Alexander Technique Information

The Alexander Technique is a century-old discipline. It teaches us that, in order to function well, we need a certain amount of muscle tone. Unfortunately, though, most of us have more tension than we need, because of the stress of life in modern society. This tension interferes with the natural alignment of our head, neck and spine - and that's one reason why so many of us are in pain or have difficulty with activities. Through private lessons in the Alexander Technique, we can become aware of our unnecessary tension and reduce it. At the same time, we can rediscover the natural alignment that we all had as children. This alignment gives us better balance, coordination, and ease of movement. My name is Adam Bailey and I'm a teacher of the Alexander Technique. The technique has been extremely helpful to me in my approach to sports. I've been an athlete all my life. As a child in grade school, I played soccer and baseball. Outside of school, I did a lot of horseback riding. As I got older, I learned to ski and sail, and I also enjoyed hiking and bicycling. During high school and college, my favorite sport was rowing. In college, I rowed on the junior varsity lightweight crew. One year, our crew won the Eastern Sprints, the championship race for crews from all over the east coast. As a result, I got a varsity letter - one of my most prized possessions! During my junior year of college, I took a year off and lived in Crested Butte, Colorado. That winter, I skied almost every day. Even on days when I was working, I'd take a couple of hours off and jump on the ski lift. Even now, I still ski every winter. As an adult, my main sport has been horseback riding. After a long period away from riding, I started riding again in my early 30's. I do both dressage and eventing. As you can tell, I've always adored sports. And yet as I got older my relationship with them began to change. When I was a young child, sports were easy and fun: not the slightest effort involved! Gradually, though, they began to be more difficult. Sometimes it felt as if something was missing. There were even days when a given sport felt like a huge struggle. For a long time, I didn't understand why that was happening. It was only after I started taking Alexander Technique lessons that I finally figured out what it was. Over the years, I'd been taking a particular approach to sports - and to all other activities. I'd been trying as hard as I could, and exerting a huge amount of effort. Of course there was a reason why I did that.