What Makes a Great Alexscovery Teacher Part III*

Does Tiger Woods’ coach have to play a better game of golf to qualify as his coach?

Realising your answer to that question opens a psychological door towards becoming a great Alexscovery teacher. You do not need to know much about golf to help a golfer - it’s great if you do, but you still have a lot to offer without that knowledge.

For example, I am not a musician, yet BodyChance - my training school - has been overwhelmingly populated by talented, professional musicians. 100s of them.

I get questions like:

“When I attempt to finger this section, I start to ache in my wrist. What can I do?”

If getting people in and out of chairs is your main thing, a question like that from a working professional can be, well…

Like, how could you know the answer to that?!

And the simple answer is: you don’t!

And you don’t have to know.

What a relief! 

When I finally realised that it was not my job to know about the skill set that my student possessed, I was psychologically ready to be their coach. Because I never was a golf coach, or a musicians’ coach or any “specific” coach. 

I am a “generic” Alexandrian coach.

Alexander's discovery concerns the workings of our motor learning and control mechanisms. When your ‘musician’ student is experiencing trouble in their wrist - while another musician playing the same passage doesn’t - then it is likely that your musician is doing something in the way they are asking their motor system to perform that particular passage of music that other musicians don’t do. Sound familiar?

And the key phrase in that sentence is: “…in the way they are asking their motor system to perform…”.

So ask them! 

Constructive, conscious thinking is not likely present when a person is actively harming their wrist to do something other musicians have no problem doing. It doesn’t matter if you can’t see anything at the start, just get them talking.

Ask: “What are the steps to playing that passage?” or “What do you think about as you play that passage?” 

Subject the moment to a rigorous step-by-step analysis. One of BodyChance’s Associate Directors - Greg Holdaway - once told me he spent about an hour figuring out how to sit constructively in his airline seat for his long trip to Japan. I marvelled at the rigour it took for Greg to sustain this investigation! With your student, it might sound like this…

STUDENT: “Well, I can’t get my thumb on properly, so I push down harder.”

There’s a lot to unravel in that sentence, and not much constructive thinking. You might pose questions like:

TEACHER: “What does your thumb need to accomplish - help me understand that.”

Or

TEACHER: “How do you go about pushing down harder - where do you make that effort?”

And so on and so on. 

My students educate me in their process as I listen for the concepts misguiding their coordination. You are helping people to think using your Alexandrian understanding of how motor learning and control work. 

Of course, it helps if you are a musician, no question. Most of Tiger Woods's coaches will be golfers - but maybe not the Nutritionalist or Alexander coach! To successfully coach Tiger using Alexander's discovery as the tool - Tiger is going to spend time re-articulating his goals, obstacles and methods of implementation.

Make sure your students - and you - do that too.

Students must teach you. Don’t try to pretend otherwise - you will end up being embarrassed. Instead: be humble, listen and learn to apply what you understand to the activity they are attempting. 

It will all work out in the end, every time.

And you will be great!

*I’ve deliberated for a long time about Part III - and being lazy - but here are Parts I & II as a reminder:
Part I: https://atsuccess.com/blog/2022/09/what-makes-great-alexscovery-teacher-part-i.html
Part II: https://atsuccess.com/blog/2022/10/what-makes-great-alexscovery-teacher-part-ii-or-how-get-big-fat-smile-your-face.html