I did my home practice, but have been in quite a lot of pain from the Michael Gannon class. I made it through, but it was a slog, not exactly the most enjoyable Christmas eve practice. Hopefully it hurts less tomorrow when i go back up north for a Christmas day Mysore class
I headed up to Puerto Morelos for a Christmas day Mysore class. When we got there, there were a few students who weren't sure on the primary series, so Coco did a led class. I was so sore from Michael Gannon that i could only do half the postures, and not even a lotus. The guy i headed up with was also really sore from Michael's class, and was quite forcefully criticizing the way the class was done.
While we were up there, Coco apologised to all of us about how bad the class was, saying "Michael's normally better than that". That's nice of her, but it doesn't get me my money back, or make my knees stop hurting.
Update to say: speaking with someone else from the class the next day, and they have so much pain in one of their knees, that it was painful for them to walk. Not a ringing recommendation for Michael's work when he injures all his students!
Showing posts with label Michael Gannon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Gannon. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Michael Gannon Day - Part Two
We worked throught the primary series, and apart from asking me to grab my toe in trikonasana, there were no adjustments. This was strange, because I could see and hear him walking around the room. Half way through the practice, I broke dristi, and saw him forcefully adjusting the other girls. Well I'm not going to judge, but it was a bit uncool that he would adjust them and not me. I'd paid the same as everyone else. He was really getting into the adjustments too, arms and legs!
After Navasana, he was distracted, and when he said jump forward, the advanced girl beside me jumped to sitting. She must not have been the only one, because he asked the class "who knows what position is next?" and I automatically shouted out "Bujapidasana", before realising that I was the only voice to ring out. Oops. Then I heard the thumps of everyone moving up into the position, so felt somewhat validated. There are benefits to being (as one of my yoga teachers says) "1% practice, 99% theory". Jaja.
Coco was directly in front of me, and on one of her jump-backs, she strayed over my mat, and kicked me in the forehead! It didn't hurt, but it was funny.
We stayed in padmasana for a very long time. This is difficult for me because the lotus is painful, and so after about 5min I had to take my legs out and sit cross-legged. While moving my legs, I looked up to see MG taking photos of the class. Oops! I just ruined his photos.
Savasana was long. I mean long-long, probably a good twenty minutes, and I loved it. My mind has been really jumbled of late, and I took about fifteen minutes for me to get into the posture properly.
One thing that bugged me was the constant advertising. I understand that he's an ex marketing/advertising executive, but he laid it on pretty thickly in the 4 hours we were with him, even up to sliding glossy postcards under our mats while in Savasana, advertising his retreats, his teacher training, his new DVD...
We all went back into Coco's house for a smoothie. Her house is just amazing, really big and light and beautiful. I managed to get a few minutes with him then, and he seems to be a really nice guy. He answered a couple of questions I had about yoga.
Coco and MG then made us the smoothies. Here's the recipe:
- Mamae
- Dates
- Almond butter
- coco powder
- coconut water
By the end of the day, I was able to reflect on the whole experience. These are my reflections:
Michael is a nice guy, and his lead practice was fine, apart from the lack of adjustments. Before seeing him, I was aware of him due to his iphone app, DVDs, courses etc. I think he had a mystical air to him, being well-known, and having studied with Guruji for so long etc. After the day, I can see that he is just a regular guy. He hasn't got any special powers to improve my practice, but is just another yoga teacher.
What I really learned, is how good my current teacher is. The things he was saying in class were exactly the same as she says. Also when they spoke to each other, it wasn't a sort of teacher-student relationship, as Coco had suggested before in her modesty, but rather, they were just two colleagues. Perhaps by starting my practice here, in a backwater of Mexico, I had thought on some level that I was missing out on something. Perhaps I hadn't fully submitted to the hallowed student-teacher relationship that is Ashtanga. Right now, having received classes from both Coco and Michael, I certainly prefer Coco's class. I prefer her style of teaching, and her relaxed personality. As well as this, I probably won't study with Michael again unless I have a specific reason to do so.
After Navasana, he was distracted, and when he said jump forward, the advanced girl beside me jumped to sitting. She must not have been the only one, because he asked the class "who knows what position is next?" and I automatically shouted out "Bujapidasana", before realising that I was the only voice to ring out. Oops. Then I heard the thumps of everyone moving up into the position, so felt somewhat validated. There are benefits to being (as one of my yoga teachers says) "1% practice, 99% theory". Jaja.
Coco was directly in front of me, and on one of her jump-backs, she strayed over my mat, and kicked me in the forehead! It didn't hurt, but it was funny.
We stayed in padmasana for a very long time. This is difficult for me because the lotus is painful, and so after about 5min I had to take my legs out and sit cross-legged. While moving my legs, I looked up to see MG taking photos of the class. Oops! I just ruined his photos.
 |
| Photo taken by Michael Gannon, Coco in front of me |
Savasana was long. I mean long-long, probably a good twenty minutes, and I loved it. My mind has been really jumbled of late, and I took about fifteen minutes for me to get into the posture properly.
One thing that bugged me was the constant advertising. I understand that he's an ex marketing/advertising executive, but he laid it on pretty thickly in the 4 hours we were with him, even up to sliding glossy postcards under our mats while in Savasana, advertising his retreats, his teacher training, his new DVD...
We all went back into Coco's house for a smoothie. Her house is just amazing, really big and light and beautiful. I managed to get a few minutes with him then, and he seems to be a really nice guy. He answered a couple of questions I had about yoga.
Coco and MG then made us the smoothies. Here's the recipe:
- Mamae
- Dates
- Almond butter
- coco powder
- coconut water
By the end of the day, I was able to reflect on the whole experience. These are my reflections:
Michael is a nice guy, and his lead practice was fine, apart from the lack of adjustments. Before seeing him, I was aware of him due to his iphone app, DVDs, courses etc. I think he had a mystical air to him, being well-known, and having studied with Guruji for so long etc. After the day, I can see that he is just a regular guy. He hasn't got any special powers to improve my practice, but is just another yoga teacher.
What I really learned, is how good my current teacher is. The things he was saying in class were exactly the same as she says. Also when they spoke to each other, it wasn't a sort of teacher-student relationship, as Coco had suggested before in her modesty, but rather, they were just two colleagues. Perhaps by starting my practice here, in a backwater of Mexico, I had thought on some level that I was missing out on something. Perhaps I hadn't fully submitted to the hallowed student-teacher relationship that is Ashtanga. Right now, having received classes from both Coco and Michael, I certainly prefer Coco's class. I prefer her style of teaching, and her relaxed personality. As well as this, I probably won't study with Michael again unless I have a specific reason to do so.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Michael Gannon Day - Part One
The day with Michael Gannon started early. I caught the collectivo up to Puerto Morelos, then a lift to the shala/Coco's house. There were lots of students there, thirteen in total. One of them I knew very well, the others being recognisable faces from the led classes, but I'd only ever said a couple of words to them in the past. We went into the jungle, and into the shala. The little pit-bull that Coco has been looking after was there. It's been very sick, but is putting it's weight back on slowly, and has a lot of energy. It's just the cutest little thing.
Once in the shala, we all sat down and waited for MG to arrive. I hid in one of the corners, my mat as far away as possible, trying to sink into the walls. When one of the students asked where he was, there was a bit of a laugh. Apparently he is always late. He eventually arrived, and sat down and said hello. A few of the students had studied with him before. He asked what language he should teach in, and one of the students didn't speak English, so he did the whole day in Spanish. I was really impressed. I had no idea he spoke more than one language. He sat down, and started with "end of the world" jokes. I think partly because of his Spanish, and partly because most of the students were Mexican or Argentinian, nobody laughed, but they were really funny. The monkeys were being quite noisy which was really cool, except the girl beside me was a bit frightened that she would get bitten.
Coco had said that he's start with some breathing exercises. I'd done some of these before, so it was to be an easy way to slide into things. Well, instead we started with some hip openers. You know whenever you're in a group situation, and things look a little difficult? What's the first thing you do? You look around the group for "that guy". You know the one. He might be old and a bit senile, he might be obese, he might be wearing a cap with a fan on the top of it and a leather vest. These guys are my inspiration. I love them. They're always the one with the biggest smile on their face when they succeed, because they've overcome the most. When they don't succeed, you don't blame them, they just bit off more than they could chew. Whenever the going gets tough, I look at them and say "well if they can do it, so can I!"
Almost immediately with the hip openers, I couldn't do it. The first move was to hug the lower leg to the chest. Well I can barely put my food on my knee, so bringing it up from that position to my chest is completely out of the question. Well it was time to pull my default confidence-building maneuver. I broke my gaze from the front of the room (let's call this 'MGD' Michael-Gannon-Dristi) to look for the guy who was struggling more than me. From student to student, I scanned the room, but i couldn't find him. All I saw were yogis and yoginis cradling their lower legs against their chests, hands clasped around their forearms, rocking their tibiae and fibulae like newborn babies. That guy had failed to show up today.
Then it dawned on me. I WAS "THAT GUY". Confidence shattered immediately. Every time one of the other students sneaked a glance to the right, I saw it. Well I was going to make them proud! Fortunately I was in the back corner of the room, and behind a very flexible yogini who had been babbling about studying with MG in some mystical place called "purple valley" in Goa, India. So my travails went unnoticed by the teacher, who, had he have seen me, would probably have sent me to go and stand outside the headmaster's office for lying my way into the swimming pool enclosure when I clearly couldn't swim!
Painful hip openers over, and we had a five minute break to start the primary series. Michael asked all the beginners to move to the left of the room, and the advance student to the right. This was clearly directed at me, so I automatically started to move my mat. Coco saw me and stopped me, saying "Nico, you know the series." I put my mat back where it was. MG then came over to move me to the other end of the class, but Coco stopped him, saying "No, Nicolas is a really good student". Well that made me feel amazing. Really good student. Really good student. Really good student. Those words were just ringing in my ears like music.
Everyone has a different body. Mine is particularly suited to skiff sailing. I have skinny stiff strong muscles, tightly holding together a tall indestructible frame. I have an eye that can pick up the minutest changes in details from hundreds of metres away. But my body is not designed to find yoga asanas easy. Because of natural inflexibility, back issues as an adolescent, old injuries, fused hips, blah blah blah, I've never been a star pupil when it comes to yoga. Even after six months of intensive Ashtanga, I still can't touch my toes!
I turned to Coco and said "It means a lot to me that you said that". She must have seen my smile, because she looked back at me, cracked the biggest smile that I've ever seen, and said something like "you are [a good student]".
Once in the shala, we all sat down and waited for MG to arrive. I hid in one of the corners, my mat as far away as possible, trying to sink into the walls. When one of the students asked where he was, there was a bit of a laugh. Apparently he is always late. He eventually arrived, and sat down and said hello. A few of the students had studied with him before. He asked what language he should teach in, and one of the students didn't speak English, so he did the whole day in Spanish. I was really impressed. I had no idea he spoke more than one language. He sat down, and started with "end of the world" jokes. I think partly because of his Spanish, and partly because most of the students were Mexican or Argentinian, nobody laughed, but they were really funny. The monkeys were being quite noisy which was really cool, except the girl beside me was a bit frightened that she would get bitten.
Coco had said that he's start with some breathing exercises. I'd done some of these before, so it was to be an easy way to slide into things. Well, instead we started with some hip openers. You know whenever you're in a group situation, and things look a little difficult? What's the first thing you do? You look around the group for "that guy". You know the one. He might be old and a bit senile, he might be obese, he might be wearing a cap with a fan on the top of it and a leather vest. These guys are my inspiration. I love them. They're always the one with the biggest smile on their face when they succeed, because they've overcome the most. When they don't succeed, you don't blame them, they just bit off more than they could chew. Whenever the going gets tough, I look at them and say "well if they can do it, so can I!"
Almost immediately with the hip openers, I couldn't do it. The first move was to hug the lower leg to the chest. Well I can barely put my food on my knee, so bringing it up from that position to my chest is completely out of the question. Well it was time to pull my default confidence-building maneuver. I broke my gaze from the front of the room (let's call this 'MGD' Michael-Gannon-Dristi) to look for the guy who was struggling more than me. From student to student, I scanned the room, but i couldn't find him. All I saw were yogis and yoginis cradling their lower legs against their chests, hands clasped around their forearms, rocking their tibiae and fibulae like newborn babies. That guy had failed to show up today.
Then it dawned on me. I WAS "THAT GUY". Confidence shattered immediately. Every time one of the other students sneaked a glance to the right, I saw it. Well I was going to make them proud! Fortunately I was in the back corner of the room, and behind a very flexible yogini who had been babbling about studying with MG in some mystical place called "purple valley" in Goa, India. So my travails went unnoticed by the teacher, who, had he have seen me, would probably have sent me to go and stand outside the headmaster's office for lying my way into the swimming pool enclosure when I clearly couldn't swim!
Painful hip openers over, and we had a five minute break to start the primary series. Michael asked all the beginners to move to the left of the room, and the advance student to the right. This was clearly directed at me, so I automatically started to move my mat. Coco saw me and stopped me, saying "Nico, you know the series." I put my mat back where it was. MG then came over to move me to the other end of the class, but Coco stopped him, saying "No, Nicolas is a really good student". Well that made me feel amazing. Really good student. Really good student. Really good student. Those words were just ringing in my ears like music.
Everyone has a different body. Mine is particularly suited to skiff sailing. I have skinny stiff strong muscles, tightly holding together a tall indestructible frame. I have an eye that can pick up the minutest changes in details from hundreds of metres away. But my body is not designed to find yoga asanas easy. Because of natural inflexibility, back issues as an adolescent, old injuries, fused hips, blah blah blah, I've never been a star pupil when it comes to yoga. Even after six months of intensive Ashtanga, I still can't touch my toes!
I turned to Coco and said "It means a lot to me that you said that". She must have seen my smile, because she looked back at me, cracked the biggest smile that I've ever seen, and said something like "you are [a good student]".
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