I was doing my headstand to the wall - as usual. My teacher asked me to go in the middle of the room. He put two bolsters onto my mat and asked me to go into the free-standing headstand. When he asks, you do. No questions asked.
The point of balance in the headstand is towards the back of the body. To learn to balance in the asana means I'll have to move my weight back, which means a good chance of falling towards the back. As I struggled to hold the asana steady, he asked me to bend my legs and assisted me into a drop back, i.e. I bend my legs and (try to) extend over backwards until my feet are onto the floor and I'm in dwi pada viparita dandasana.
That is supposed to be what I do when I lose my balance in the headstand. Except of course I need to react fast enough when I lose balance to attempt the drop back. I fell flat onto the bolsters the first time I lost balance. And the second time. And the third time. After which I had to ask, "Am I done?" Happily, I was dismissed.
Yesterday I struggled and barely managed to stay for a minute in the headstand. And I didn't dare risk falling over backwards. Today, I managed to stay in my headstand for a few minutes; although I still fell back instead of dropping back. :)
4 comments:
improving, i see :)
SL - Yes! And yesterday I managed to do ONE decent drop back. Although only because it was deliberate and I was not losing my balance. But still, I had a grin plastered on my face. haha...
headstands! im totally scared of them. the last time i tried, i sprained my hand. haha.
edp junkie - sorry to hear that, but how did you sprain your hand in headstand? haha... it is scary but it's one way to learn to face your fears, with the guidance of the right teacher of course.
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