Why does IAT Use a Language of Geometry?

Why Geometry? The Problem of Multiple Interpretations

Initial Alexander Technique uses a language of geometry to prescribe adjustments to the organization of the anatomical structure. On the surface, this may seem unnecessarily precise and time consuming. After all, why can’t a teacher just say “put your hands on your thighs” and expect the student to understand what they mean?

The answer lies in the fact that any process of instruction is subject to multiple interpretations.

One reason for this is that the teacher, when speaking a word, may have a different idea of the word’s meaning than the student. Consider a first guitar lesson for a child with no prior music education. To the child, the words “high” and “low” do not refer to the pitch of a given sound. Instead, “high” means far away from the ground, and “low” means close to the ground. The teacher knows that in the context of music, “high” means a sound that oscillates a greater number of times a second, while “low” means a sound that oscillates a lesser number of times a second. Or, in less scientific terms, the teacher knows that the sounds produced by Julie Andrews and Aretha Franklin are higher than those produced by Johnny Cash and Troye Sivan.

Most guitarists hold the guitar with the highest pitched string closest to the ground, and the lowest pitched string furthest from the ground. Hence, when the teacher wants the child to play the highest pitched string on the guitar, and asks the child to “play the highest string on the guitar”, the child will produce the opposite result of what the teacher desired, and play the lowest pitched string, because it is furthest from the ground, and furthest from the ground is what the child thinks “highest” means. Only after the child knows that “high” and “low” in music are not spatial references, but instead are ways to differentiate between the singing of Aretha Franklin and Johnny Cash, will they be able to respond the way the teacher wants to the instruction “play the highest string”.

Fortunately, the misunderstanding about the meaning of “high” and “low” in music can be remedied by using words that have the same meaning to the child and the teacher. On the guitar, thicker strings have a lower pitch and thinner strings have a higher pitch. Both the teacher and student understand that the trunk of a tree is thicker than a pencil, and that a strand of hair is thinner than a pencil.

Because of this shared understanding, if the teacher asks the child to play the “thinnest string”, the child will perform the action the teacher had in mind (playing the highest pitched string). The teacher can then help the student assign a new meaning to the words “high” and “low”, by saying, “On the guitar, thicker strings make lower pitches, and thinner strings make higher pitches.” “When I refer to the ‘highest’ string in music lessons, what I mean is the thinnest string, not the string that is furthest from the ground.” Only after assigning this new meaning to the words “high” and “low” will the child play the highest pitched string when asked to “play the highest string”.

Similarly, misunderstandings can occur when a person is learning how to improve their coordination by re-organizing parts of their body in relation to a sport, job, musical performance, or any other activity. Take for example, a teacher wanting a student to place the tips of the middle fingers on the centers of the tops of the kneecaps without crossing the arms (this organization of the anatomical structure is an arbitrary example of instruction, and is not functionally better than another). The teacher will ask the student to imagine a model and give him or herself instructions to make them resemble that model. Some instructions are less likely to yield multiple interpretations than others. An instruction that could, but most likely will not produce the result the teacher has in mind, is “place your hands on your thighs”. The teacher may think of the words “place your hands on your thighs” as meaning “place the tips of the middle fingers on the centers of the tops of the kneecaps without crossing the arms”, while the student thinks “place your hands on your thighs” means “place your hands anywhere on your thighs”. As a result, the student may interpret the instructions in any of the ways shown below.

1a:

Although the pictures 1a, 1b, 1c, and 1d all depict a student successfully “placing his hands on his thighs”, only 1d shows a picture that matches the idea in the teacher’s mind (the tips of the middle finger on the middle of the top of the knee-cap without crossing the arms). The possible interpretations are limitless, and only by sheer luck will the student create the image that matches the teacher’s idea. Hence, the instruction “place your hands on your thighs” is of limited value in that it fails to produce a consistent result.

1b:

1c:

1d:

Fortunately, a language of geometry that describes the relative location of points on the anatomical structure, allows for instructions that can only be interpreted one way.

Consider the following geometric instruction:

1. Draw a green circle on top of a yellow circle of the same size, with the center of the green circle in the same place as the center of the yellow circle.

This instruction of one point relative to another is only open to one interpretation (the color alteration on the circles is merely a reminder that both green and yellow circles are present)

In studying IAT, the student locates points on their own anatomical structure, and crafts instructions to move one point relative to another. Instead of using the instruction “place your hands on your thigh” the student imagines a point at the tip of their middle finger, and labels this point “the tip of the middle finger”. The student also imagines the patella (kneecap), which is roughly shaped like a triangle, the top side of which is parallel to the horizon, and locates a point in the center of the top side of the triangle. The student labels this point “the top of the kneecap”. Finally, the student gives himself the instruction “Place the tips of the middle fingers on the tops of the kneecaps, without crossing the arms”. The specificity of the instruction will prevent the student from producing an image similar to 1a, 1b, or 1c, and instead create an image resembling 1d.

1d:

Although the student could differ from the image in 1d by moving the feet further apart, or turning the head to look to his left, the relative location of the *tip of the middle finger* to the *top of the kneecap* is the same. There are fewer possible interpretations for the instruction “place the tips of the middle fingers on the top of the kneecap, without crossing the arms” than for the instruction “place your hands on your thighs”.

A language of geometry, by describing the relative location of different points, allows for instructions so precise that they produce the same result every time, giving the IAT student a reliable way to discover an organization of the anatomical structure that improves his or her balance, coordination, stamina, strength, and breathing.