THE PERFORMANCE PAGE
How To Do Whatever You Do Better
Have you ever taken lessons from an expert and been frustrated at your failure to master the skills being taught? Perhaps from a golf pro who was unable to help you improve your swing? Or a dance teacher whose own talents were obvious but who just couldn't seem to help you move gracefully across the floor?
Often these disappointments are caused by the teacher’s inability to help you achieve the level of coordination and balance necessary to perform well.
There is a crucial distinction between the ability to teach you a specific skill and the ability to teach you to use your body effectively and efficiently while practicing that skill. In most cases, you cannot realistically expect the same person to be able to teach both.
Sometimes this distinction is obvious. For example you would hardly expect someone showing you how to use a computer to also be able to teach you how to sit for hours in front of a monitor and keyboard without experiencing back of shoulder pain, or developing repetitive strain injuries or carpal tunnel syndrome.
This is just as true for activities we normally associate with performance. Your piano instructor may have the talent of a Van Cliburn but if you habitually tense your neck, shoulders and arms when you play, the results will almost certainly be disappointing. Your child’s baseball coach could be a skilled player, but if your child's performance is restricted by unconscious muscle tension, his batting and fielding skills will still suffer.
Where then can we find experts in teaching efficient body functioning?
Teachers of the Alexander Technique are trained in precisely this skill. The Alexander Technique is all about performance - the way in which we carry out the activities of our lives. Alexander teachers are not so much concerned about what activities you do as how you do them - and how you can learn to do them better.
The ability to teach good balance and efficient movement is not something that is easily or quickly mastered. Alexander Technique teachers typically complete a three-year full-time training course to become certified, and for many that’s just the start of their training.
It's not surprising that people we normally think of as “performers” are among the most enthusiastic proponents of the Alexander Technique - people like Paul Newman, Robin Williams, Paul McCartney and Yehudi Menuhin, to name but a few.
The Technique has been yet more extensively used by people to improve their “performance” of activities ranging from sitting, standing and walking to driving their car, caring for their children, and making presentations at work.
It is the purpose of The Performance Page to introduce you to the Alexander Technique and to provide you with links to a full range of resources relating to this time-tested method. This site is a service of Alexander Technique Nebraska and Toronto, and Life Bridge Coaching
The following links take you to information about the Alexander Technique's role in enhancing the performance of a wide range of specific activities:
Computer Use The Martial Arts Sports Yoga Fitness Gardening Horseback Riding Singing Tai Chi Massage Dance Acting Jogging Music Physical Therapy Poker Swimming A great many articles about the Alexander Technique for musicians can be found at:
Alexander Technique and Musicians
The way you carry your body - your posture - is crucially important to your ability to perform well. The Posture Guide provides resources about the Alexander Technique and posture:
The way you use your body can have a major effect on your ability to perform well at work. Ergonomics.org explores the ways in which the Alexander Technique can bring the the principles of the science of ergonomics into reality:
The Alexander Technique's role in helping promote the effectiveness and safety of sports and fitness activities is explored in FitnessGuide.org:
The most comprehensive general source of information about the Alexander Technique can be found at The Complete Guide to the Alexander Technique. On this site tells you how to locate a teacher anywhere in the world, read scientific and medical endorsements, order books about the Technique, explore interactive Alexander Technique on-line resources and much more:
The Complete Guide to the Alexander Technique
Locate a drug rehab Los Angeles with the treatment options you need.
This site is a service of Robert and Anne Rickover.
Robert Rickover is a teacher of the Alexander Technique in Lincoln, Nebraska. He also teaches regularly in Toronto, Canada. Robert is on the faculty of the annual Nebraska Wesleyan University High School Solo Singer Workshop and Alexander Technique Workshops of Omaha. He is the co-host of Alexander Talk and is the Director of Alexander Technique Workshops - Bring a Workshop to Your Area and Movement Coaching by Phone and is the creator of The Complete Guide to the Alexander Technique. Click here to arrange a lesson or class with Robert
***
Life Bridge Coaching with Anne Rickover
Are you at a place of transition in your personal or professional life?
Would you like to feel a stronger spark of enthusiasm for what you do?
Would you like someone to help clarify where you want to go and how to get there?Anne Rickover is a Life Coach who will work one-on-one with you to form strategies built on your personal strengths to bridge the gap from where you are to where you want to be. Using phone and email, Anne can serve as your Life Coach no matter where you are located. Click here to set up a Free Introductory Session with Anne and visit her Website
.