035: DAVID HALL - Posture - How to sit on a surfboard.
SHOW NOTES:
Do you really know how to sit on your surfboard — or are you unknowingly sabotaging your surfing before the wave even comes?
Most surfers spend more time sitting in the lineup than paddling or riding waves, yet posture is rarely addressed. In this episode, David Hall — expert in the Feldenkrais Method and Alexander Technique — reveals why the way you sit is critical to your surfing performance, your body’s longevity, and even how well you sense your surroundings in the water.
Learn why traditional “sit up straight” posture advice is outdated — and what efficient posture really looks and feels like
Discover how posture, relaxation, and awareness combine to make you faster, lighter, and more responsive in the water
Experience a guided movement lesson to rewire your nervous system for better balance, perception, and performance — both in and out of the surf
Tune into this episode now to experience a radically different way to understand posture — and unlock more relaxed, aware, and powerful surfing without trying harder.
David Hall is a Feldenkrais Practitioner and Alexander Technique teacher on the northern beaches NSW. David talks about the method, posture, movement, grace, and finishes with an ATM lesson.
David’s website: http://www.bodylogic.net.au/about
ATM Lesson: http://www.bodylogic.net.au/lessons/sitting-on-water
Feldenkrais Guild: https://www.feldenkrais.com/
Key Points
Introduction of efficient posture concept - being functional and receptive to environment
Overview of episode focus on posture and sitting for surfers, featuring David as Feldenkrais practitioner
David's introduction to Feldenkrais method through voice study and personal experience with movement awareness
Explanation of Feldenkrais Method's origin and its focus on body awareness and control
Discussion of how Feldenkrais Method helps improve surfing through increased body awareness
Explanation of neurological aspects of the Feldenkrais Method and its impact on movement efficiency
Detailed discussion of posture dynamics and gravity's role in body organization
Introduction of practical awareness through movement lesson for efficient sitting
Outline
Introduction to Efficient Posture
David begins by emphasizing that efficient posture must be functional, allowing for movement in any direction and receptivity to the environment.
The importance of being able to sense one's surroundings is particularly highlighted in the context of surfing.
David explains that the fastest way to move the whole body is via the center, highlighting the need for surfers to maintain open peripheral vision and stay in touch with their entire body while sitting on a surfboard.
This introduction sets the stage for a deeper exploration of posture and its relevance to surfing.
Overview of the Episode
Michael introduces the episode, focusing on posture and sitting, particularly in the context of surfing.
While paddling is a crucial aspect of surfing (covered in a previous episode), surfers spend most of their time sitting.
Michael addresses common misconceptions about posture, noting that it is not about sitting up straight, pulling shoulders back, and tucking the chin in.
Instead, proper posture is simpler yet more subtle.
The episode features David, who is described as the best practitioner Michael has ever experienced.
David is qualified as both a Feldenkrais practitioner and an Alexander Technique teacher.
Michael outlines the structure of the episode, which includes an interview followed by an awareness through movement lesson.
The lesson is available as a standalone audio MP3 from David's website, with information provided on where listeners can access it.
Introduction to the Feldenkrais Method
David explains how he was inspired to study the Feldenkrais Method after reading a paragraph in a book that resonated with him.
At the time, he was studying and teaching voice and speech.
The quote that caught his attention was about the quality of voice being influenced by the organization of the body.
This led David to explore Feldenkrais's work further.
He describes an exercise from Feldenkrais's book where he extended one arm above his head while lying on the ground, reaching away from his body about 30 times, each time trying to make it easier.
After completing the exercise, David noticed a significant difference between his right and left sides, with the right side feeling as if it had no psychological problems.
This powerful experience prompted him to seek out more information about the Feldenkrais Method, eventually leading to his training in the technique.
Explanation of the Feldenkrais Method
David describes the Feldenkrais Method as a body of work created by Moshe Feldenkrais that provides individuals with greater awareness and control of their bodies.
Feldenkrais developed this method after suffering a knee injury that did not respond to conventional treatments.
As a physicist working on submarines for the British Navy at the time, Feldenkrais began exploring movement and its relationship to pain.
He discovered that the whole body could trigger pain, not just the injured area, and that the process of exploring movement made him feel better overall.
Feldenkrais drew parallels between his exploration of movement and how babies learn to move, noting the logical sequence of developmental movements.
The method aims to help people become more aware of their bodies, addressing both physical discomfort and skill improvement in various activities, including surfing.
Application of the Feldenkrais Method to Surfing
The Feldenkrais Method can improve surfing performance by increasing conscious awareness of body parts or movements that may interfere with surfing.
Many people have unconscious movement habits that can hinder their performance, particularly in crucial moments such as turning at the bottom of a wave.
The method helps individuals become aware of these unconscious patterns and gain more control over their entire body.
The practice of looking beyond what one feels and searching for what one is not aware of is a key aspect of the method.
Two components of the Feldenkrais Method are functional integration (one-on-one hands-on sessions) and awareness through movement (group verbal sessions).
These approaches systematically explore various movements and functions, encouraging participants to use a trial-and-error process similar to how babies learn to move.
Neurological Aspects of the Feldenkrais Method
The neurological implications of the Feldenkrais Method are discussed, referencing Norman Doyce's description of Feldenkrais as a pioneer in using the brain's neuroplastic qualities for movement and learning.
The method aims to change the brain to facilitate learning, rather than simply performing drills or training.
The process involves making discoveries and repeating them until they become integrated into one's self-image, affecting various aspects of the brain, including the motor cortex and sensory cortex.
The method helps refine movement by reducing unnecessary tension and parasitic movements, leading to more efficient and instinctive actions.
As movements become more refined, less brain activity is required, resulting in greater efficiency and ease of movement.
Efficiency in Movement and Surfing
The concept of efficiency in movement, particularly in the context of surfing, is explored.
Good surfers are characterized by relaxed and efficient movements.
The Feldenkrais Method aims to affect all movements by working with the self-image, resulting in a general sense of ease and relaxation.
This can translate to improved surfing performance, with practitioners feeling lighter and more aware during their sessions.
One-on-one lessons are emphasized for achieving these results, but self-directed awareness through movement lessons can be equally powerful once the process and structure are understood.
Awareness and Relaxation
The relationship between directing awareness to the body and relaxation is discussed.
Humans have homeostatic mechanisms, but often people are out of touch with their bodies.
Paying attention to the body can help release restrictions placed on oneself from an early age.
The process involves focusing on what feels easy and gradually expanding that sensation, rather than trying to forcefully relax tense areas.
A practical example of this approach is provided using a head-turning exercise, demonstrating how awareness of the eyes and other body parts can increase range of motion and overall ease of movement.
Sitting Posture and Its Importance in Surfing
Efficient posture while sitting on a surfboard involves maintaining a dynamic equilibrium, with the head, chest, and pelvis aligned over each other.
The body is organized around gravity, with constant anti-gravity reflexes at work.
Being able to move from stillness, maintaining awareness of the entire body, and keeping the eyes and face relaxed is important.
Efficient movement in surfing comes from the center of the body, with minimal movement in the upper body and legs.
The ability to maintain balance and stillness while being ready to move is crucial for effective surfing.
Awareness Through Movement Lesson on Sitting
An awareness through movement lesson focused on sitting concludes the transcript.
Participants are guided through a series of gentle movements and awareness exercises designed to improve posture and increase overall body awareness.
The lesson includes exploring the balance of the head, chest, and pelvis while sitting, paying attention to breathing and its effect on the entire body.
Participants practice small movements to increase awareness of different body parts, exploring rotation and side-bending of the spine.
They integrate eye movements and peripheral vision into postural awareness, applying the principles learned to standing and walking.
Throughout the lesson, the importance of making small, gentle movements, maintaining awareness of the whole body, and avoiding strain or force is emphasized.
Participants are encouraged to notice changes in their posture, breathing, and overall sense of ease as they progress through the exercises.
Transcription
David Hall
Efficient posture has got to be functional. You've got to be able to move in any direction. You've got to be able to sense your environment. You've got to be receptive to what's going on around you. Fastest way to move the whole body is via the center. You know, it's being receptive. It's being able to sit out there on your surfboard and keep your peripheral vision open so you can see what's going on in the water. You can feel what's going on through the rest of your body as well. You tune in, you're in touch, and you're able to move.
Michael Frampton
Welcome back to the show. Today's episode is on posture and sitting. So as surfers, we spend a lot of time paddling, and in episode 12, we covered paddling, but we actually spend most of our time just sitting. So today's episode, we're gonna talk about sitting because there's a lot of myths and misconceptions about what posture is and how it should feel, and it's not about sitting up straight, pulling your shoulders back, and tucking the chin in. It's actually far more simple than that, but it's far more subtle, and David gives a really good explanation of what posture is. I met David when I was living in Avalon Beach in Sydney, Australia. David has been the best practitioner I've ever experienced. Now, David is qualified as a Feldenkrais practitioner and as an Alexander Technique teacher. So the Feldenkrais method encompasses body work through what's called functional integration, as well as group exercise classes called awareness through movement classes. David will give us an overview of the Feldenkrais method itself, and there's a lot of really good information in this interview. If you wanna nerd out about movement and efficiency and grace and fluidity of movement, then this is the episode for you. And then, and of course, we're talking about posture as well and the first 45 minutes of this episode is the interview, and then we will transition into an awareness through movement lesson, which will be the last 45 minutes of this episode. The lesson is available as a standalone audio MP3 downloadable from David's website, which is bodylogic.net.au. I will have a direct link to that lesson in the show notes, both on the podcast app that you're listening to this and on the website at surfmastery.com. The music you hear in the intro and in the background now is an original piece written and performed by David himself as well. Thank you for letting us use that music, David. Please enjoy this interview and any feedback would be great on Instagram, surfmastery.
Michael Frampton
What inspired you to study the Feldenkrais method?
David Hall
Well, actually, it was a paragraph in a book that I read, a quote from Feldenkrais that just made a light switch on. It was something innocuous. I was studying voice at the time, and in fact, I was being a voice teacher, speech teacher. And it was just a comment about the quality of the voice being influenced by the organization of the body. And it just made—I look at it now and it's nothing much, but I was so inspired, I went and found his book and read it. And the introduction was—there was an exercise where you extended one arm above your head, lying on the ground, and you reached away from your body about 30 times. And each time you tried to make it a little bit easier. And you kept relaxing. And I already knew how to relax. And so I did it well. And I reached and it became softer. And the more I reached, I began to feel more and more of my body being involved. And then after 30 minutes, I moved the arm down by my side. And it felt so fundamentally different to the other one. It was like the right side of my body had no psychological problems and the other side was normal. And it was a really strong experience. So I searched through the phone books—didn't have the internet in those days—and I found him in Tel Aviv and I spoke to him just before he died actually. And he said that someone would probably come out. And within a couple of months, there was a practitioner from America came out and did some workshops and it was fabulous.
Michael Frampton
And tell us what the Feldenkrais Method is.
David Hall
Well, it's a body of work that was created by a man named Moshe Feldenkrais that gives you more awareness and control of your body. He discovered this work as a result of a knee injury that didn't respond to any conventional treatments. And when a surgeon recommended an operation and said there was only a 50% success rate, Feldenkrais said, "No way." And he started to look at what he was doing. And he was working on submarines at the time for the British Navy, helping design radar. He was a physicist. And he knew that some movements caused pain and others didn't. So he'd lie in his hammock at night and he'd try to work out what movements he should avoid. And he realized that the whole body could trigger pain—it wasn't just the knee. And that the process of exploring was making him feel better generally. He'd stand up after doing this exploration and he'd feel more balanced and free. And anyway, he taught himself to recognize there was a link between the way he was exploring movement and the way babies explore movement. You know, we learn to crawl before we walk. And so there's this logical sequence. And even though a baby doesn't—it's got no particular objective, anything it's looking for—it's just exploring movement. It keeps making these discoveries that change the whole focus of what it can do. You know, a baby that can crawl can do a lot more than a baby that can only lie on its stomach or on its back. So he started to follow this idea to think of these developmental movements in the way he was exploring. And he found that not only was his knee getting better, but it was helping him perform judo and to do everything. And as a result of that exploration, he developed this body of work, which gives people more awareness and control of their body. Most people come to see me because they have aches and pains, but a lot of people come to see me because they want to improve a skill, like the way they surf, or the way they swing a golf club, or the way they sing.
Michael Frampton
So how does the Feldenkrais Method influence or help someone to surf better?
David Hall
By giving them more conscious awareness of the parts of their body or of the movements that they do that interfere with their surfing. The problem is that many people have habits of movement that they're completely unconscious of. They spend all this time training themselves, working on things, and they're trying different things, but usually there's a large part of the body they can't feel. And it's the parts of their body that they can't feel that are often causing the problem. That's the moment when it gets down to the bottom of the wave and you're starting to turn where that unconscious thing happens and then you fall off again. And it's through giving you more awareness and control of the whole body—well, even not of the whole body, but it's the practice of looking beyond what you feel and looking for what you're not aware of—that is a jewel in the method.
Michael Frampton
Looking for what you're not aware of. It sounds hard to do.
David Hall
Yeah. It is tricky. It's part of the structure of the lessons though. If we take a—there's two aspects to the Feldenkrais Method. There's the one-on-one hands-on aspect, which you call functional integration. And then there's the group session, which is mostly verbal. And that's called awareness through movement. And in those lessons, you take a function or a movement—it might be rolling to the side, or it could be crawling—and you explore that movement systematically in a way. You go through the whole body and you're not correcting yourself. You're just exploring the movement. You're using the same trial and error process of exploration that you do when you're a baby, you know, faced with how you're going to get over to get the rattle. You've got no idea how you're going to do it. You just know you want to get over there and get it. So you try different things and you forget about it after a while. And you just—you know, you just get off on the sensation of moving. But after a while, you know, you learn to coordinate different parts of your body and you find you can—you know, you learn to roll over and suddenly the rattle's just within reach. So it's this process of—in the lessons, you have, you know, say if you're rolling to the side, you know, you might start rolling your head. You might do your eyes. You might roll your legs. You roll the head and the eyes and the legs together. You do them in opposition. You know, you move your arm then. You lift one leg, you roll your pelvis, and you do that with your head. You try all these different variations. And each week you do a lesson, it's a different lesson. It's not like, you know, yoga or Pilates where you have the same set of exercises that you keep doing. It's usually a different function that you explore each week. But it's the principle that's the same. It's being aware of the whole body, how you shift your weight, how you move, and how you can make it more easy, more simple, more elegant. And the process of doing that week after week, you know, teaches you to look beyond what you see. And often the changes that happen—this is the interesting thing with this work—it happens when you're not looking for it because it's making a basic change to your body awareness. You're really working with the self-image in this work. And so you may do a series of lessons and, you know, there may be something that's really hard that you didn't really get. And, you know, it's a bit awkward or feels uncomfortable when you're doing the movement. But later on, or later on that week, you'll find yourself walking around and it just feels really easy. And it's at that point that you've sort of understood the lesson, because it's not a matter of just doing movements in the Feldenkrais Method. It's a matter of paying attention to what you're doing. The whole focus is on how you're moving. And it's the awareness of movement—it's the process of paying attention without even correcting it, just paying attention—that has this added benefit of building the self-image. It's like refining the sense of where you are. So in the same way that a surfer, you know, spends years working with their understanding of the ocean and currents and wind and their balance, and over time, they have this body of knowledge that, you know, relates to this skill. And in the Feldenkrais Method, you're doing the same thing, but it's just basic awareness of how you stand and sit and move. So it can influence everything you do.
Michael Frampton
Can we nerd out a little bit and maybe summarize what's going on on a neurological level for those that wanna know a little bit more?
David Hall
Well, it's interesting. Feldenkrais was, according to Norman Doidge, one of the pioneers of a neuroplastic—or an approach to movement and learning that used the brain's neuroplastic qualities. In his book Body and Mature Behavior in 1940, he talked about the need to change someone's brain in order to learn. Because the Feldenkrais Method is about learning. It's about learning to move. So it's not just a matter of doing drills and training yourself. It's a matter of actually making discoveries and repeating them often enough that, you know, it becomes a part of you. And when it becomes a part of you, it changes the image of your body in your motor cortex and in all aspects of the brain. Because it changes the sense. You know, we move from an image of ourself. When you come to a river or a small creek and you're gonna jump across it, it's the internal sense that you have which will determine whether you know you can make that jump. And when you're working with the self-image and you're refining that inner sense of the self. And so that's working with, you know, all aspects of the brain because you can't really just put it down to it saying, "Well, this is one area," you know. It's working with the motor cortex or the sharpening the sensory cortex because the whole brain is involved in so many functions. You know, the eyes and the hands and the feet and the tongue. You know, each time we—and language—the way we function, the way we move, you know, all those parts of the body move. And there's this internal dialogue going on all the time. And one of the things that's really happening neurologically, I suppose, is it's refining things. It's shutting out some of the noise. So if you watch someone who's a beginner at something—say a beginner surfer—they'll probably be, you know, when they're coming up to stand, using a lot more tension than they need. They'll be tightening their neck and their shoulders, you know, probably holding their breath, and they'll be fixing their eyes. And, you know, they don't need to do that. It's just—they're trying really hard. And that trying really hard, you know, is interfering with the movement. And the more you work at it, you refine that. So it becomes a simpler and more instinctive action. And you don't have all those parasitic moves, Feldenkrais called it. And, you know, so when the beginning surfer is doing it, all these different parts of his brain are lighting up and firing, you know—tightening his neck and his tongue and all these places. And when it becomes more refined, you know, less is happening. And that's one of the things that's happening in the Feldenkrais lessons that you do—is you're trying to use the minimum amount of effort to do something. So you're refining and pulling back everything.
Michael Frampton
Efficiency. Efficiency, that's how you would describe a good surfer.
David Hall
Efficiency and ease.
Michael Frampton
Yeah. The way they move is very relaxed and very efficient. Yeah.
David Hall
And this is part of the nature of any skill, that people work on it. And they, you know, they'll go into great detail, and they'll have a memory of what they were doing last time and how that's changed, you know, in this new, you know, when they're doing it this time. But often it's, you know, that's not, that doesn't translate into the way they move generally. So you may see a watchmaker or a jeweler, you know, at the end of their lives can end up fairly hunched over, as if they're, you know, over their workbench looking. And, you know, someone who's a tennis player, for instance, might be, you know, stand tall and be able to move their arms a lot more freely. But in the Feldenkrais method, what you're doing is you're generally exploring a range of movements, and that's designed to, you know, affect everything that you do. And at the end of a lesson, you know, you have this sense of being much more relaxed and being much more aware of your body, you know, maybe tingling or buzzing, and you walk away and it feels easy to walk. And it's really at that stage where the main learning occurs, because it's as you walk around, you get into the car and you think, gee, that feels really easy when I turned around to put the seatbelt on, or it's not hurting anymore when I move my arm up to, you know, reach that top cupboard or whatever it is. So it's affecting all your movements because you're working with a self-image.
Michael Frampton
Yeah, I mean, when I walk out of here, sometimes I feel like I've been blown up with helium. Everything, I feel lighter, everything is easier. And then when I go surfing, if I go surfing straight away after a lesson here, then I definitely feel far more relaxed, far more aware.
David Hall
It.
Michael Frampton
Is indescribable, isn't it? And for me, I mean, everyone's different, but for me, the ATM lessons are good, but the one-on-one lesson is so powerful.
David Hall
Well, you know, it's all attention on you, whereas in a group class, it's the attention spread through the whole class. It is a really powerful way of working. And once you start getting into making up your own awareness through movement lessons, once you understand the process and the structure of the lessons, and you can just lie there and tune into how you feel and start to explore movement in that way, that can be equally as powerful. It certainly is for me, maybe not all the time. When you're working with someone, obviously it's going to be a much stronger experience because you're directly getting—they're already doing things that you wouldn't necessarily do yourself. But you can train yourself to move with such subtlety that the whole body becomes involved and you have this beautiful, meditative, expansive, connected experience that can be really powerful. That's certainly been my motivation.
Michael Frampton
Yeah, it's a very relaxing experience. Yeah. But not a sleepy one. It's just, it is hard to describe.
David Hall
Yeah, well, it's the experience of being, I think. The experience of—mostly we're so busy. We're constantly reacting to things. And most of that is an unconscious process. We go through life, we've got all these background thoughts and all these drives and instincts that are motivating us to do things. And they can be positive and negative things. And it just means that we're busy. I mean, if you consider now, as you're listening to this podcast, as you're sitting here now, just pay attention to your body. And notice, can you be still? And if you are still, is it because you're held? You're fixing yourself in some way? Or can you be still in a way that you're able to move easily? So your eyes and your face feel relaxed. Can you move with stillness? Because that's what you need to do. That's when surfing's at its best, isn't it? When there's this economy of movement and everything's absolutely still and you're balanced. It's that feeling of everything softening and of the awareness of the felt sense of your body expanding that can be quite arresting and can feel really beautiful. It's a pleasure in itself.
Michael Frampton
As conscious beings, we have, I guess, a limited capacity for awareness. And if we direct that awareness to our bodies, then we relax. Why is that?
David Hall
Yeah, well, I think there are these homeostatic—it's an amazing question. Half the time I work with people on my table and just getting them lying still in one position and stopping, they relax a great deal and the aches and pains that they've got will just disappear. We have these homeostatic mechanisms in the body. When you're cold, you go and get a jumper. When you're hungry, you eat. Or when you're thirsty, you drink. And the trouble is we're out of touch with our body. So we'll generally make the most efficient movement. For instance, if you cross your legs, you'll usually cross one leg over the other and that's probably the most flexible one that you'll move first. If you cross the other one, it may feel not as comfortable. So it's only what we're aware of that will—we make the best movements that we can given what we're aware of. And as soon as you actually start to stop and pay attention, everything will just sort of settle into the right place. The reason that we're not balanced and poised all the time is a large extent to the way we perceive things. If somebody—you can see that in people when they're in great danger, they'll suddenly be able to run like an Olympic sprinter or the woman who lifts the car off that's fallen on their partner or a child. Things they wouldn't normally be able to do, but when there's no interferences from their sense of self and their habitual awareness of themselves, they can do super things. So, as soon as you actually—the process of paying attention can arrest or stop the restrictions we place on ourselves and we have placed on ourselves from an early age. And that's one of the most—that's why it's so difficult to explain what is so fabulous in a Feldenkrais lesson, because you have a lesson and it feels fabulous. You're lying on the table and it's like there's no worries in the world. But it's very hard to communicate that to a person. But I think really that one of the major components of that is that you release the brakes for a while. You take away the sense of limitation about what you can and can't do. And you're just experiencing yourself in the moment.
Michael Frampton
I guess you're focusing on that which is easy and then slowly expanding that?
David Hall
Yeah, that's exactly the process. You're looking for what's easy and you follow that.
Michael Frampton
Rather than trying to relax what's stiff or limit what's hard, you approach it from the opposite way and then expand that which is already relaxed and that which is easy and go from there.
David Hall
Yeah. Yeah, you're always looking for the easiest path. But of course, if you wanna learn something, you often have to do something that's difficult. But you always approach it through looking for the path of least resistance. And you try to expand that path of least resistance by involving more of your body. I can give you a practical example of that. As long as no one's listening in the car while they're driving, you can't do this. But let's take, for example, turning. So if you sit there, just sit on the edge of your chair or wherever you are, and turn your head from side to side and just notice the easy range. So don't stretch it, just make a very small, subtle movement using minimal effort, noticing how far you can look without any extra effort. And remember where that is. Now stay here looking over to where your comfortable range is. And notice what's happening in your eyes. You know, you're holding your eyes tight. Can you relax them and suddenly be aware of the peripheral vision further over to that side? And now can you look with your eyes further in that direction and then back to where you are? So you keep your head where it is. You just gently move your eyes over to that side and then back to where you were looking before. And, you know, as you're doing that, you may feel as you're moving your eyes further to that side and back to the center that other parts of your body are affected by that. You know, you might feel it in your neck or your shoulders. Well, bring your head back to the middle again. Just sense how it feels on that side, whether that side feels different. You know, maybe a visual field. The peripheral visual field feels wider on that side. Well, turn your head again to that side and notice does it turn a little bit differently, a bit more easily. And back to the middle. So involving the eyes in that movement, you know, bringing a little bit of awareness of the eyes changes it. Yeah.
Michael Frampton
Even just, I mean, the first part of that, when you said go to your end of range or your comfortable end of range and then relax your eyes, that immediately increased my range. And then so did everything else after that. Yeah. So yeah, awareness.
David Hall
Awareness. And it's the senses there that, you know, we're oriented to the world via our senses. So, you know, to work with your sensory fields or how your body is oriented within the sensory fields is a really incredible thing to do. It's very subtle.
Michael Frampton
Yeah, it is. But it's really good. You could almost liken it to—a lot of listeners would have probably had some surf coaching done and have seen themselves surfing or have, you know, someone else has filmed them.
David Hall
Yeah.
Michael Frampton
And that's quite a humbling experience because your awareness of how surfing a wave feels and your perception of how you think that might look to someone watching you is very different to how it actually looks when you watch the footage.
David Hall
Yeah.
Michael Frampton
And as those two things come together, you start to realize what you're doing on a wave or how you feel you're surfing and how it actually looks. They start getting closer and closer together as you become more—well, I guess you have a more detailed awareness of what you're doing, when and where. And then your surfing starts to look easier. And actually, well, it becomes easier and it looks easier. It looks like you're surfing with less effort on the film.
David Hall
Yeah.
Michael Frampton
And obviously, you know, if you're working on, your technique is improving. So that's another—I guess that's an example of how awareness can improve something.
David Hall
Yeah. And it's seeing the things you can't feel.
Michael Frampton
Yeah. Whereas here, listening to your voice is giving awareness of—for example, turning my head. If I become aware of—you make me become aware of the tension in my eyes or the tension in my neck, it kind of intuitively just relaxes that off.
David Hall
Yeah.
Michael Frampton
And then it feels more efficient and more relaxed and more range.
David Hall
That is the—and that's really at the heart of the method—is just paying attention without correcting things. So often in a group class, there's, you know, instructions that don't tell you how to do things. It just makes you aware of what's happening in the rest of your body as you do it. And you naturally will do it. But if you try to do it—if you're trying to relax—it's never as effective.
Michael Frampton
So if we go back to my analogy, just to clarify it. In my analogy, the awareness of your surfing. Yep. If all you were to do was film yourself and watch, I think that is enough to have some improvements because some things are very obvious, and you can become your own untrained surf coach simply by watching yourself surf. But when you employ a coach to really analyze what you're doing and help refine it, the improvements are much quicker and better. But I think when you're moving, your nervous system is the coach, isn't it? As in, so much as that when you accidentally move better, your brain likes that.
David Hall
Yes.
Michael Frampton
And thinks, that's a better way to move. I'm gonna keep that motor path or that neuro pathway rather than that old one you used to do all the time simply because you became more aware.
David Hall
Yep. The difference is you have to be consciously aware of what you see for it to be able to be replicated. For instance, somebody could watch surfing videos and they just may miss what's going on. They'll only focus, they'll only look at one aspect. For instance, I find, to give an example of this, many people with back problems in particular will stand in such a way that they have their chest behind their pelvis or their pelvis in front of their chest. So that if you push in their shoulders, their pelvis will go forward. So they increase the arch in their back. Now to them, they're feeling straight because they're used to it. Then I take a picture of them and they think, my God, it's so different. Or I straighten them up and they feel like they're almost about to fall over. But of course, the weight's more balanced on their feet, and they see the picture and they think, wow. But so it depends how good you are at looking. And that's the value of having a coach or someone that can point things out to you. And if you're doing it on your own, where your body's nervous system is the thing that is the coach or the trainer, it depends how much you listen to what the difference is. Because lots of people use drugs, for instance, too, because it makes them feel good. But they can't necessarily use the drug as an educational experience and remember what it was that felt good. They need the drug in order to be able to feel good. So it requires the capacity to be able to look systematically at what's different and then to try to replicate it. Because to learn something, you've got to repeat it a lot.
Michael Frampton
Yeah, that makes sense. That explains why the one-on-one lessons are much more powerful than the group lessons.
David Hall
Yeah. And the goal is that you learn to do it on your own, that you can make it up and just keep on developing, which everyone does, but that's a real skill. It's a way of having a personal practice, the same way you're working on your surfing, or you work on meditation, or whatever it is that you're doing. And you have some parameters or some way of spreading your attention through the whole body so you can actually improve beyond what you're normally looking for. It's very easy to just do what feels good, which there's a lot of value in that, just doing the exercises that are easy and feel good. But it may not be the thing that actually makes you grow. And to do that, you need to spread your attention and be able to have some way of assessing performance or some sort of a marker that can help you try different movements.
Michael Frampton
Yeah, definitely. And what you said resonates not just for someone who wants to get—let's say they want to get better at surfing—but it's true, because if you have a really bad habit as a 30-year-old surfer and you never address it, first of all, you're limiting your performance. But even if you don't care about your performance, what happens when you're 50 and you're still in that bad habit is you end up with a gammy knee or a sore back.
David Hall
Absolutely.
Michael Frampton
So you've got to look at the way you move and your surfing technique, how you hold, all these things, just if you care about your longevity.
David Hall
Yeah, absolutely. A good case in point is how, as babies, we go through this whole process that takes about a year to learn to stand and to walk. And that's self-directed. No one's telling us how to do that. Same thing with acquiring language—no one's telling us how to do it, but we learn it in this beautiful way. We just pick it up. So we have all these role models around us. We see all these people standing and walking. We see all these people talking and interacting with it, and we just pick it up. And usually there's very little correction. They're not saying, yes, you're doing a great job, that's fantastic, or, no, bad, naughty, don't do that, that's terrible. It's just, if someone makes a mistake when they're learning to talk, they don't say, no, that's wrong, and hit them. They think it's cute. So everything you do is great. And so the child has great freedom, usually, to learn to stand and to walk. And in that way, all of us come up to—well, with a normal nervous system—come up to stand and walk, and we learn to talk. And in terms of surfing, it depends who you've got to look at around you as to how far you're gonna be able to go. If you're surfing with people who are talented surfers and you watch them, then it's much easier to grow because you've got something to compare where you are with what they're doing. But it's much harder on your own. If we didn't have those role models and we had all our needs met, maybe we'd just stay lying on the ground.
Michael Frampton
Yeah, well, you never know. Is that mirror neurons?
David Hall
Mirror neurons, yes. We see an action, and part of our brain is firing as if we're doing it.
Michael Frampton
So be careful who you watch.
David Hall
Be careful who you watch.
Michael Frampton
And try and emulate in the water. Yeah. Or just in every way you walk, even. There's a Feldenkrais quote that describes posture or how to hold yourself. I can't remember how it goes. Something like you hold yourself in a way that you can move in any direction from that position without having...
David Hall
I can't remember what the quote is exactly, but basically it's being able to move without a preliminary movement, to be able to move in any direction without a preliminary movement. And your movement, once you do move—well, that's about posture. So you're in the middle. So it's not—you can't be held, you can't hold yourself stiff. You've got to be soft. It's got to take the smallest amount of effort to actually be there. And your head, your chest, and your pelvis are lined up over your feet, and your hips, knees, and ankles, and shoulders—everything's unlocked and able to move. And when you do move, when you take a step, it's reversible. So as you do move, you're balanced. So it's not posture as a static thing. It's posture as a dynamic focus. And Feldenkrais—this may be the quote—but it's: efficient posture is mature movement. It's a result of a mature nervous system.
Michael Frampton
Because I think there's a common misconception out there that posture is, you know, sit up straight, have your chest out, your shoulders back, you know, almost standing like a soldier.
David Hall
Yeah, and a 19th-century soldier too. You know, those shoulders back, chest out, chin in, stomach in—you know, it's all held. And, you know, it's the sort of thing that's mindless. It's perfect if you want people to jump in front of machine gun fire, but it's not very functional. Efficient posture has got to be functional. You've got to be able to move in any direction. You've got to be able to sense your environment. You've got to be receptive to what's going on around you.
Michael Frampton
Yeah. So when I'm out the back in the water surfing and I'm sitting there, if I hold myself in a military posture, that's not—it's not the best strategy, is it?
David Hall
No, it's not.
Michael Frampton
And even what feels like—what sometimes feels like a relaxed posture—is actually just, you know, the head, the back is rounded, the head's falling forward. It's kind of lazy. So perfect posture is somewhere in between those two extremes. Could you outline?
David Hall
Sure. It's a dynamic equilibrium. So, you know, we have a very heavy head—five to seven kilograms, generally. It's a tenth of our body weight and it sits on top of the spine, and it's balanced in a peculiar way where the center of gravity is in front of the point that it's supported. So the head's naturally falling forward, and it's controlled. There's a dynamic equilibrium in the head where it's constantly moving. When the head falls forward, there's these tiny muscles at the very top of the neck—suboccipital muscles. They're incredibly sensitive. And when the head falls forward and those muscles that go between the first two vertebrae and the skull get stretched, they send a signal just into the brainstem, and it says, I've been tightened, what do you want me to do? And the brain sends a signal back saying, tighten up. And it goes, okay, tightens up. And then the ones in the front get stretched. And the same process goes on. So this is a feedback loop that's tiny, and the signals are traveling at something like 200 meters per second. You can't possibly control it, but the skull is constantly moving. And that's the basis of the efficient upright posture. You've got the steering wheel for an anti-gravity response in your head, in the ear—the semicircular canals that sit on top of the skull. And so the whole body is a bit like a spring that's supporting the head, and it's supporting this constant movement. So the first thing we might say is that, in a good efficient posture, your head, your chest, and your pelvis are lined up over each other. If you're standing, it'll be over the center of the feet. If you're sitting on a surfboard, it's over the center of your pelvis. So you feel your weight on the sitting bones, and everything needs to be able to move. People will collapse often because the muscles in the front of their body will be tighter than the ones at the back, and so they'll naturally be pulling that way. And then they'll relax and then they'll sink down. But what we're looking for is a way that you can feel the curves in your spine—curve in your neck and the rib cage and the lower back and the curve in the sacrum—and that they're balanced, and that the whole body will sit in this position in an effortless way so that your whole torso will move as you breathe, and that your limbs are free. So they're not particularly held or fixed in any particular way. They're just free and able to move. And when your head is delicately balanced on your neck and the whole head, neck, and torso is long and wide and you can breathe softly and freely, then you can really pay attention to what's going on. And, you know, it's being receptive. It's being able to sit out there on your surfboard and keep your peripheral vision open so you can see what's going on in the water. You can feel what's going on through the rest of your body as well. You tune in, you're in touch, and you're able to move.
Michael Frampton
Yeah, that—any excess muscular tension is going to limit all sensory information.
David Hall
Yeah.
Michael Frampton
So if you're holding yourself in a relaxed, efficient way, then there's less tension around your optic nerve. There's less tension around your brainstem. So you'll be able to be—your brain will be more aware of your vision and what your body is feeling. Let's wind it back to the analogy that you gave with the bike. I like that.
David Hall
Yeah.
Michael Frampton
Because you can be—let's say you're riding a bike along a white line.
David Hall
Yep.
Michael Frampton
At a medium pace.
David Hall
Yep.
Michael Frampton
You could be doing that with a lot of stiffness, right? And, like, you're holding your arms stiff. You're trying to hold your head still. You're trying to keep everything as still as you can, which isn't possible, firstly. But what I—like, if you imagine you're riding that bike along that white line, if you do that with the least amount of tension possible, then you start to focus on the feeling of the tire on the bumps of the road going through your hands, how the saddle feels underneath you. And what you'll find is you can still do the same task with a lot less effort.
David Hall
Yeah.
Michael Frampton
And that is the same—holding your bike on a white line is the same as holding your skeleton sitting on a surfboard. It's very easy to have a lot of unnecessary tension. And that unnecessary tension is inhibiting your perceptions and your ability to move and react quickly, make good decisions. And it's—I guess it's another form of stress. If you imagine you're holding your body really stiff—I've got to stay on this white line, I'm riding my bike, I'm not going to move—that's stressful.
David Hall
Stressful, yeah, absolutely.
Michael Frampton
But if you were just to relax your body and trust that you're going to stay on that white line—obviously if you relax too much, you'll fall over.
David Hall
Yeah.
Michael Frampton
So it's finding that balance between just enough tension to maintain posture, but not enough relaxation so that you fall over.
David Hall
Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of it has to do with the, you know, the more relaxed you are, the more available you have to pay attention to your surroundings. You know, because the excessive tension is like static because we're responding to what we're thinking and feeling all the time. So we may be sitting out in the back on a surfboard, but, you know, we may be worrying about what's just, you know, a relationship drama that's happening or, you know, some other problem we may have. And as you're doing that, you're tensing up. As you're thinking, you've got all this other muscular activity going. And in fact, the whole body is involved in that. So the more you can actually bring your attention to where you are—and the way to do that is actually to look and to smell and to listen—so you focus on where you are now, then it becomes easy. You simplify what you're doing. It's just a matter of actually focusing your attention both on your body and on the environment you're in.
Michael Frampton
Yeah, that gives us two things to focus on. And it comes from a perspective—as you know, if you're sitting in a relaxed, efficient posture—not only are you sitting in a position where you can move in any direction easily, you're gonna move quicker. You're gonna be more aware of your environment. And you're gonna use less energy just to be there as well. It's efficiency from an energy perspective as well. It's far less stressful. And when you're less stressed, you make better decisions. And it would translate into, or transfer into, how you actually hold yourself while you're surfing as well.
David Hall
Absolutely. You've got to move from stillness. And, you know, it's an interesting thing. A lot of it has to do with gravity. Our posture is organized around gravity. If you go out into space where there's no gravity, we're in trouble. Astronauts need to exercise, they need to do things that shake their bones because the bones start to deteriorate. So our body's designed with that downward pressure the whole time. So we have these anti-gravity reflexes. It's basically a muscle switching on and off in the front and back of the body. So it's this constant dynamic movement that's there. And there's two things. In the water, it's a different experience. When you're sitting on your board, you've got the buoyancy of the water lifting the board up. You've got the weight of your legs being dragged down toward the center of the earth. And you've got from the head, the weight of the head going down to the pelvis in the center of the board. So you think of that, you feel your weight going down, and you just listen for the responses—the freedom in the ability of your head and your neck to move. And the natural buoyancy in the water, you can sort of translate that through to the buoyancy through your body, through the spine. Because the spine is a spring. It's got four curves in it. We start off as a baby in a fetal curve—that's the primary curve. And then when we learn to crawl and when we come up to stand, we get two secondary curves. That's in the lower back and the neck. So you've got the lower back and the neck, the two secondary curves, and you've got the back of the rib cage and the sacrum and actually the bottom bone of the skull are the primary curve. And so if you get that balance, those springs—there's a lot of spring in the body. You sort of line the head, chest, and pelvis up over each other. You let your neck be free, and you think of your arms and your legs just hanging there, and you pay attention to what's happening in your board. So as the current is shifting you around, you know how you move to keep yourself over the center is a really useful trigger to soften through your body and to get this sense of easy length through the whole head, neck, and torso, with freedom in the arms and softness through the eyes and the face. And then it's easier to keep yourself upright. When people are unfamiliar with an environment, they'll change, they'll lift their center of gravity higher than it actually is. They'll tighten up in their chest or their belly and their shoulders and their neck, and they'll control their movement from their upper body. And their legs—they'll be moving their legs around. And somebody who's efficient and proficient at this will move from the center. It'll be from the center of their pelvis that their movement will be organized. And then there's not much movement in the upper body. So we're oriented to the world via our senses. And the teleceptors—the eyes and the ears and the nose—are in the head. So we get most of our sensory information from the head. Although with surfing, we have the felt sense through the whole body as well—touch through the whole body. But mostly it's through the head. But in an efficient movement—particularly something like surfing where you're actually changing your position—it's from the pelvis, it's centered. You're gonna move the middle of your body. You've gotta move the whole body. And the fastest way to move the whole body is via the center. But it's the head that's actually telling you where you're going, from what you're watching, what you're sensing. So that's half the battle. For most people, it'll be learning to relax their upper body and their limbs and to bring attention back into the center and stillness to their sensing. So they're actually not darting about all over the place with their eyes, but they're, you know, looking with relaxed vision, with peripheral vision. And of course, that takes time to develop that.
Michael Frampton
Excellent. And before we go into the lesson, can you just tell us where you work from?
David Hall
I work from a beautiful place in Sydney, Australia, called Avalon Beach. And it's in a small village that's off the main road and is very friendly. And there's the ocean probably a hundred meters away, and then two kilometers away, there's a large body of water that I sail in called Pittwater. And it's a beautiful place.
Michael Frampton
It's paradise. I would urge anyone who's listening, who's from this area or anywhere close, book a session in with David and get a one-on-one experience of how the method works. And if they're not able to get to this area, is there a website of Feldenkrais practitioners?
David Hall
There is. Well, they can look at my website. And the details will be there, and I've got some free lessons you can download to get an experience.
Michael Frampton
What's your website?
David Hall
It's bodylogic.net.au. Bodylogic—B-O-D-Y-L-O-G-I-C dot net dot au.
Michael Frampton
Okay. And if you're in another country and you'd like to find a practitioner close to you, Google the Feldenkrais Guild.
David Hall
So it could be, you know, the Feldenkrais Guild of Australia or North America or United Kingdom—wherever it is, you'll find a Feldenkrais Guild there, and you'll have a list of practitioners. I'm not sure how many practitioners there are around the world, but there's quite a lot, and it's brilliant work.
Michael Frampton
It is, yeah. I urge anyone to try it.
David Hall
Yep.
Michael Frampton
Thank you for your time, David. And we'll transition now into the lesson.
David Hall
Great.
Michael Frampton
Awesome, thank you. An awareness through movement lesson of how to sit on a surfboard more efficiently. Is that how you'd describe it?
David Hall
Yeah. It's gonna be a lesson that's on sitting, and you could apply the same principle to how you sit on a chair or how you sit on a surfboard.
Michael Frampton
So again, David's website is bodylogic.net.au, and he's working out of Avalon Beach in New South Wales. And now we're going to transition into the awareness through movement lesson on sitting. This audio will play just after this, and it's available as a standalone audio MP3 from David's website at bodylogic.net.au. And again, the link will be in the show notes on my website and on the app. And if you go into the notes on the iTunes podcast app, you'll see the same link there as well.
David Hall
Okay, so find a chair, and or a stool would be perfect, and place a large pillow or a cushion over it and sit facing the back of the chair. So your legs are spread out and the cushion's there so that there's a bit of movement in your pelvis. So in some way, it replicates being on a surfboard out in the water. And just sit here for a second and maybe tuck your toes under so your toes are pointing backwards. So your knees are hanging down. If that's uncomfortable, you can put your toes back and put your feet flat on the floor. And in fact, during any of this lesson, if anything's uncomfortable, don't do it. Just do what is easy—must be easy. But just for the time being, just sit here and pay attention to how it feels, how your body is organized. Now, is it easy to sit here?
Or are you having to hold yourself up in your chest or your neck? Notice where your center of gravity is, where you imagine the middle of your body. Where are you feeling the middle of your body? Could be in your belly or your chest, or could be in your pelvis. Just sense how you feel in the middle of your body and pay attention to the way you move as you breathe. Breathing is a movement that involves your whole body, and you don't have to do anything. It just goes on automatically. And if you just observe yourself, the whole body will move in the easiest possible manner. It's a perfect movement. So pay attention to where you feel the breath moving in and out of your body. You don't have to do anything differently. You don't have to breathe more deeply or do anything. You just sense how you're breathing now, how much of your body moves as you breathe now. In between your shoulder blades, in your ribcage, feel how your ribs move as you breathe, in your belly, in your lower back.
And sense, as you pay attention to your breathing, you're probably relaxing. Parts of your body are probably relaxing that don't need to be tight. And notice, as one part of your body relaxes, how the rest of your body is influenced, how that felt sense of your body changes. Now bring your attention down into the center of your pelvis—middle of your pelvis. And notice how your head, your chest, and your pelvis sit over each other. And you think of where your ears are—that's where the skull joins onto the spine—where your ribcage is, where your pelvis is. And in fact, can you let yourself sink a little bit? Sink and then make yourself tall.
So you make yourself tall and then make yourself small. And notice, how do you do that? How much of your body moves when you lift yourself up and when you let yourself become small? Do you feel it more through one part of the torso? You know, it might be in your ribcage or your belly that you feel movement, but not so much in your lower back. So remember how that feels now, because we're going to come back to this at the end. Because the idea is, when we're sitting on a surfboard, it's useful if you're tall. If your torso can be long and wide with no effort, you're probably going to be more balanced than if you're collapsed down or if you're braced in some way.
So leave that now. Sense how it feels to just sit here. And whether your body feels a little different having done that short, small, and tall movement—are you more aware of yourself? Well, can you take your toes and can you bring your feet back to stand? So your feet are normally on the floor—have them flat on the floor. And move them back again, move them backwards and forwards from there, and pay attention to what happens through your torso. When you move your legs, how does your weight shift? Do you tighten in your neck when you move your legs standing on the floor or when you then point the toes backwards? Can you refine that so you use less effort? So you move your legs back in such a way that you can still keep your head, chest, and pelvis soft and relaxed. Half the problem is sensing our whole body because often our self-image becomes restricted, and we only sense some parts—frequently just the front, not so much. People are often more aware of the front than the back. Now leave your feet just standing there so your feet are flat on the floor, and just sense how it feels to sit here now.
Notice the feeling in your eyes. You know, do they move about or are they still? Can you allow your eyes to be relaxed? Feel the space behind your eyes and turn your head now side to side. Turn your head side to side and notice how you feel through your whole spine. What happens through the whole spine when you turn? How far down your spine can you feel the influence of this movement? If you just make an easy movement—so don't stretch, just go as far as you can comfortably—but feel how, you know, is there any change in your pelvis? When you turn your head side to side, can you feel that through the pelvis? Leave that for a moment, come back to the middle. Hold onto your neck with your hands. In fact, do that a few times. Take your hands down and then bring them back up again and see—can you keep your head, neck, and torso balanced over each other? Can you breathe freely so that when you lift your arms up and put them back down again, your breathing remains peaceful? Did you lift your arms up again, your eyes become soft? Can you keep your eyes soft? Keep doing that, lifting your arms up and down, and focus on keeping your eyes relaxed. So your head is delicately balanced as you move your arms and shoulders. And now keep your hands there this time. Have your hands soft so that they conform to the shape of your neck. And in this position, notice, are you holding your shoulders tight? Can you soften through there? Feel the way your head is balanced on top of your neck and the way you're moving as you're breathing—right down into your pelvis.
You know, you can feel the sides of your neck with your hands here. You can probably feel the sides of your shoulders and the sides of your ribcage. And think, how wide is the ribcage and the shoulders on each side? And you think, how wide is your neck? How wide are your hips? Feel the width of your neck compared to the width of your pelvis, and the width of the neck relative to the sitting bones that you can probably feel on the cushion. Now, keeping this awareness of the whole inside of your body, turn your head side to side again. Turn your head side to side, and notice, as you turn, your body is a column. So you feel the front and the back and the sides. And you feel how it rotates. You know, it may be that there's one part that you can feel. And make it a small movement. Don't do a big movement, because if you stretch, if you go, you'll only feel the part that you're stretching. But make the movement small enough that you can feel the cylinder of your head, neck, and torso. And is it possible to relax yourself as you do this? You need to breathe softly enough where you could be soft in your legs, you know, that your arms could relax, and that your eyes could relax. And if your arms and your eyes relax, does that make it easier to feel the lower back and the belly and the way they turn? You know, if you allow your ribcage to turn with your hands, you know, you can feel that in the back of the ribcage. And maybe you can feel that in the front of the ribcage. And of course, the front of the ribcage connects to the belly and to the front of your neck and to your face. And the back of the ribcage connects to the lower back and your neck, the back, and the back of your head.
So think of the front of your body rotating. And then leave that, come back to the middle, and let your hands down and just sit there for a moment. Because that's the interesting thing. Small movements like that, when you do them mindfully, have quite a big effect. Now notice what feels different within yourself. If it's easier to be aware of the front and the back, how your breathing has been influenced. And what about the feeling in your eyes and behind your eyes. Your tongue? Sense how peaceful your tongue feels, feeling inside your body. Well, once again, place your hands slowly and softly, keeping aware of that inner sensation around your neck. Hold onto your neck and get a sense of the balance of your head on top of the neck.
You know, the delicate balance—your head is moving constantly forward and up in minute fractional movement. Tune in and see if you can sense that dynamic balance. There's so much movement going on as we just sit here. Breathing, a circulation system. And now, once again, let's do that movement where we're going—but don't do it yet. We're gonna move our legs back where you're pointing the toes backward and you have the, you know, your feet are sitting on the top of the feet. And then you're gonna bring them forward again and just—but sense the neck and the balance of your head and the feeling in your eyes, feeling in the inside of your body. Now go and move one foot back at a time and then the other one, and then move one foot back again. And just feel what goes on through the front and the back of the torso and through your neck. And when we're still refining a movement, when we're learning to improve it, you'll find that there are parts that tighten up, like the shoulders or the underarms. We may tighten our eyes. And the process of learning to pay attention to that, you know, and moving more slowly so you're reducing effort can make that easier. And in that way, you can distribute the effort for this movement through the whole body.
So no one particular place stands out, but it becomes a movement of the whole body. And moving the whole body is a hallmark of good movement—certainly of good surfing. So now leave your feet with your toes pointing backwards and now turn your head side to side once again and feel—how is this different? With your legs hanging down, feel the way you rotate. Do you immediately notice, you know, the front of your body more? And you feel as you rotate, and you feel that rotation through the neck, ribcage, you know, through the spine, right down to the sacrum. And can you feel that into the legs? You know, and you turn your head side to side, then the ribcage rotates, the whole spine turns, which means it's moving the pelvis. Remember, the muscle for the leg joins onto the pelvis and then onto the spine. And all the muscles in the body are continuous from the toes right up to our head, fingers up to our head, turning side to side. And now stay over to the left side. Keep yourself twisted to the left side here, and just a comfortable distance. Let your eyes relax, let your peripheral vision be soft. And once again, go into that movement where you let yourself sink and then come up again.
So you let yourself become small, you sort of feel the torso squashing down, and then you lift up. And the question is, how do you do this? You know, when you watch most people lifting themselves up, if someone's told they've got bad posture, they lift their chest. They lift the front of their chest in particular. That means they lengthen the front, but they shorten the back—they tighten the back. Can you let your neck be free? And allow your head to remain delicately balanced over your—on top of your neck and over the chest and the pelvis as you lift up. It's more like being a jack-in-the-box. You go down, and the whole spine moves. And then you come up and you let your neck be free, a place between the ears at the back of the neck. So much goes on there if you tune in and listen. And then leave that, come back to the middle now. Come back to the middle, let your hands down, and rest in any way that's comfortable. You can put your feet back into normal standing position. And sense how it feels. It's like we're painting a picture of your body in feeling. And each one of these movements that we do gives you a different sense of your body. And if you can feel more of your body, you've got more possibility of actually being able to control it, being able to use it more efficiently. And perhaps you can sense that in the way you're breathing, if that feels easy. And you know, is there a difference between the left and right sides? And even with your eyes closed, you know, does the left side of your peripheral vision seem bigger?
Well, place your hands on your neck again, softly. Move your feet back so you're on the top of the feet. Your toes are pointing backwards. But once again, if it's too hard, just have it—we do it with your feet flat. It doesn't really matter. Just sense how it feels to sit here now. The sense of the front and the back and the sides of your head, neck, and torso. And maybe just tune into the way you're moving. Moving as you're breathing, and maybe you're even shifting backwards and forwards a little bit. Because we do sway a lot. Certainly you do when you're sitting on your board. And of course, when you're sitting on your board, it's very important how your head and your chest and pelvis are sitting over each other. If your head, chest, and pelvis are over each other, then your arms and legs can be relaxed. If your chest is behind, you have to move your legs to counterbalance. So the more you can relax your arms and legs, the easier. So let them be soft. And now turn around to the right with your head, just a comfortable distance. And feel, what is it like to move around in this direction—bound to the right and back to the center? So we're going to the opposite direction to the way you went before. Just feel, what is the difference? And don't try and force it if it's not as easy as the other way. Go slowly, because what we wanna do is understand why it's more restricted. Why is it more restricted on this side? If it is. Or it might be freer—why is it freer?
You know, where in particular it might be the lower back on the right side that doesn't seem to move as much. You know, why is that?
You know, does that relate to your eyes? If you think of your eyes relaxing, does that make a difference? And if you think of the back of the underarm on the right and how that's moving relative to the back of the pelvis on the right, you know, does that make a difference?
And think of the front of your body, the front and the back, how the whole tube of your head, neck, and torso turns. And then stay over to the right. And in this position now, make yourself small and tall. And so think of the whole spine concertina-ing, a bit like a jack-in-the-box, and then come up. And pay particular attention to the freedom of your head and your neck. You don't force this. If you force it, it'll only make you sore.
So do a millimeter—a movement that's only a millimeter is gonna be more effective—because you can spread your attention further and see what's going on through your legs, through your shoulders, through your ribs. So you soften, you keep your eyes soft and your ears open, because that's what you want when you're out the back, waiting for a wave: to feel the current, to be looking, to get a sense when it's your moment, and to be soft, ready to move with your whole body.
So you can just feel if there's anywhere that's hard or won't move, can you understand it more? So you don't try and stretch it. You just tune in and think, how does this tension relate to the rest of my body? How can I soften it? Maybe if I soften my legs, or think of the width of my pelvis, or the softness of my eyes or tongue.
And then come back to the middle once again and just rest there, and sense how it feels to sit here now. You know how the head, chest, and pelvis sit over each other, and whether it feels easier to sit here.
And just as a matter of interest, try turning left to right and see—is that easier now? Can you move more freely, rotating the body around? And can you feel what's going on right through your body, right down to your feet?
And then leave that, just rest there. And feel the distance between each sitting bone and each ear. Now, the ears—the inner ear inside the bones of the skull—is where you'll find the semicircular canals, which are the main instrument of balance. There's three little spirit levels in different planes. Whatever movement you do, it gives you a readout of where you are.
So your head, the vestibular apparatus in your inner ear, is the steering wheel for up, for the anti-gravity movement. So you think you've got gravity weighing down your head, going through the curves in your spine, right down to the sitting bones. And this dynamic equilibrium of your head balanced on top of the spine. The whole body's like a spring that supports it. Now, could you now rotate your pelvis side to side a little bit?
So you lift, say, the right hip, and the right shoulder moves down toward the hip. And then you lift the left hip. Now, I'm talking about a tiny movement here. Make it very small, because if it's a big movement, all you'll feel is the parts that are stretching. But if you can spread your attention through the whole torso—through your hips, shoulders, your head—and if you can feel the whole, the front and the back, the inside and outside of the whole head, neck, and torso, the inside and the outside of each leg, then you'll probably be able to do it in a really easy, efficient way.
Now, when you're doing this, it's like you're bending your spine sideways. You're turning your spine into a C.
You know, when your ribcage moves down toward the hip on one side, you're moving the spine away. So one side of the spine is... but in fact, move your ear toward the hip now. Move so your head and the hip move toward each other on that side. Only needs to be a small movement.
And then you go across to the other side and feel—how much of your body, of your spine, do you feel moving? How much of your spine do you feel moving as you do this? Is it evenly distributed through the whole spine? Or do you feel it more in the lower back or your neck?
Well, reduce the size of the movement so you feel it evenly. The neck and the lower back and the ribcage—they all move the same amount. And you go slowly enough that you can feel the front and the back of the head, neck, and torso.
You know, you can feel the front and back of your underarms, front and back of each hip. And then can you imagine doing this on your board? In fact, let your feet down. Tuck your toes backwards, as if your feet were hanging down, being affected by gravity in the water. Do the same movement and think—is it different? Maybe you have to change the movement a little bit, because to stay upright, you know, the head, the chest, and the pelvis have to be over each other. You're just changing the curve, you're shifting the middle of the spine side to side, and you counterbalance moving the middle of the spine to one side with your head and your pelvis.
Now leave that. Once again, place your hands on your neck softly.
So you have the hands round and conformed to the neck—conforming to the sides of your neck. And, you know, think right through the neck. It's, you know, the width of your head here too. And think right through the torso, right down through the ribcage and down into the pelvis, to the sitting bones. And now do this movement again, side to side, feeling the way the ear and the hip move toward each other, and seeing if you can keep your head, chest, and pelvis lined up over each other and your legs relaxed, your arms relaxed. Then it will be easier through the whole head, neck, and torso.
You know, the space inside your head, neck, and torso, and the freedom in your neck so that your head is still free to adjust, to move. Because when we're standing, we get most information from the semicircular canals in the inner ear, but we get a lot of information from our eyes and a lot from the pressure on the soles of the feet. But when we're sitting on a surfboard, we're feeling it through the base of our pelvis and through our inner ears. And maybe through the legs hanging—the feeling on the soles of the feet in the water.
So stay with your head over to the left. Stay with your head over to the left. And in this position, can you shorten yourself and then make yourself tall?
So you're in a C curve. How can you actually shorten this curve? And it's a tiny movement here. Don't do any strain, because you just make yourself sore. A small movement—your head and pelvis toward each other, then away from each other. In a way that you can feel the freedom of your head on top of your neck, and the softness in your legs, softness in your eyes, and the softness in your tongue.
And then stay over to the left. Now just turn your head—rotate. This means your ribcage is gonna move. Now, it's a bit of a restricted movement here in the lower back because you're bent over to the side. But just feel how the torso rotates just a little bit.
And then come back to the middle. Let your arms down, bring your feet back to stand, and just sense how it feels to sit here now. Space inside your head, space inside your neck and your chest, your belly and lower back and pelvis. And the ease of your breathing.
Now once again, place your hands on your neck. Tuck your toes under. Rotate around to the right.
And then the left, and just sense how it is. What's the feeling on the left compared to the right? Now come back to the middle. Now move your head—or your right ear and your right hip—toward each other.
And then come back to the middle. And once again, do that. Move your right ear and your right hip toward each other. In other words, the middle of the spine moves over to the left and stay there. And in this position, lengthen the spine along this curve and then shorten it.
So you lengthen your head, you grow tall, and then you grow short. And get a sense of how much of your back you can feel moving. Small movement—don't force it. You can't force it because we've got to get to the soft little muscles. It's the small muscles that are the postural muscles.
So leave that now. Rotate your head. Turn your head side to side.
So you're rotating the upper body and the ribcage. But because you're bent over to the side, make it a small movement.
You know, just feel what happens right down through the front and the back of your body, right through to the front and back of your legs. Let your neck go so your head is delicately balanced. Your eyes are delicately balanced. You let everything soften as you do this.
And then come up to the middle. Let your arms down, bring your feet back, and relax, and sense how it feels to sit here now.
Now once again, place your hands on your neck softly. And could you move your elbows around in a comfortable circle?
So you lift your elbows up—it's like you're painting the sky in front of you. And, you know, can you do this in a way that you still maintain awareness of the space inside your head, neck, and torso? That you feel the front and back of your head, your neck. You could maybe feel the width of your neck, like a column that extends down into, through the ribcage and the lower back, you know, to the sitting bones. And notice, of course, as you're moving your elbows around in a circle, you're actually rotating your body.
So feel that twisting. And, you know, is it possible to do this in a way that your legs could be peaceful? And more importantly, that your head can remain delicately balanced?
So you're sensing that delicate balance of your skull on top of your spine. You could move your elbows around in a circle over to the right. And find, you know, sense how your head and chest and pelvis sit over each other. Can you still maintain balance as you do this? And be soft, let your legs be soft. It's all these little parasitic movements that interfere with our balance. The more you can soften, the easier it is. Go around to the other side, change direction with your arms, and move your elbows in an easy circle.
So that, you know, the whole purpose of this is to feel the whole head, neck, and torso and to allow it to be soft, to let your eyes be soft. Because when your eyes are soft, it's much easier to notice subtle things.
You know, like the surface of the water. Or maybe the, you know, the volume of the wave.
And then, in front of you, just round in an easy circle, letting your legs be soft, your eyes.
And then leave that. Leave your... and come back and rest. Sense the feeling now. The delicate balance of your head on top of your neck. And the feeling between your ears at the back of your neck.
Softness of your eyes. And the way your head, chest, and pelvis sit over each other. And just as a matter of interest, let's go back to that original movement. Make yourself small, and now make yourself tall.
So you, like the jack-in-the-box, your spine concertinas, and then it extends. And can you think of your head being level as you do that? Your head and neck being soft.
So that delicate balance of your head on top of the neck can still be there. That your shoulders can be soft. That your legs can be soft. You could try that with your feet behind you—letting yourself be small and then tall—and feeling how much of your body can now participate in this movement. Did it become easier?
And then leave that and come back to where you are, to the middle. And just sense how your head, chest, and pelvis sit over each other. And your space within you and your mood.
So in sitting, we've, you know, been working in particular with the head, neck, and torso. But of course, doing this will influence the way it feels to stand. Can you imagine how it will feel to stand? Where you'll feel the weight on the soles of your feet. And that sense of breathing through the whole head, neck, and torso. Perhaps even being able to breathe into your limbs. And try that. Come up to stand now, slowly, and just sense how it feels to stand. How your head, chest, and pelvis sit over each other. And how your weight is centered over your feet.
In the middle of your pelvis.
The delicate balance of your head on top of your neck. That sense of the front and back of your body. And when you're ready, walk. And sense how it feels. You may find yourself becoming more aware as you're walking around of that space within you. And of that easy feeling you get when the effort is distributed through your whole body.
There we go.
35 David Hall - Feldenkrias Practitioner - Posture & How to sit on a Surfboard
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