It was about 70 minutes into the jumping workshop for volleyball players at the Great Lakes Center in West Chicago.
On the court, more than 50 16-, 17- and 18-year-old boys from the Sports Performance Volleyball Club were trying their first jumps using concepts imparted by Peff Modelski, a ballet and dance instructor from New York.
From the crowd came a verbal thumbs-up:
“Awesome!” an excited voice said.
Modelski’s mission had been accomplished.
Using her dance and teaching skills and combining them with the Feldenkrais Method, an educational system that helps people retrain their bodies to move in their most efficient way, Modelski spent an hour and a half one recent evening working with the young athletes.
Her instruction combines footwork, stretching, proper shoe fit, jumping, eyework and breathing.
“We teach them what happens to the feet when they start to push,” she said. “We explore the push with their feet. We explore the intent to push for other parts of the body . . . . We take into account which way the leg is moving, whether they’re breathing in or out.”
It’s all based on the Feldenkrais Method. According to the International Feldenkrais Federation’s Web page (www.feldenkrais.com), “Ordinarily, we learn just enough to function. For example, we learn to use our hands well enough to eat, our legs well enough to walk. Our abilities to function with a greater range of ease and skill, however, remain to be developed. The Feldenkrais Method teaches — through movement — how we can improve our capabilities to function in our daily lives.”
It may sound confusing, but Modelski pulls it all together.
She started performing professionally at age 6. She is a graduate of — and later taught at — New York’s High School for the Performing Arts. She has spent her life on the stage, performing ballet, appearing on Broadway and in opera, film and television. She teaches six days a week at Steps On Broadway in New York, where she offers professional level classes for maintenance and retraining. Now a certified Feldenkrais practitioner, she has expanded her teaching to the jumping workshops. (The Method can also be applied to other sports, including competitive running, golf, skiing, rowing, martial arts.)
For her jumping workshop in West Chicago, Modelski began by having the boys sit on the floor, facing a wall. At her instruction, they put their feet against the wall, bent their knees, moved their feet higher and closed their eyes. She put them through a series of maneuvers — pushing with their feet, extending their arms over their heads, straightening their spines — designed to make them aware of their bodies. She had them push away from the wall, make adjustments, then try it again. She asked them questions. Where on the bottom of their feet were they feeling the most pressure? What was the feeling in their legs?
A drill instructor she isn’t.
Next, she showed the boys how to lace sneakers properly. As the class continued, more awareness instruction followed.
Finally, Modelski instructed the boys to lie on their backs and stretch their legs out. Again, more questions to help them become more aware of their bodies. How are their legs making contact with the floor? Do you feel the back of your pelvis, your spine, your shoulder blades, arms and head on the floor? She had them notice their breathing, and look at the ceiling in soft focus. She went through a jump verbally, having them picture the act, then had them stand up, go to the wall, make a short dash, stop and jump.
Looks of surprise were everywhere. You could almost see the light bulbs going on over their heads. They jumped. And jumped. And jumped again. And laughed.
The group, which had been absorbing Modelski’s lessons in rapt silence, got noticeably more animated as boys sprang into the air, over and over, showing each other what they had learned.
With that, the workshop was over and the young athletes went back to their regular training regimen.
“It was kind of different,” said Ben Nelson, 17, of Naperville as he began warmups. “I haven’t done anything like that before. I almost understood what she was talking about. I think it’ll help.”
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Peff Modelski can be contacted at peffdance@aol.com.
