Rules of Block Release & Cancellation

Written by Geoff Johnston

Thursday, 06 September 2007

THE RULES OF BLOCK RELEASE AND CANCELLATION In the last newsletter there was an article about the McGuire Programme’s Checklist. In this newsletter I want to share with you some thoughts about “Block Release” and “Cancellation“.  These rules are not new and apply to anyone recovering from stuttering, regardless of the technique/treatment being used. The article finishes with an email from a Perth graduate Glenn Galvin containing a story that demonstrates the general concept of cancellation.  Firstly, the concept of Block Release. If you block, stumble, fumble over a word, STOP and let it go immediately, maintain good eye contact, release your air, PAUSE, smile and do it again using great technique. NEVER push through a block. Cancellation has a broader meaning than Block Release. If something is NOT correct or NOT to your satisfaction, go back and do it again. Basic learning theory is the last thing we do is what gets reinforced!  If you stutter badly in any situation, do it again using exaggerated technique (perhaps 50spm for Smoothies or 5 words per breath for McGuiries). An example is ringing to book a table at a restaurant. If you make a mess of it and you’re not happy, ring up again, disclose that you are a stutterer and ask to make the booking again. Just make sure that you don’t end up with three candle-lit tables by the window?   The email below was sent to the McGuire international email list by Glenn. Howdy All, I just want to relay an experience that relates very well to McGuire and our recovery. I went to see Cirque de soleil  in Perth in Wednesday night - Quidam was the show.One of the stunts was to stack three men by placing their feet on the others shoulders and so on. This basically meant that the guy on top was about 6m off the ground. There were two strong on the ground who link arms and another man put his feet in their braced arms, his hands on their shoulders and his back to the original human tower. The idea of the trick was to catapult the man who did a series of back flips etc onto the shoulders of the man at the top of the human tower thereby creating a 4 man human tower. The crowd paused and held their breathe as the strong men’s muscles went into overdrive, the acrobat flipped and landed just on the shoulders of the top man but didn't have enough height and could balance himself and had to jump back down to the strong men. The crowd went “ooooooooooooh”, I went “oooooooooooh”. Just as you though that was it, he jumped back on the strong men and tried the stunt again. This time it was beautiful. The acrobat glided and tumbled through the air with consummate ease and landed perfectly on the top of the human tower. The crowd clapped and cheered and I went “oooooooh” and clapped and cheered. The lesson to be learnt: 1. The acrobat had made a mess of the first attempt and he had two options:             1. Move on the next amazing trick or            2. Go back and do it again.As in my story he chose 2. The reason the acrobat chose this was to re enforce the fact that he could do in “match conditions” and he knew that the next night when he had to do the same trick he would replay in his mind his last attempt, which was successful! If he chose option 1 the acrobat would be thinking "the last time that I did this I messed this up", he is almost beaten before he begins. As a recovering stutterer, it is essential that if we do have a bad experience we go back and try the 'stunt' again and become successful, so when it comes up again we have positive thoughts in our head.  We need to be disciplined in this. We need to re-write those bad movies and create positive ones. The circus experience really hit home to me the psyche that is involved in our recovering.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 15 September 2007 )

 

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