1211  Leading with the chest and shoulders?

Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 14:35:17 -0500
From: Lois Donnay <donnay@DONNAY.NET>
Subject: Leading with the chest and shoulders?

> 3) Try to clear your head of everything and direct all your
> sensory perception to your chest and shoulders because
> that's where you're going to feel the lead. That's
> where you should receive the lead.

There should be some clarification here. I see a lot of men and women
thinking too much about leading and following with the chest and shoulders.
That's way better than using your arms, but the chest and shoulders are just
for direction. The "engine" is farther down than that - your center. When I
lead a woman who relies on my shoulders and chest to feel the lead, she's
too heavy.

When I follow, the first thing I do is "relax down" into my leader's center
and relax my center to him. What a pleasure that is! That said, I think
that's maybe one of the harder things for followers to do - lot's of trust
involved!