Two Substitute Teachers

My practice has reached some sort of plateau for the time being. No new poses, so no new pictures today.

My teacher is away on a 2+ week vacation, so we have a substitute teacher at the studio during her absence. New teacher, new experiences for the students. He seems like a very dedicated teacher, and can be very particular about certain poses that my regular teacher isn't finicky about. I know it's good because we all have blind spots in our practice, and changing teachers once in a while can be beneficial. But I'm really not used to his style - he wants me to hold the back bends where they are, and even back off a little, whilst I really want to work on walking my hands up my ankles in UD. Ah well, I guess it's not a bad idea to take it easy for a couple of weeks, and not get too attached to certain poses.

On Wednesday, due to a schedule conflict, I ended up doing a late morning drop-in mysore class at another studio, which I've heard good things about. Interestingly, the teacher on duty was also a substitute teacher, since the regular guy was away in Mysore. She was very attentive and gave me a few good adjustments. She also made me work on my jump backs, which honestly have not been a personal focus of mine. Why? I'm barely managing the jump throughs, so I figured the jump backs can wait til I've nailed the jump throughs. But she said, well you're almost getting the jump throughs, so you should start working on lifting up and learning the jump back too. So that's something new to focus on. Until I learn how to jump through and back more economically (my pivot point is still not very solid), I'm pretty sure it also means more sore arm days ahead!!