Twelve Metaphors to Help You Understand Taubman Technique on a Body Level
Pole vault
While running at maximum speed, an athlete thrusts a long pole into the far corner of a triangular metal “box” embedded in the ground. That box arrests the pole’s forward motion at the point of contact, but the vaulter, strategically gripping the pole, retains much of his velocity. Carefully timing contraction and release times among a broad range of muscles, the athlete first translates forward motion into upward motion. Having maximized his height, he shifts direction toward the end of his upward trajectory so as to get up and over the horizontal barrier.
The pole vaulting metaphor is useful for understanding kinds of momentum that do not involve forearm rotation, and without these the technique is limited. So, think of your finger as a pole vault at the moment of “finishing" or moment of maximal rest into the key. At that moment your arm, like the vaulter’s body, can be free to continue moving to the next place if you haven’t, somewhere in your body, applied the “brakes” of muscular contraction. Your arrested finger then serves as a “pole vault,” and as you retain your arm's momentum you can use that pole vault to shift the direction in which your arm is being propelled. Depending on timings of contraction and release of a range of muscles, you can instigate shifts that help you get to the next note most effectively and affectively.
Besides the wrist, which has the greatest capacity to create what physicists call angular momentum (momentum retained but in a shifted direction), the most critical joint for getting the benefits of “pole vaulting” is the metacarpophalangeal joint (large knuckle). Unlike the interphalangeal joints, which each have only one axis of movement, this joint is capable of moving along two axes: that of flexion and extension, and that of abducting and adducting. Having a habit of looseness on the abduction/adduction axis creates one more opportunity for moving with ease in Taubman technique.
For your fingers to be pole vaults, you need three things. You must have the weight of your arm in your good “down" so that your finger is arrested against the key with friction; You need a structure to the hand/wrist/arm that allows stability on one hand and a possibility of shifting the direction of your arm's movement on the other; and you need enough flexibility in your upper arm, wrist, and large knuckle so that they don’t put brakes on your velocity in the chosen direction.
If you do these things well, the friction of your finger against the key can feel like the equivalent of the pole getting caught in the corner of the box, with the same benefit of continued momentum that the pole vaulter experiences.
The message behind the metaphor: Good downs are a fabulous way to get to the next place with minimal effort, as long as you understand the idea of the pole vault.