Hands-on basics

This is a summary on the workshop I gave the the Alexander Technique International Congress in Chicago (2018). This article first appeared the the 2018 Congress Papers

The use of the hands in Alexander teaching is a specific skill which distinguishes it from all other modalities. From the point of view of the student, and indeed from that of trainees and young teachers, it can all seem mysterious. Arthur C Clarke’s third law provides a useful analogy: ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’. What may seem magical or incomprehensible to the uninitiated is in fact the product of a long process careful development.

In early primary school I was amazed by my teachers ability to do mental arithmetic. They seemed to pluck the answers from nowhere. It certainly seemed magical but it was presented as a skill that I too could develop. What’s more, I was shown how. Through patient practice, I too could eventually perform this ‘trick’ (and amaze my younger brother!).

Likewise with Alexander hands-on skill, we can’t expect to get the results until we’ve put in the necessary work.
Skill development is not just a question of time however, we must also know what to work on and how to assess if we are heading in the right direction. In other words, we need to link up correct ideas and correct experiences.

The focus of this workshop was on practical procedures which break down Alexander hands-on work into assimilable steps. The procedures are outwardly simple with the focus on oneself rather than any ‘student’. They provide a way to develop and continue developing the foundational skills which will over time allow us to grow sensitive and effective hands.

Why do we use our hands?

FM Alexander was quite explicit in his writing about why the hands are needed in teaching: to give the student the ‘new and correct sensory experiences’. Words can mean almost anything and will certainly mean different things to different people. This is why we need concrete shared experience to be able to communicate what we mean.

Having said that, I recognise the irony of presenting a written report of the workshop. The description of the procedures below is no substitute for the actual experience of being guided through them. However, accepting the limitations of the written word I hope the description will serve as a reminder tho those who attended and, given that most readers will have had at least some experience of the Technique, may serve as a guide to those willing to experiment with them. In a workshop I can guarantee that every participant receives the experience I’m intending. These descriptions of course carry no such guarantee.

Does it matter where you put your hands?

This is a common question and the answer differs depending on what you are really asking. Taken literally, of course it matters where you put your hands. No-one advocates putting them just anywhere and keeping them there for the rest of the lesson.

However, this question is often asked by trainees or teachers who are confused about what they should be ‘doing’ and would like to learn a few tricks or manoeuvres. In this case, the answer is actually no. For the moment, where these particular people put their hands is not important. There are many things that need to be developed before the subtleties of where they place their hands will make any practical difference. You are not going to give the student the ‘new and correct sensory experiences’, regardless of where you put your hands, if you aren’t going up —using yourself well— as you do so.

For this reason, hands-on development must begin as work on oneself. Your hands will become more sensitive and effective as your own use improves, and as you gain experience you will quite naturally start to respond to what you are feeling in the other person and this will guide your hands. In the hands-on parts of the procedures described below, it doesn’t matter where you put your hands. What is important is the quality of both your own use and of contact your hands are making with the other person.

The setup

During the workshop I took every participant individually through each procedure and encouraged them to continue experimenting. The focus was on trying them out, to get a feel for them and a sense of what should be happening.

Although the participants often worked in pairs, feedback was discouraged. I find that people are often too eager to give or receive feedback and this quickly becomes the aim of the activity —to get it ‘right’ or to tell the other whether or not they’re getting it ‘right’— instead of an opportunity to develop one’s own judgement and focus on oneself.

Monkey

As a general rule, your hands can only be as good as your Monkey. By that I mean that the coordination required to perform a Monkey well is the basis of the coordination required to have effective hands. You do not necessarily need to always work in Monkey, but if it is still a struggle for you, this needs to be worked on first. We therefore did a quick review of Monkey before moving on to the other procedures.

Connected, supported arms

This first procedure is the simplest way I know to achieve the qualities we need in the arms when teaching —or doing anything else for that matter. We are looking for a lightness, mobility and liveliness which cannot be achieved by any direct attempt to bring this about.

1. From a position of Monkey gently rest the tips of the middle fingers on the back of a chair (or any other available horizontal surface) as if you were playing the piano.
2. Taking care to not drop the head or upper torso —that is, maintaining the upward direction of the whole body— very definitely drop the weight of the arms onto the finger tips. For those that find it hard not to collapse the torso and become heavy at this step, a useful preventative idea is to keep the shoulder blades stable as you allow the weight of the arms to rest on the finger tips.
3. If carried out correctly, the arms will become light and mobile and there will be a clear sense of being supported by the chair. You will sense how you are coming up from the chair instead of pressing down on it. The arms will be light, not because they’re held up but because you are going up. There will also be a very noticeable positive effect on your breathing.
4. The next step is to repeat the procedure but this time use the whole of the hand on another person, one placed say on the person’s back and the other on their upper chest or abdomen. If performed well, there will be the same sense of lightness and mobility in the arms, of coming up from the hands instead of down onto them. The difference at this step will be that the other person (as opposed to the chair), will be breathing freely and clearly benefiting from the contact.

Full hand contact

The second procedure addresses more directly the contact with the hands.

1. Place a book between the palms of the hands, palms vertical and fingers pointing forwards. Establish a full but gentle contact, enough that there is no danger of the book slipping.
2. Whilst maintaining the same contact with the book, release the arms as much as you can. See how much less effort you can use whilst doing the same thing (i.e. not dropping the book).
3. Increase the contact with the book by squeezing it a little and then once again, whilst maintaining the same contact, release the arms as much as you can. This step can be repeated a couple of times if you wish, increasing the contact pressure each time.
4. If performed well there will be similar sensations to the last procedure: light and free arms, a sense of not bearing down on the book but of expanding the torso, of ‘going up’ instead of pulling yourself down.
5. This procedure is then repeated with the hands on another person instead of a book. If performed well, there will be a clear freedom in the arms and trunk, and, as with the last procedure, the other person will also lighten up and have a noticeable improvement in their breathing.

Working with, not against the other person

The third procedure starts to develop the sensitivity of our hands.

1. Start side on to another person sitting in a chair. Go into monkey and place one hand on their back and the other on their front.
2. Decide to gently rock the person forwards or backwards from the hips, but before you start the movement ask yourself: if I attempted to move this person, how would they react? Would their trunk buckle? Would they be hard to move or would they move easily? These types of questions help us develop a sense of the other person, if the are light or heavy, free or fixed, calm or agitated.
3. If you feel the other person is not ready to be moved easily, wait, attend to your own use and to the quality of the contact of your hands.
4. When you feel that moving the person will be an easy and successful task —and not until then— start the movement. If performed well, the result will not surprise you and the person will move easily. This way of working can of course be applied to any other procedure, for example moving an arm or turning the head.

Conclusion

These procedures are by no means a complete training programme. They do however provide a clear experience of how attending to our own use positively impacts the effectiveness of our hands. With careful practice and reflection, we can slowly build up an understanding of what the actual requirements are in a given teaching situation and gradually move away from learning procedures.