Alexander Technique San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Valley

walkAlexander Technique and Sports, Take Your Performance To A New Level

The way of the champion.
As an athlete you have a good idea of your body’s true potential. What if your body had potential and abilities beyond your imagination? For generations the Alexander Technique has helped athletes achieve that potential and perform at a championship level. When your body mechanics and movements are working at maximum capacity, you have more ease, elegance and are far less prone to injuries. Subtle refinements occur in your form that can take you to your highest level of achievement. You can enter your peak zone at will.

How the Alexander Technique Helps Athletes
Over time we create habits and patterns that we unconsciously carry into our exercise. Most of us are not aware of how much excess tension we put into everything we do, especially under the challenges of competition. By bringing conscious awareness to the excess tension and misdirected energy, the Alexander Technique teaches you to correctly direct your energy so that you move with a naturally flowing ease.

Athletes, especially endurance athletes, say that utilizing the Alexander technique during competition saves them precious energy. Athletes keep injuries at bay as they learn the skills of refined proprioception, economy of effort and a greater control of the mechanisms of balance and coordination.

Dominique Jacques’s experience Working with Athletes
Dominique Jacques is a pioneer in her field. She has worked successfully with athletes of all levels, ranging from beginners to Olympic athletes, helping them enhance their talent and use their body at maximum efficiency, repeatedly. In working with high-performance Olympic athletes she accompanies them on their professional tours and is a part of their Olympic preparation. She has proved instrumental in their competitive achievements.

Dominique brings her thorough background as an Alexander Technique Teacher to a lifelong commitment to helping people develop their full potential. Having also trained as a yoga and meditation teacher in India, she uses a dynamic system of mind and body integration which goes far beyond physical awareness.

What You Would Get out of Working with Dominique Jacques

Dominique Jacques’s Alexander Technique program teaches athletes a step-by-step process to:
* Improve postural and movement patterns and prevent injuries
* Reduce stress on the neck, shoulders, back and knees while training & competing
* Attain freedom from past habits and use the body more efficiently
* Have more stamina and energy
* Increase endurance, resiliency, and speed of recovery
* Avoid injury, pain and fatigue

When your body has a good form and is working at optimal capacity, you experience many benefits.

Benefits for your body:
* Strength & stamina
* Increased power
* Wider range of motion
* Less fatigue and injuries
* Greater efficiency and ease of movement
* Resiliency and faster recover

Benefits for your mind:
* Improved concentration
* Expanded awareness
* Greater alertness
* Speed of learning

Results:
* Improved Performance
* Accuracy of movement
* Ease and flow in action
* Shorter reaction time
* You perform at your best consistently and can enter your peak zone at will.

How Dominique’s Sessions Work

In addition to office sessions, you will receive expert hands on guidance on the playing field when you practice your sport. Dominique is available when you need her most ’ right before a competition. This way you receive the benefits of the work directly before and in-between your matches, to keep your body energized and tuned. This helps you recover more quickly and maintain your peak performance.

Here is what Larry had to say on February 2013:

Larry Martin

I am a 65-year old guy who has been playing golf for 50 years to a single-digit handicap, most of the time with a tendency to have low back pain. After a year of resisting my son’s advice (he is a wellness and nutrition advisor) to try the Alexander Technique, I was lucky enough to find Dominique. After the first session I was able to correct a lifetime of rounded shoulders and sway back by following some simple steps. Yes, they took conscious effort and may never become automatic for me, but they allow me to hold myself in good position without worrying about which muscles to tense, what parts to move forward or back or whether I’ve over or under done any of these!

I applied this to my golf swing (Dominique had shown me some of the considerations for getting into this posture) after only two days of practicing the “technique”. After the initial clumsiness and feeling strange, I hit some of the purest, most penetrating 6 irons I’ve hit in a long time. The tension has been drained from my set-up and I can address the ball without feeling a strain in my lower back. I had been told in the past by a golf teaching professional that I carried a lot of tension at address, but I had never felt what a relaxed posture was like until now. The more I practice the technique, the faster I am at getting into the position that lets me use my body at it’s best. I use it when driving, walking, bending over the sink, exercising and even watching TV.

At a second session with Dominique (which was very useful in answering questions I had developed when applying the technique) I realized I had been standing up for about 45 minutes straight. In the past when having to do this to wait in line or shop, my lower back would almost force me to sit or squat to relieve he pain it would cause. With Dominique I handled that position easily and without having to consciously tighten muscles that would only fatigue. My body feels like it hangs on my spine while my spine lifts me up

Dominique gave me this gift by virtue of her decades of experience, her gentle and supportive manner and the patience to re-program a tight old coot like me! Thank you Dominique