Learning crow pose while eating crow

08. Asanas - Postures and Physical Culture
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For those not familiar with crow pose it is a balance posture where you have your knees placed above your elbows and you balance on your two hands. Crow is a great pose for developing concentration. You can literally feel your mind focus as you lift your two feet and focus on your dhristi(gaze point) while maintaining balance.
For this class at the Y I happened to get there a little late and did not get my favorite back corner spot and had to be up front with all the beautiful bendy women. In this class the teacher was adding a variation to pop back into plank pose from crow. The class was a difficult one so I was already very sweaty but succeeded in doing it OK the first time without much trouble…the teacher says “Nicely done Mac”…immediately my mind says …Oh wait till she sees this next one…but I’m tired and sweaty and the next time I try it my knees slip off my elbows and instead of popping back into plank I take a nose dive into the mat crumbling down like an imploding building…and I’m pretty sure I heard some chuckling behind me.
It seems in most of my life I’ve learned more from failures than successes…
Lessons learned:

  1. When your mind starts telling you are something special … life has a mysterious way of reminding you you’re just another knucklehead.
  2. Get to class early so you don’t have to advertise that you are a knucklehead.
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Awesome post Machart thank you.
I recently had a very similar experience with crow posture except that I was at home and in front of no-one, thank God :wink: . I do crow pose into headstand and on my way into crow pose for my second set I tipped forwards and landed on my face. Trying for a third time I managed to fall forward again, but this time I halfway caught myself and hurt my wrist instead of my nose :clown_face: . Haha. Anyways, I totally agree with what you say about Life making sure to remind us of our humanity everytime we start to think we are something “special”. This happens to me on a regular basis as I still am handily identified with my ego…hahaha. From one knucklehead to another… :clown_face:
Love,
Carson :+1:

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The jump is easier if you bring your thighs (w. knees bent 90 degrees or sharper) onto your belly/front first, and kick out from there, horizontally. If you’re already doing a high crow (Bakkasana - the crane, your knees in the armpits), you’re altready in the kick-out position. From low crow (Kakkasana), it takes a lot of core and abs to jump directly.
Actually, the Astanga jump is just the first step, the 2nd being a smooth slow controlled movement along the same trajectory but I only perform the 1st step (and therefore, only teach the 1st, too) .
Be very careful about your wrists in whatever crow or arm balance you’re practising. Teachers know of variations, mat folds, props, hand angles etc. to make log-term practice safe for your joints.
Namaste /