The Placement of the Back Foot
by carl on Nov.09, 2010, under teaching, Yoga, Yoga practice
Recently, I’ve begun to notice how important the placement of the back foot is in many standing yoga poses. In poses like Virabhadrasana A, for instance, angling the back foot at the proper angle will allow rotation of the hips without twisting the back leg; letting the foot angle out too far will prevent squaring that hip towards the front of the mat, while rotating the foot too far inward contributes to loss of stability, because you can’t “plant” the back foot very well. This same dynamic is echoed in Parsvottanasana, as well as Parivrrta Trikonasana. I find that many beginners neglect this crucial aspect of alignment, which is why their poses look like, well, beginners’, but the good news is it’s easy to correct. In other news, we are taking a slight break from Acro, due to circumstances beyond our control (hey, aren’t they all? isn’t control just an illusion?), but this is ok since it gives us a chance to rest the shoulder, which occasionally suffers from overuse. A good week of yoga practice is what we’re looking for this week.
November 9th, 2010 on 6:40 pm
Yes, control is just an illusion. An illusion I held onto for a long time, but had no choice but to let go.
Anyway, yes! The back foot is so important. I spend a lot of time looking at feet when I’m teaching, and I’ve noticed that a lot of people with very good gymnastics skills have terrible foot placement in yoga poses.
By the way, I’m teaching Laurie’s class at RR at 9:00 on Saturday.