, the rolling of the pelvis, the bending of the left knee up to the belly
   • 5.1 Do it faster
6. Supine, do the same movement as if there were a floor pressing on the chest
7. Prone, repeat point 5 on the second side
8. Supine, repeat point 6 on the second side
9. Prone, the same movement, but with both arms, alternately. The arms chase each other in movement. Each times the palms touch, rest the head on the floor
10. Supine, the same movement, as if the floor were pressing on the chest
11. Come onto forearms and knees. Slide the right knee backwards and return
    • 11.1 Slide the right knee forwards, and return. Keep the leg parallel to the spine, do not rotate the hip (inwards). What do you feel, in the pelvis, head, spine?
    • 11.2 Slide the knee forwards and backwards
12. & 12.1 & 12.2 Repeat point 11 on the other side (with the left leg)
    • 12.3 Also do it faster
    • 12.4 Alternate the right and left legs
    • 12.5 Continue whereby the legs move simultaneously in opposite directions
    • 12.6 Also do it simply and quickly. ‘Do not stop in the middle’
13. Supine, lift the knees and elbows as if you were face down, do the sliding movement with the right leg
    • 13.1 Also with the left leg
    • 13.2 Now do it once with the right leg, once with the left leg
14. Stand on the knees, place the crown in the cupped hands. Extend the right knee backwards and lift the leg in the air
    • 14.1 Move the right knee forwards to the right armpit
    • 14.2 Combine both movements, backwards and forwards
15. Repeat points 14 on the other side: with the left knee
    • 15.1 Do it more simply and faster
    • 15.2 Alternate the legs
16. Prone, arms extended at shoulder height left and right. Slide the right arm upwards and round to the left, return and do the same with the left arm
    • 16.1 Each time pull the knee high up
    • 16.2 Do it faster

Focus of Moshe’s Teaching

• Indicate focus or key principles that are made explicit in the teaching

Related ATMs

• Tag Crawling
• Tag Fast-movements
• Tag Imagining
• Tag Hip/Pelvis Freedom
• Tag On-knees-and-forearms

Same movement supine and prone:

Resources

• A recorded version (with some mistakes!) is at http://www.kinesophics.ca/dragging_knees_stomach

Share Your Insights

Key Ideas, Principles, and Strategies

• I think this is quite developmental. It works with the difference between (face down, sliding up knee) opening your knee to the outside, and bringing your leg actually underneath you to prepare yourself for crawling. The first variation (forehead on back of hands, dragging up knees) may involve mostly extension and twisting for the students as they usually begin with more of an opening to the outside sense. Doing it face up, imagining the floor, almost exaggerates this. Once you add the movement of the arm sweeping around overhead, this really changes the idea: now it is more flexion, more pulling the leg up “under” you (relative to yourself of course, as you turn). This is quite fascinating as a technique–the timing of the arm sweeping around, the turning over of the hand, makes quite a precise diagonal connection from the hip of the top/bending leg to the shoulder of the arm sweeping around. Then you come to a movement of the lower legs parallel to the spine (i.e. each lower leg to its side of the spine, in a parallel plane). If you think of it, this relates to the major transition from the rolling, sitting, initial pushing off of the baby (knees open) to the crawling baby (able to organize the legs so the lower legs are parallel to the spine) to the person who stands and walks, where the lower leg will be more or less in this plane parallel to the spine as there is the gentle twist of walking. The last variation of taking the legs straight back and lifting can be very powerful–on first teaching it to students, very few were getting that sense, and I think also they weren’t “using imagination” as Moshe says about 8-11 (above). This extension is very different from all the other lessons where the leg comes more across the midline behind in extension. – LynetteReid Apr 1, 2011

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