PERSONAL HISTORY. In class when people would ask Dr. Rolf for the anatomy of core and sleeve, she would give an impatient answer, with which I would then argue. After a few years I decided that core was not a structure but rather a feeling. This did not make it any less real. I sort of ignored the sleeve part of it.

I also had definite problems with the Rolf “line”. The only thing I could see or envision was a straight line on a static photo. It meant nothing to me as soon as the person moved, and so I didn’t use the concept. A few years ago I realized that the line is flexible: it can curve, bend and twist as the person moves. Now I could use it with my clients.

From my movement work, I have taught for many years that the body doesn’t move in lines but rather in diagonals or obliques. This can be visualized from the oblique arrangement of the muscles and connective tissue.

From these pieces, I came up with the following image early one morning in Brazil (being in a different hemisphere may have cleared my brain).

CONCEPT. The core is a flexible line and the sleeve is (are) the obliques moving around it. This seems very simple yet it has helped me so I thought I’d pass it on.

A member of the Institute’s anatomy teaching faculty, Louis
Schultz Rolfs and teaches Movement in New York City.Thoughts on Core and Sleeve