On Teaching Forward/Backward Chest Slides

[shanmonster]

One of the basic movements most beginning students find very difficult is the forward and backward chest movement. Through a misunderstanding of the muscular movements necessary to drive this movements, the vast majority of beginners attempt to move their chest forward and backward by flapping their shoulders. Through experimentation, I believe I have found a few ways to break this movement down so that it makes sense to even the stiffest of students.

First of all, from personal experience, I find the fastest way to help a student get a move is to remove extraneous muscular use from the equation. One way I've found to do this is to bring movements down to the floor, where their weight will be supported and they'll have an easier time isolating the muscles in particular.

There are a couple of techniques. The first I picked up from Dharlene Valeda of Haft Vadi Studios in Kitchener, ON, Canada. I incorporate this one in the warm-up portion of most of my classes. This one starts with the students sitting cross-legged on the floor, holding their knees with their hands. Using just arm strength (no back involved at this point), they pull their chests forward, then relax back to neutral, in time with the music. As they do this movement, I ask them to pay attention to the way the movement feels in their back. What they feel are the back muscles engaging between their shoulder blades each time their chests come forward.

The next exercise is one I developed for use during the introduction of horizontal chest movements. First, I demonstrate the forward/back chest slide, then I lie down on my back on the floor. Next, I tell them I'm picturing a rope connecting the centre of my chest to the ceiling. The rope pulls taut, and my chest raises from the floor, my arms and shoulders relaxed by my side. My weight is supported by my head and my lower back. Then I get each student to lie down and do the same movement, and go around correcting until everyone's gotten it.

Occasional problems: Sometimes a student will be over-exuberant with this movement and lift their entire body, so their weight is supported by head and feet. This is easy to correct. Just get them to keep their butts on the floor.

I remind them of the movement we did in the warm-up, and the muscular contraction they felt in their upper backs.

Once they are doing the raises properly, they all try it from the standing position.

I've found that when I start the students out in this fashion, most never fall into the peculiar shoulder flapping motion. If a student does begin flapping his or her shoulders, it's back down to the floor for them. So far, they've all figured it out by the second or third go-round.

Comments

[greyanna.livejournal.com]

I learned from a similar floor technique. We were told to pay attention to the contraction and expansion of our ribs and our chest while breathing. Then try to move the chest up without moving shoulders from the floor. We worked on figure 8s at the same time by working on expanding and contracting our sides. Then we stood up and tried it again.