Bakasana...the trouble with crow pose.

I have been trying to master crow pose, AKA crane pose, for many years now without any luck. Although I have always been told that "it's all alignment" by every yogi I know that can do this pose, I have resisted this idea. My scrawny, weak upper body must be the culprit, I kept telling myself. When anyone would bring up that pose, I would cringe and exclaim "I can't do that one!" My bad attitude toward this poor asana was not helping me move any closer to getting up. The last time I tried to get into bakasana in a class I tipped to far forward and fell right on my head. It made a huge thud and the class below us came running upstairs to see what happened. Uh...just Cindy trying to do crow pose. I had almost given up on this asana until I came upon a video where the instructor was leading us through a challenging vinyasa and into a headstand. Boy, I thought to myself, I love inversions...this is my kind of yogi. Then she did the unthinkable...took us from a headstand into crow! She just gently rested those knees on the backs of her arms and voila...bakasana! After a few tries, I was able to balance, if only for a second or two, with my toes lifted off the ground and my forehead not hitting the floor in front of my face. Victory...well something like that, maybe more like..... Progress!!