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Hi, my name is Victoria Uygan, inventor of Konnector and founder of Konnect Method. Today I’m gonna little bit talk to you guys about the history of Konnect Method and how it came about. I was a dancer and I decided to dance nine years old. I had a sister four years old… And I still have a sister.
She’s four years older than me and she was a ballet dancer and I believe I got influenced by her movement journey. So nine years old, I told my parents I wanna be a dancer. They let me become a dancer. And about 15, 16 years old, I had actually back pain. And during that time, not one doctor, but two, not even two, three doctor told me that I have to fuse my back or I’ll be paralyzed.
They basically told me I will never move the way I wanna move again. That was devastated news for me and for my family. We didn’t give up. Thanks for my mom. She took me to fourth doctor and the fourth doctor told me, “do this, do that, you’ll be fine.” I graduated, I start to dance in Ankara State, (indistinct) Ballet.
Then I went to Italy and I danced there for one year. While I was dancing there, my first movement journey started under Pino Carbone. He used to own the second Gyrotonics studio in the world back then in Florence. I worked with him one year with his own system called BodyCode System and Gyrotonic machines. And at the end of that year, I exactly knew what the fourth doctor told me, do this, do that meant.
It was undoing imbalances in my body that I was creating while I was trying to become the best in one thing. For me, was dancing for others might be running, golf, baseball any type of athletic sports, if you wanna be the best, you end up creating imbalances in your body and you have to undo those imbalances by cross conditioning. And after my journey in Italy, I got invited to dance in my dream country, United States of America. It was in the payphone and the sentence of my teacher was “Hartford Ballet invited you. Would you like to come dance?” And I understood Harvard Ballet wants you to dance.
And I’m like, “Harvard College Town? Yes, I’m in, let’s do it.” I know Harvard, I watch college movies all the time. So I went to Harvard Ballet. But I end up in Hartford Ballet and I had a career there six years. And for family reasons, I moved to Orange County, California.
And after my career was ended when it was time for me to get a second career, I decide to become a Pilates instructor. And this was like 22 years ago. And during my journey, it was always in my head to others… To help others to reach their potential. Remember during my career, I was always been told many times, “he is not…
He doesn’t have the potential to become this or that.” And I might work very hard, I might be very passionate. But you keep hearing this, talent or the potential is not there. So for me, if somebody has the potential and they able to do the movement very easily, why couldn’t I? Can I learn that? What is that called?
Is it a technique? Is it a feeling? So I chased after this thoughts while I was teaching my clients and I was trying to help them to understand mind-body connection. I’m trying to give them cues, clues, understandings. I try to create a environment for them to feel talented and connected in their body.
And during this journey, it started with Konnections band. And first version of this, it was just regular resistance band. Now it looks like this. This is a new product that I created that it is available to do connections classes or you can use regular resistance band and tie a loop. And that basically gives afferent information to the body.
So the body through the nervous system process that information and sends correct muscle groups message so they could actually fire and to do the work that they need to do. And same thing is in here in Konnector. It is a one rope pulley system that attaches to your existing reformer and it creates a very versatile movement patterns without changing your Pilates practice. Going back to afferent and efferent information, I would like to explain that in a simple way. Afferent information is the information that we receive from outside.
Our eyes, actually seeing something is afferent information, the smell is the afferent information. The sound is the afferent information. Also the feel in the skin is the afferent information. To do that together, please reach out forward with your hands, open your fingers then cross your arms and turn your palms towards each other. Once you do that, go ahead clasp your fingers together and then bend your elbows and bring your hands close to you and in front of you.
Now from here you have couple shots. Just look at one finger, it could be any. And just trying to move that immediately up and down. Now change different finger and up and down. Do this couple different times, almost every finger.
And see, sometimes it works perfectly in the first time and sometimes you get confused. You think you are moving the right finger, but it doesn’t work. Now let’s try this. Close your eyes and with your nose, touch one finger and then rub it to your nose and then move that finger and repeat the same thing. You will see because you’re touching to your finger with your nose, that finger gets afferent information and your nervous systems receives the afferent the touch of your nose on your fingers and send efferent information to correct muscle groups to fire.
And this happens like in Konnections Band. When apply a pressure through your head with your arms and with your legs, all I have to tell you is reach up, right? And the afferent information that your body receives and efferent information is gonna fire the correct muscle groups without me telling you, “engage your glutes, engage your transverse abdominals, lengthen your spine, you know, tuck your chin down.” None of those things is gonna happen. In order for you to lengthening the band, you’re gonna automatically fire the correct muscle groups that you need to. So that’s why I believe is afferent, efferent information is magical.
It helps with the proprioception as well. And basically to sum it, all the information that I’m giving you, what Konnect Method does, I use external resources to create internal connections in human movement. And Konnections band and the Konnector does that during movement as well. I hope you enjoyed my past, the history of Konnect Method, how it came out. It came out with the Konnections with the bands helping the clients so they could actually feel where their arms is, where their legs is, where they’re supposed to feel.
Then I took that and I applied it to reformer. First Konnector and the reformer had two straps. Now it has four straps, so it connects all four limbs during the movement. And yeah, this is the history. If you have any other questions, leave a comment and I will get back to you.
