A Great DVD On Yoga Adjustments By David Keil

David Keil has a fantastic 2-DVD set on "Adjustments" that is great for any serious practitioner as well as teachers.  I had never seen anything of this quality!  (Don't miss the end of the post for give-away!)

UPDATE: HERE IS THE POST ANNOUNCING THE WINNER OF THE DVD SET.

Not only does David show useful adjustments for a huge array of poses. He does so in different bodies so that you can see the nuances of what a good teacher would go through, need to think about, and navigate as he or she is helping.

In a way it is a much better product than any book out there that may show adjustments because of how interactive it is and the ample variety of examples for different circumstances.

Five students help David in the dynamic demonstrations: Marsha, Bob, Diana, Jarred and Amy.

The five of them vary greatly in level of flexibility and years of personal practice and they also have different heights and body types.  The adjustments come alive and resemble a real class.

Gretchen, David's wife, also appears in the second DVD to help with very advanced poses like Kapotasana, legs behind the head, etc.

The first thing that caught my attention upon receiving the Hands-On Adjustments DVD is the 11 points that can be seen on the inside cover and which pretty much summarize where the focus needs to go for any dedicated teacher when approaching something as personal, specific and delicate as an adjustment. It says:

Keys To Good Adjustments:

1. Observe the student
2. Be aware of your own bias
3. Create a clear intention
4. Ground the student
5. Feel and sense
6. Adapt to the moment
7. Adapt to the student
8. Move into the adjustment slowly
9. Create space and length
10. Use good body mechanics
11. Don't over adjust or adjust poses that you don't know  

The DVD Feels more like a workshop:

The videotaped class is a very dynamic and you are even encouraged to work with a partner as you watch so as to get the gest of everything that is coming at you.  As a matter of fact I grabbed James to start practicing some forward bend adjustments myself, and it went pretty well.

So, what is David's definition of a correct adjustment?

"In broad terms a correct adjustment effectively fulfills the intention created by the adjuster based on their experience and the variables of the student"

David says he has taught this workshop many times and that one thing to be aware of is that sometimes participants get so caught up in the details of how to DO the adjustments,  that they forget to pay attention and actually feel what is happening WHILE doing the adjustment (my caps for emphasis).

Being in the moment, feeling what is happening is critical to a good adjustment.

What I get as the most important points from the opening talk is that you need to be:

• Confident: (touch with the right amount of pressure), 
• Flexible: in the sense of adjusting yourself to what is actually happening in the moment.  Meaning: be present, pay attention.
• Non-Bias: forget your own ideas about how a pose should look like because each student will have its own set of challenges, and always adapt, always consider age, injuries, flexibility stamina etc.
• Have the right intention, are you going to be supporting? Grounding? Creating a new pattern? Teaching a technique?  Also, David says that if you are unsure, better to pass on an adjustment until you get to know a student and his or her practice better.

I have listed the poses that he goes through at the end of this post, you will see that there is a lot of work that went into it.   Just like in his Anatomy 2-set DVD, there is a lot of ground covered.

Throughout the presentation there are little boxes with reminders popping up, lines and animations alongside the student's bodies that show the intention and the direction of where you are aiming to direct the energy.  Every little detail helps and it all results in a magnificent learning experience.

On the second disk, shoulder stand gets a very small section, but the headstand gets some good suggestions for different body types and adjustments that range from entering the pose to exiting it.

The Section for Ashtangis:

The adjustments for the drop backs were a revelation to me, I am now determined to show this part to James so he can help me in the dropping back exactly as David shows it, which has two parts:

1- On the first drop back he helps the student all the way to the end and then he lets her drop for the last few inches, just so she gets the idea.
2.- She lets her drop for the first part and then "catches" her.

Loved these ideas!  I am very into the suggestion of letting the student (me) get the feeling of what the actual drop back feels like rather than being supported all the way.  I cannot wait unitl tomorrow's practice!

The section on kurmasana is particularly good.  He is of the idea of crossing the legs first, before clasping the hands behind the back.  You need to watch it, it will make a lot of sense.

The design of the cover has been done using soy ink, David tells me, so as to have less of an impact on the environment.  He thanks his teacher John Scott throughout as well as The Jois family, the students who helped him and his wife.

Here is the list of poses he adjusts on:

DISC I

Standing Poses
standing forward bend (padngusthasana)
upward facing dog
sun salutation
extended triangle pose
extended side angle pose
warrior 2
half moon
revolved triangle
side stretching
revolved side Angle (parivrta parsvakonasana)
warrior 1 and 3
wide-leg forward bend A and C (prasarita padottanasana)
extended hand to foot pose (Utthita hasta)
standing half bound lotus forward bend (ardha baddha padmottanasana)

Seated Poses and Inversions
seated forward bend
three limbs facing forward western stretch (triang mukhaekapada paschimattanasana)
Marichya A
Marichya C
half-Matsyendra

DISC II

head to knee pose (janu sirsasana A)
bound angle pose (badha konasana)
half-bound lotus seated forward bend
camel
upward bow pose
shoulder stand
headstand

Ashtanga Poses:
marichya B
marichia D
noose (pasasana)
tortoise (kurmasana)
sleeping tortoise (supta kurmasana)
arm pressure posture (Bhujapidasana)
drop backs into backbend
pigeon (kapotasana)
Himalayah goose pose (Karandavasana)
embryo in the womb (garba pindasana)
intense east stretch (purvottanasana)
heron pose (krounchasana)
frog pose
sleeping thunderbolg (supta vajrasana)
crow
one foot behind the head pose
two feet behind the head pose
yoga sleep pose (yoga nidrasana)

Did you get your set? What do you think of it?  I will sure refer to it often, and, at 40 dollars I find it very good value for the money.

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GIVE-AWAY:  Enter a comment and I will randomly (through Excel's random formula) select a winner who will receive a copy of David's DVD Set on the mail. The selection will happen in 15 days.  Leave that comment! Your chances are HUGE!  (Facebook comments or Twitter Re-Twitts (with link to the post) also count)  

RELATED: See the review of David's 2 DVD Set on Yoga Anatomy 

For more on David, visit his website