Working with off balance movement

This week in movement we began experimenting with off balance movement. As usual the session started with a full body warm up, to get our bodies warm and limber before the strenuous work began. This warm up involved shaking our entire body, stretching and then scrunching our faces up, before partaking in various floor exercises such as the metal stretch and the wood stretch, for example. Each week I memorise a different one of these warm up methods so that I can begin to explore them at home as well as in class.
The real focus of the lesson (off balance movement) then began. We were put in to pairs, with whom we would work through a range of movements. I was initially put with a girl much smaller than me, so I saw fit to swap with a pair who also had great height difference. I was working with my classmate Poppy, who is of similar height and weight to me. This meant that we could do the exercises well and confidently without fear of hurting the other person. The pictures below are to show you what sort of positions we did. We were certainly better at some than others!

This is one of the first exercise we did we evolved us leaning right back and slowly sitting on the floor

 

 This is us at the point where we were sat on the floor. We were wobbly at first but were able to perfect the exercise and perform is properly.

 We then went on to do the exercise with one hand. We alternated between the two, swapping as we stood up.

 This exercise involved one us letting ours backs lay against the floor. Our partner then used their core to pull us back up. It was important that they used their core in order to ensure the arm muscles were damaged.

 This exercise relied on us finding the perfect position in which we could sit comfortably as though on chair, using the other person as a support. This was one of the hardest exercises for me, as we were even slightly in the wrong position you began to feel the strain in your leg muscles. This exercise encouraged me to improve the strength in my legs. We then played a games where had to attempt to push our partner to the other side of the room. We alternated partners for this and I won one, got one draw and unfortunately lost the other one miserably. (good fun though!)

 This was the starting position for the next exercise... This picture shows me lifting Poppy.

 The preparation was for me to bend my legs and get to a sturdy position. Poppy then reached up on to her toes (facing the opposite way to me this time). I grabbed her arms and lent forward, pulling her off the ground and on to my back. It was essential for me to have a straight back in order for the exercise to work properly.

The picture below shows Poppy on my back (The resulting position of the exercise)

 In this next photo I am the one who is being lifted. The process for this lift is the same however I am seen facing the opposite way to Poppy. This was my favourite lift. I was very proud of myself for allowing Poppy to lift me like this, as I have always been nervous about being lifted off the ground. However Liz used my to demonstrate the lift to the class and her encourage boosted my confidence, so that I was able to get over my fear.

 In this lift one person transferred their weight over the body of the other, whilst they knelt in the position shown below. This exercise was simple yet effective.

 We were asked to stretch our arms out and ensure that our entire weight was being supported by the other person.

 We did this exercise backwards as well, as seen below..

 This was an exercise where we just sat on the back of our partner, allowing them to support our entire weight. This position proved to be particularly sturdy and both Poppy and I found this the easiest.

 The exercise below shows Poppy kneeling on my back. This position was rather wobbly in contrast to the one above.

 In the picture below I am leaning my body backwards over Poppy, who is curled up on her kneels close to the floor. We doing this exercise I could feel my stomach muscles stretching, which became a bit uncomfortable is you stayed in the position for to long.

 This was the last exercise we did as Liz said it was the most complex. This is an exercise I remember doing when I was younger and had known as the airplane position. This was by far the hardest of the exercises and required a great deal of leg strength. Unfortunately I found this exercise to daunting for me to be the one who was lifted, however I hope to revisit this in the future and improve upon it.

 These pictures show Poppy as she transfers her weight on to my legs. It was important that my feet were positioned correctly on her hip bones, otherwise the exercise failed.

This is my favourite of all the pictures as it captures us when we did this exercise the best. It was important throughout this session that we were able to put trust in our partners and their ability to support us. 
  I found that this was not only a good way to explore off balance movement but a way to become closer with my classmates, whom I am sure I will have to put my trust in throughout the course, when we do exercises such as these. This session was my favourite up to now, of my movement sessions as Northumbria. It was something I had never explore in that much depth before and certainly enjoyed pushing myself to allow a class mate to lift me up. This links to my personal learning plan in which I talked about wanted to challenge myself each lesson and I feel as though I certainly did this in this session. At the end of the session we did a warm down to ensure our muscles didn't cool down to quickly. I enjoy doing this as it allows me to relax after working hard in the session. I am glad that me and Poppy took time to get photos of the different exercises as they capture the moment perfectly. I will be able to look back at this in the future and draw on them if the opportunity arises. Liz recommended that we have a hot bath or shower and partly due to not having a bath as Uni and my forgetfulness I failed to do this.. Trust me I regretted it in the morning. I have definitely learnt from this. Overall the session was insightful and enjoyable, two things that I hope will become the norm within these sessions.