This post describes an online course for Alexander Technique teachers and students on how to teach and market groups. It is running in November 2013, than remains available after that to anyone who joins my online coaching group. You can join here now:

http://atsuccess.com/membership-plans

My journey with group teaching began in London back in 1980 when I formed YAAO with Duncan Woodcock to run evening classes. (YAAO stands for Yet Another Alexander Organisation).

To respect the person you want to attract, you need to stand with them.

Of course to "stand with them" may mean voicing an opinion that causes controversy amongst others. My declarations about chair and table work fall into this category.

After Marj visited Australia in 1986, I totally switched my teaching.

I made a decision, quite clear cut, that I would:

1.Do no more table work
2.Do no more chair work
3.Insist that my pupil choose the activity of the lesson

It was a simple plan, but for the next year I stumbled about in total confusion and disarray. Although I had been teaching for 7 years by this time, this 8th year felt like I had reverted back to my 1st: I was a novice teacher all over again.

How precious do you need to be about the work?

Dr. Barlow, back in the days after Alexander's death, strove to identify Alexander Technique teachers with Doctors. The constitution of STAT – and the affiliated Societies that followed it – were shaped by strict, purist values: protect our profession; behave in a dignified manner.

Greg Holdaway is in Japan teaching for BodyChance, and yesterday morning we had a wonderful conversation about chairwork verses activity work. He told me about an extraordinary 10 minutes of being whisked in and out of a chair by Patrick Macdonald, just a few years before Patrick passed away.

This is the second in my series of stories this month by Alexander Technique teachers in my paid coaching program. Shawn Copeland is an Alexander Technique teacher and Adjunct Professor of Clarinet at the Department of Music in High Point University, North Carolina. And this is his story, told from the perspective of a musician seeking excellence…

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Think! Move! Perform!

Cool and trendy people in Tokyo read Cocoro, or at least the younger ones do.

A few years back they sent a curious journalist along to BodyChance to catch the word on Alexander Technique. My introductory group – that my journalistic visitor witnessed - turned out to be especially varied: a dancer exploring a leg lift, a shopkeeper concerned about his cash register manner, a salaryman fearful of his boss and a yoga exercise on the floor; among many others over the course of 90 minutes.

I am not a guy in a coffee shop going "Blah, blah, blah" about things he doesn't really know about, because a few people are willing to listen.

This business with a few rouge teachers in AmSAT – who BTW are doing AmSAT no favours – has got me thinking about BodyChance's service: how radical it must appear to some people who have yet to read my two position papers from the International Congress in Oxford (2004) and Lugano (2008) which are available here as a free download.

In the morning at 2am - yes, sometimes I start the day early - I was searching my email database for something, and came across an email from a teacher about chairwork. No need to mention who here, but I was taken by how lightly the idea of working outside of chairwork was treated, almost as though one only did that if one didn't have sufficient abilities to do chairwork. All said in a nice way, but still overtones of...