Joint Rotations

Playing with the exercises in the ES book and the joint rotations are slightly different to what I am used to and seemed to make me focus on what I was actually doing. Then again, there could be many reasons why I was more focussed, perhaps just because it is a new program to me. However, I do like these new joint rotations.

BUT...

The Head Circles get me. I remember about 20 years ago being told by my school gym teacher not to do head circles because "It is bad for you. Therefore you need to do head up and down then head left a right".

Also, in my 14 years of TaeKwon-Do we have never done head circles just ups n downs and lefts n rights.

Would someone knowledgable care to tell about this?