openATM.org: Discussion of ATMs

Hi everyone, I’ve posted a new ATM by Liz Sisco. The lesson is called Bridge 1 – and is in the canon of classic ATM lessons. It was taught on Febuary 26th 2011 at the Feldenkrais Institute of San Diego.

It can be downloaded from the ATM Recordings Page or below.

I hope you enjoy the lesson and post a comment if you have any thoughts about the lesson.

I’ve posted a new ATM by Liz Sisco.   It is called “Chair Lesson” and it is an adaptation of a lesson taught by Jack Heggie from his Healthy Back series.   It was taught on Feb 5th 2011 at the Feldenkrais Institute of San Diego. In Liz’s words:

From morning to night we sit: in our cars commuting to and from work, at our desks, when we eat, on the couch, or in our favorite easy chair. This week we will explore how to make sitting a dynamic, integrated activity that leaves you feeling refreshed and relaxed at the end of the day.

It can be downloaded from the ATM Recordings Page or below.

I hope you enjoy the lesson and post a comment if you have any thoughts about the lesson.

I’ve added in a feedburner email subscription widget to the site.   If you get tired of checking back for new content and would prefer to be emailed when there is a new post, then just sign up by entering your email on the box to the right.

Back in Oct 2010, I taught an Improve Your Surfing Workshop: 1. Paddling  at Anita Noone’s very cool Solana Beach Feldenkrais Studio.   I had meant to write about it, slacked, and I’ve finally been kicked in the bum.

One issue that many surfer’s have as they get older is that paddling becomes more and more difficult.   Unlike swimming, paddling a surfboard requires the ability to extend throughout the entire back to effectively paddle.     This is because on a surfboard one cannot rotate the torso during a stroke cycle – as one can in freestyle swimming – otherwise one rolls off of the board.     By extending the back, the shoulders are elevated over the water surface making the paddle stroke easier.    Furthermore it also allows one to bring the face and eyes to the horizon so one can see where one is going, where the waves are, etc.      Often older surfers lose the ability to extend leading to a cascade of effects including  1) reduced paddle power, 2) not being able to comfortably handle late drops into waves, 3) surfing bigger bulkier boards they might have disdained when younger, and 4) neck, shoulder or back pain.

Thus the focus of the workshop was to improve extension from the prone position.   We did a number of ATM lessons.   The first 3 are posted on the Workshop page.   Participants got to evaluate their  paddling position with a paddling simulator – an old surfboard mounted on foam pillows to provide some instability like when paddling in the water.   Some pictures were taken both before and after, and here are two case examples

The first is from T. (see below) who has been surfing since he was a kid.   His initial paddling position isn’t too bad, but notice the difficulty with getting the face and eyes to the horizon

After the 5 1/2 ATMs (!), T. got back on the paddling simulator and notice the ease with which the face is to the horizon and the lift through the entire back

Another example comes from C. (see below) who has learned how to surf much more recently.  Notice the great difficulty in raising her head and shoulders.   This severely limits paddling power and probably leads to tired shoulders and neck even after short surfing sessions.

After the workshop, notice below how C is laughing at her surprise as to how much she is able to lift her head.   The back is extending now when before it kinda wasn’t.

Of course there is a lot more to paddling a surfboard than just extending the back.    But for many surfer’s, improving this is the most simple way to better more pleasant paddling.  The clever will notice that of the 1st 3 ATMs in the workshop, none involved extension movements and only a little bit of lying prone (on the stomach).

Comments?

Back in October 2010, I posted some statistics about how many ATMs were being downloaded from the openATM.org site and in all the different parts of the world. Well it is a year now that the new openATM.org site has been active and I thought it interesting to look at some of these statistics now. Over the past year there have been:

• 26,700 unique visits to the site from 9291 visitors.
• The visits have come from 108 different countries and territories. The top countries are the USA, UK, Germany, Canada, and Israel – all places where the Feldenkrais Method is established. But Mexico is number 9, India is number 15, and Egypt is number 31 – all places where (correct me if i am wrong), the Feldenkrais method has little to no presence.
• 11,353 ATMs uniquely downloaded from the site and a total of 144 different ATM lessons. The most downloaded ATM with 422 unique downloads is Sharon Starika’s Jan 20 2004 ATM “Continuation of Holding the Knee”. This may be the most popular because it was for a long time the first ATM on the list. In second place is Jim Stephen’s Hamstring ATM with 321 unique downloads. Third place is my Apr 12 2010 “Opening the Shoulders, Part 1″ lesson with 296 unique downloads. These ATMs are often being downloaded in places where there is no access to ATM classes. Another thing to consider, if there are on average 2 ATMs in a 160 day Feldenkrais training program this is 320 ATM lessons. With 144 lessons, the openATM.org has almost half the equivalent content of a training program.

We keep on slowly adding lessons and improving the site. I welcome any feedback you may have. And now, lie down on the floor, scan yourself, and enjoy the lessons.