Ternary Lamban: LH Leads

Hmm. With most of Alsenï Sylla's* ternary Lamban patterns, it feels like the left hand should lead. I guess with any pattern you might learn to feel it with a RH lead or a LH lead, but some patterns seem to lend themselves to a LH lead more naturally. Note to self, I guess . . .

*I spoke with Reggie about this. He thinks he may have made a mistake, and that Alsenï's last name is in fact Sylla, and not Camara. I'm using Óscar's spelling for Alsenï.

From the World of Bodybuilding

Two inspirational/thought-provoking quotations from the world of bodybuilding:

1. "Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder . . . but don't nobody wanna lift no heavy-ass weight." - Ronnie Coleman

This quote came to me through fellow bala student, Reggie Ross, who I met in New York. I think its message is obvious, and I agree with it, but juxtaposed with the next quote, it confounds me a bit.

2. "You're not just here lifting weights up and down." - A father to his son at the gym in my brother's apartment building

I might be forgetting or misrepresenting the source and the original wording, but this was the idea--and it's something Bruce spoke with me about years ago: If you practice just to fill your daily quota, and don't pay attention to what you're doing, you may end up doing more harm than good.

I guess the lesson to be learned from the two quotes taken together then is: work hard, practice often, but be thoughtful about what you do.

Practice-meme #2 Revisited

Effortless Mastery, a book by pianist Kenny Werner, advocates among many other things, an approach which seems to resonate with practice-meme #2. Werner states: "I don't get my technique from studying technique. I get it from letting my hands and arms find their way without interference." I wish I could remember that. The practice-memes themselves should be keywords.

Actually, practice-meme #2 was derived from a tree-planting technique that I developed in which, instead of pushing harder, trying more, and indeed, fighting against the trees and the land, sometimes slowing down just a bit, concentrating on form, on relaxing, and on breathing are exactly what one needs to get back up to speed. As I was stretching today I was reminded of the same idea. Simply relaxing and "breathing into the stretch" was (I think) far more effective (and so, more enjoyable) than stretching with a frantic "Gotta stretch harder; Gotta be more flexible; Must get there!" approach. Not always clear when to apply practice-meme #2, mind you, since "Hurry hard!" does actually work sometimes. Hmmm . . .

(More on tree-planting xylo-analogies another time, by the way. More also on Effortless Mastery.)