How many Pilates exercises are available in an economy airline seat? I am five hours from Narita airport near Tokyo. I started at 4:00 AM Boulder time and it is now 5:30 PM somewhere on the West Coast. At this spot over the Pacific, I begin to wonder if I know anything. What am I going to teach to these expectant students? I had a teacher who would often say at the beginning of a workshop that he wasn’t sure if he knew why he was there and he wasn’t sure if he knew anything. Of course, he did and still does.
Pilates is a tree that grows bigger with time. Eric Franklin asked a question in our Level I Teacher Training; “When do we think people began to train doing a prescribed routine of exercises?” The answer is based on human behavior. We began to train to hunt for food or when we went to war to take food from someone else. The roots of fitness preparation are deep in the past.
The past week the Olympic Winter Games have been exciting to watch. These are athletes that have spent years of preparation for an event. Each of them is a superior contender to have arrived as a participant. As a movement educator, I wonder how they will feel about sports, exercise, and recreation when the Olympic career is over. I have a friend who was a member of the USA Olympic team in swimming. She quit. Frank Shorter, an Olympic marathon runner still runs.
My vision is to look at Pilates as a tree that has grown. Joe and Clara planted the acorn. We can observe the tree from every angle. It is still the same tree, the same symmetry of branches, leaves and maybe flowers. The tree will look different is every season and it will be new from every angle. This will be my vision as I drift into sleep. If I am successful, I can bring a new view of the tree.
May your tree grow strong and true. At present I am envisioning a Royal Poinciana.