AY300 In standing, turning the heels outside

Source

• Vol 6 (251-300)
• Reel 20, Track 3, Lesson 4 (According to the german edition this source is wrong. This source is correct for AY296. AY300 could not be found on Reel 20.)

Synopsis

In this lesson in standing, you shift weight onto the leg that turns the heel out. Much of the lesson is spent with the low back rounded and the head hanging.

Lesson Outline

1. Stand, feet spread, easily. Turn R heel R and (as you) bring weight onto it. Do not turn shoulders: knee, hip joint, pelvis only.
   • Gradually, until L leg becomes free, to be lifted but not held up, soft in knee.
   • Head/shoulders stay forward as much as possible so R knee, heel, hip turn back, and lumbar spine is soft.
   • Continue: Add in bending the L knee forward, lifting, lowering head. Arms? Hanging. Back? No lordosis.
   • Rest on back.
2. Other side. At least 20 before lifting knee. Neck, lumbar spine soft. Soft in knee, foot hanging, slowly. … When you come to stand, you’re turning on an axis of your L shoulder, and this is the efficient want to turn, which we don’t usually do. Arms ropes, can fly.
   • Continue: shift from side to side. Increase the turning of the heels out. Do it so the L leg becomes free before the weight is fully on the R, and vv. What is the turn as you stand? The arms as ropes? Shift, don’t hop. Don’t go up on toes. Pelvis free.
   • Lie and rest.
3. Just to the R, L leg free from the floor: now, take the L leg further back, turning toes out, and shift onto that leg. Slowly so you know what it is to shift weight onto a leg while turning toes out, vs. turning heel out. Head in arc, free neck, rounded in back, no lordosis.
   • Other side. Attention: flat feet. Head is free, moves in largest arc possible, and stops by itself when it feel supported by pelvis.
   • Continue to do whole movement, slow & smooth, from side to side. Head stays at same height. From pelvis to head, soft and bent forwards.
   • Lie & Rest.
4. Same movement, but body/head forwards and legs doing this behind with a jump (not high!). Pelvis rounded smooth movement, no lordosis; head does not change, don’t come up on toes. 4x slower.
   • Lie & Rest.
5. What are we not doing? Stand, shift R leg in front and to L and shift weight to it; return by same path. Other side. Already you do this better anyway, because you turn your pelvis. Continue in a full circle. Not on toes: feet flat, lower leg soft, no pushing. soft vertebrae of neck and hips. (Later you can lift or do anything you want with the back.)
   • Lie & rest.
6. Now back to what we were doing before: turning from behind. Soften head forward, back round, long. R heel to R. Allow pelvis to fly behind. And keep going to the R. Maybe 2 turns—don’t want to get dizzy. Other direction. When the head and the pelvis can feel one another, not disturb one another, then you can jump.
   • Lie & Rest.
7. Same movement, one turn. Can it be a hop from one leg to the next? As long as the leg/knee makes the largest turning possible in the hip joint, the pelvis and head will feel secure to hop.

Focus of Moshe’s Teaching

• Head and pelvis in single arc; vertebrae of the hips soft; axis of shoulder.

Related ATMs

• See Theme Standing
• Tag Weight-on-heels
• Tag Shifting-weight-standing
• Tag Standing-on-one-leg
• Tag In-standing

Turning around a vertical axis:

• AY236 Rotation on an axis
• AY242 Turning on a side axis
• AY271 Extending the arms forward 1
• AY484 In standing, turning with the eyes
• SF1 – Week 5 – 15 July 1975: Lying on Back to Standing
• SF1 – Week 5 – 16 July 1975: Lying on Back to Standing, continued

Turning-Heel-Out:

• Amherst 2 – Week 9 – 08/03/81 PM1 Weight Shifting to Dancing
• AY236 Rotation on an axis
• AY242 Turning on a side axis
• AY245 Heels and feet in circles
• AY283 Continuation on one leg
• AY484 In standing, turning with the eyes
• AY498 Tilting the leg backward in sitting

External Links

• http://kinesophics.ca/turning_heels_out
• Enjoy the contrast with Charlie Chaplin trying to learn to turn on the central (not side) axis:/li>

Share Your Insights

Key Ideas, Principles, and Strategies

• Keeping the neck and back rounded while shifting weight throughout the lesson–a very potent intervention in the habitual misuse of the extensors. Consider the chapter “The means at our disposal” in The Potent Self.

Typical Results

• He describes this as the fastest and most comfortable turning that is possible, and contrasts it with turning by shifting weight (from one pelvis/shoulder axis to the other) and stepping forwards.

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