Today, I got almost as far on my own (after research) as Iyengar in the bottom left picture. Then, with assistance, I got as far as the bottom right pic.

I knew going into the back bending part of second that I was going to be able to get to the heels. The feel was there. Everything prior to that had been going about as good as I can do it. I was real close in Samakonasana. Never been that close. My calves were down. When I finally sat back and let my butt go down, my legs looked pretty close to 170 degrees. It was a good one. I got down on both sides in Hanumanasana. That one, at the risk of calling in hamstring jinxes, is gradually coming back. I also had my best pasasana to date. I got a finger or two up to my wrist on the first side and on the other side, I was barely off the floor with one heel.

It should be clear by now, that great for me is often not even doing poses correctly. It's just doing it or them better than I usually can. Some classes are high points because I manage to do just one thing better than I ever have, finally clearing some long standing physical or psychological hurdle. Today, I was hitting my all time best on a number of the second series poses.

After rocking thru Kapotasana, I let myself think ahead to Karandavasana. If I could just land Karandavasana, never mind anything else, this would by far be my best class ever. Needless to say, I plateaued. I got Bakasana B, but it took me a few tries. I did an acceptable Dwi Pada Sirsasana but my legs slipped down my arms when I tried to vinyasa out and my feet hit the floor before I could get them back.

When I got to Karanda, I sat for a second and tried to get the feel back. To no avail. I didn't really get the landing. I hit my arms but slipped off. I was able to bounce my knees and snug the lotus back onto the arms. The form was sucky though. I had to be forcefully pulled up from the tuck and couldn't even vinyasa out. Oh well. I was still completely stoked about the class. I decided to give Karanda another try so that I could at least try what Jason long ago recommended. I wanted to do a partial lower and try to get it back up. Since my lowers to date have barely been in control, I don't have a good sense of when my knees get to the horizontal or even lower. I need to work on getting them down as far as I can while staying in control and then get them back up. I asked the teacher to tell me when I got them to the horizontal plane. I did get them there but that is right past the edge of where I was able to control it and I blew out of it. At least now I have a point of reference to lower to and come back from.

Jason was back at practice today. The guy is tougher than woodpecker lips. He had his other knee operated on a few days ago. Back in the studio with sutures still in his knee. He was behind the pillar so I couldn't see much of him but I think he was doing a lot bandha work. I looked up at one point and saw the person across the room from me paused in mid drop back, looking over at Jason with a quizzical look on her face. I glanced over to see what caught her attention. He was in this weird hand stand with his operated leg extended up but his other leg held out to the side in this weird bent chicken wing kind of position. Ardha Kukkupada Vrkshasana?

My son managed to totally wreck his lacrosse season yesterday. He was over at a friend's house and somehow managed to open a slice in his lower leg that took 18 stitches to close. He's his school team's only goalie and their first playoff game is tomorrow. His competitive club team is scheduled to make a trip to Maryland to play in a tournament against the east coast kids the second week in June. That's when his stitches are due to come out. He had also gotten a friend of his to join him at the Johns Hopkins lacrosse camp the week prior to the tournament. I don't know if he'll be able to do any of that now. "But dad, I didn't mean to." God, I hate those words.