Table of Contents List of Exercises
Like 'Sticks Ready', 'Sticks Asleep' is a major organizer for all the processes in the curriculum. 'Sticks Asleep' is state of physical and relaxation of attention.
How effectively we call 'sticks asleep' is about our leadership skills.
'Sticks Asleep' is a very practical way to have student come to quiet attention particularly to end a round or a game, or exercise or music piece.
This is about learning to embody a particular state of mind, of being, a certain 'gear in the automonic nervois system'.
Sticks asleep can be an outer expression of learning to internally go into a
state of relaxation. On a brain wave level this is alpha rhythms.
To use the
analogy of canine training, 'sticks asleep' is like asking a dog to 'Sit'. When a dog sits, it modulated out of active movement, prey drive, or migration mode into calm attention.
The canine can be stopped from doing other things because it is doing 'Sit'. It is important because it is something to do, to do nothing. Rather than say, 'don't do that, don't do that'. Sticks asleep is a way to say, 'Do - nothing'.
The automobile analogy to 'Sticks Asleep' is a car idling at a stop sign or red light. The car goes into neutral or out of gear. The motor powers down but not off. It conserves fuel and reduces wear and tear on the engine. It is also ready to be powered up into motion as soon as you give is some gas.
'Sticks Asleep' is initially taught and called by the teacher. As the class progresses, students in the leadership role in a way that they learn to use their paralinguist cues( movement, face, vocal tone) to bring the class to calm as part of the music that they are leading.
When the students seem available enough, the leader puts theirs sticks in their lap. The gross physical movement is important and more important is the leader needs to slightly slow the pace of the movement down, relax their shoulders and face and eyes, and extend their exhale. Model a posture that is relaxed and still upright.
"Get as relaxed as you can while still paying attention to what is happening next".
Acknowledge and celebrate the positive attempts to emulate this energy. This celebration is best done at a lower energy level, like doing the celebration rhythm slower an with out making a sound, or just a quiet thumbs up or even a quiet smile with with twinkling eyes.
"Now let's make a game of it. We are going to go back and forth between 'sticks ready' and 'sticks asleep'. When you're 'sticks asleep', see how fully relaxed you can get. When I say 'sticks ready' see how quickly you can have yourself a fully engaged. When I say sticks asleep, I want you to relax as much as possible while still sitting up and being attentive". [show holding the two sticks in the lap, Shoulders relaxed, eye in peripheral or open focus. Be on the look out to give many specific acknowledgements particularly to draw out the finer points.]
Safety- its predictable. We do it every time.
Connection- singing together is sharing a vital energy.
It sets up or reinforces a group rhythm.
Aiming for a physical movement the has calm or relaxed attention.
SMR or High Alpha,
Salience System.
Increased Heart Coherence.- When engaged in a focused task- the heart coherense is reduced. Ideally when the task is complete, ideally the autonomic system should go back into a more energy conserving state. THis is like a cars engine going back in to idle when at a stop sign.
Leadership roles and Styles. When are you a leader?
When do you follow a leader?
When do you refuse to follow a leader?