Didactic seminar Certifying new Bones for Life teachers in England, Nov. 2-10 2010

The Bones for Life activity in the U.K. is initiated by Adam Ward, who comes from sport and is a Sport therapist, as well as Feldenkrais practitioner and BFL trainer. Adam carries the vision of making the Movement Intelligence of Bone Strength and Weight Bearing Posture, a wide spread profession in England. Raising the awareness of the public, he understood the need of people to know more about the BFL program, which probably no one had ever before heard about it. Adam has published a booklet of intro to the program, including feedback of people who have experienced it. He is willing to send this booklet on request, adam@gauntshouse.com

The third part of the BFL basic program contains the direct issues of recovering equilibrium,
decompressing the lumbar through the zero balance point in the foot, desensitizing fear of falling, through strategies of falling without injury, Sphincters as the anti gravity lever,
completion of deciphering the Water Carriers walk, which is the evident model for weight bearing posture and immune from fracture.

It is always amazing to hear from people who repeat that segment, that at that second time that they really get the sense of the material and become enthusiastic about it.

In the 5 days of the following Didactic seminar, the intention was not only to explore teaching techniques, as everyone is creating their own way through their experience. The focus was on arriving at clarity and full comprehension of the teaching material itself. The seminar was done partly in small groups, which discussed themes like: Analyzing a process according to the 10 given key points:


Name and subtitle
Purpose
Dysfunctional background
Initial test
Procedure
Safety strategy
Somatic learning strategy
Main maneuver
Processes taught before and after
Personal experience

Every group chose one of the essential processes of the program, and presented all its analyzed stages to the whole group, in its own creative way, like for instance:
One person played an athlete, stretching her muscles in the conventional way for running. The other ones were the BFL teacher, an adviser, there was another one who measured the results of the test, as well as the owner of the gym. The lesson took shape of a conversation between them all, with the teacher guiding the experiments, the adviser explains and highlights the strategy used, the gym owner asking questions, coming from public way of thinking , and the athlete sharing her transformed sensations. The audience of the full group was deeply attracted to the unfolding drama, seeing how the familiar process is applied to life situation. Each group choose its own way of presentation. The creativity and excitement in the venue were getting higher as the days passed.

The small groups worked also on listing ideas, like
- What processes are your most favorite and used in your teaching?
- What are the processes you avoid and don’t teach?
(some of which we deciphered together later.)
- Classifying categories of program themes
- Concepts and strategies specific to the program
- Frequently asked questions by public

The 5 days Didactic seminar, which completes the certification of becoming a BFL teacher, is mostly the activity of the participants rather than the trainer. This is their opportunity to plow the program to the length, width and depth, getting a clearer idea what they have in their hands, and receive the encouragement to go out and teach.





One of the processes less taught, that we repeated in this seminar was
#79 Falling without injury. The emphasis was on sliding the arm to its full length on reaching the ground, to avoid an intense impact on the wrist or elbow. The continuous sliding of the arm works to distribute the power of clashing with the floor along a smooth and progressive line, where no point would get enough time or pressure to be hurt. This maneuver might feel at the beginning contrary to biological instinct of the urge to hold on. The way of training was by standing in front of a wall, turning the body slightly to the right, as getting closer to the wall. Then sliding the left hand on the wall diagonally up to the right, with the back of the hand turning to the wall. The extending of the arm to its full straight elbow is done fairly quickly and consistently.
After practicing this maneuver in the green house of the wall, every participant could do that in the reality of falling on the floor, also from running. (Not full reality, though, as the floor was well padded)

New highlights on the #68 Water Carriers process were about the feet. Practicing the wild life functions of tows scratching and brushing sand backward, showed to inspire a new vitality in the feet at their task of walking.

In the course in England three new BFL centers were born.
Ewa from Poland, University teacher of Physio Therapy, is determined to introduce BFL program in the Academy and be the director of BFL Poland.

Raymond from Ireland, Feldenkrais and Rolfing practitioner, was constantly parsing the program strategies and is enthusiastic to pioneer it in Ireland.

Christina from Sweden, Neurology lecturer in Gutenberg U, as well as Feldenkrais practitioner, who has published a PHD research about the Feldenkrais method, and will start to teach the program in both the academy and public.

Ruthy thanked and encouraged the graduates to take in the program, making it theirs, and pass it on. “Thank you for being in my life” she said.

In the completion circle, where every one being bound in the wrap, holding the strips of their neighbor’s wrap, bouncing and jumping together, every one helping others and being helped by all. Resting in the whole circle, swaying from side to side, people were saying their last words of good by. Finally, of course, there was the BFL hug, empowering and loading each other’s core spine with Biological Optimism.