How To Teach A Beginner

I have a confession to make.

My original motivation for creating my 2 year certificate course in “BodyThinking” was fear of what would happen if I didn’t. It was 2003 and I was worried.

Fear is not always a negative thing: running away from a fire is clever.

Here’s the story of the fire I was running away from…

Bill and Barbara Conable’s system of Bodymapping was being discussed over a series of articles in the ExchangE (not a typo), Alexander Technique International’s iterant newsletter. One was less of an article, more of a professional wake-up call for docile teachers.

The wake-up was this: Andover Educators – those trained originally by Barbara Conable to teach Bodymapping to Musicians – were putting “Alexander Technique” teachers out of work. I don’t remember the exact details – and I am too lazy to research it now – but it immediately struck me how innovative teaching methods are an effective marketing tool.

Good on you Andover Educators AND… Fear. Enter BodyThinking Online.

University Administrators are usually not big fans of “Alexander Technique” teachers. I put “Alexander Technique” in quotes, because teachers of this “brand” advocate a particular pedagogical methodology (which has little to do with Alexander's discovery and all to do with how they were trained to teach).

Teaching individual lessons all the time is a delivery method, not a discovery.

Andover Educators are much more flexible. They do groups.

“Alexander Technique” teachers often insist on having individual sessions with students, even in a university setting. This a nightmare for the Administrator!

This is what they have to do:

• Find a special room for the individual lessons (what’s available?)

• (Or deal with snarky staff who have whispering AT teachers in their classes)

• Calculate the cost of giving ALL the students this service (impossible)

• Planning a timetable so students don’t miss other classes (can’t be done)

• Deciding what rate to pay: is it “tutorial” rather than “lecture”? (negotiate)

• And so on and so on – what an inefficient nightmare!

Administrators care about efficiency, and this is not efficient.

We should care about efficiency too – we do when we are teaching people to move don’t we? Instead, “Alexander Technique” teachers are often ideological and proud, saying to the frustrated Administrator:

“Sorry, I must have my individual sessions. They are very important.”

Given a choice, Administrators will always go for the easy option…

ENTER THE ANDOVER EDUCATOR

Here’s a person (vaguely associated with “Alexander Technique”) who can teach their student musicians all about how their body works, and how to improve their “posture”, have “less pain” and play with “more freedom.”

How is a Andover Educator different from an “Alexander Technique” teacher?

I know you know it is different, but do Administrators know that?

It turns out, they don’t. That’s what I was reading in ATI’S ExchangE: an AT teacher replaced by an Andover Educator. And there are many others like them these days. It is just starting.

Back in 2003 I wondered: how do the Andover Educators achieve this penetration?

It’s because they can deliver on their “freedom” promise. I’ve seen it. They offer great benefits to musicians. Then I wondered: how do they do that!?

It’s based on the neuro-science. It’s based on teaching people how to co-operate with Nature’s design. It is not even Alexander's discovery – it’s just plain common sense. While reading that issue of ExchangE, I had my epiphany (based on my fear)…

I must train my teachers to bodymap and analyse movements.

And so, PAINFULLY (I hated it) and SLOWLY (I had to) over the last 8 years I have been creating BodyThinking Online. It’s a clumsy, unfinished work and yet - it’s still the best you’re going find anywhere in the world right now.

BodyThinking is designed for teachers of Alexander's discovery. Very specifically.

In BodyThinking Online I take you through every bone, muscle, joint and range of movement you have. And I do this in an “Alexander” way – through analysing composites of movements. Not your dry anatomical presentation (although that’s there) but with reflections from the teaching room, and analysis of the problems you can encounter.

As an example - in a video below - I explain how this model is so ideally suited to teaching a large group of beginners in a Yoga class…

Or at a University or Music School!

BodyChance Teachers will not be replaced by Andover Educators in Japan.

Join my daily email – ATSuccess Daily – to glimpse into this monster. BodyThinking Online is soon going to be available in an English version. Stay in touch through my ATS Daily - every day I plan to keep you in touch with my group teaching innovations, as well as cool ways to get this stuff working online.

And obviously, how you can build a successful teaching practice.

Sign up for my ATS Daily here now. It’s free.