I thought I might take the time to update on recent happenings. I have enjoyed having a routine in recent weeks with stability and movement control classes on Tuesday mornings and barefoot running/nose-breathing classes on the hill up to the shrine off Domain Road on Thursday mornings. This along with individual consultations has been a nice balance.
I am pleased to report how well Sacha and Nadine are doing, from being consistent participants in the Tuesday morning class. Nadine has dramatically improved her knee function as a result of an incident while skiing, and Sacha has dramatically improved his postural stability. Like most of us, Sacha is strong from outside-in, and he is learning to be strong from inside-out. This fits with my view of human functioning from the perspective of being breathing organisms who function from centre to periphery, or inside to outside. This is well supported when you view the anatomy from a breathing perspective (more on this in an up-coming blog).
The ‘human condition’ in broad terms is always interesting in knowing what it wants at the ‘talk’ or conceptual level, but where we tend to fall down is the ‘walk’ or experiential level. Research shows that there is up to, a 2 stage gap between our ‘talk’ and our ‘walk’ levels. This is the dis-satisfaction we all feel when we don’t meet our own internal standards, the ‘falling down’ is the difference between what we know we want, and is good for us, but the difficulty lies in consistently embodying the behaviours that would match our intentions. Sacha and Nadine have been exceptional simply because they have been able to get up when the alarm goes off and consistently attend my Tuesday morning class in order to consistently practice certain capacities in a supportive environment.
Mercantile Rowing Club has enlisted my services to work with selected athletes in improving efficiency, muscle balance, intrinsic stabilisation and dynamic movement abilities. I enjoyed meeting the guys I will be training and giving an overview of my approach. There were some some excellent questions from the group and after the presentation, I conducted movement screenings. I will use the information gleaned from last Monday, to inform the upcoming sessions where we will work on a cross-section of movement abilities related to rowing well while experientially educating about muscle balance because of the dominances that we all have as a result of specialisation.
I have been seeing a cross-section of AFL footballers who are increasingly interested in how to remain injury-free as the demands of their sport increase. The players who are tapping into my services are interested in what they can do in their individual situation. I base this on their postural presentation, gait analysis, single leg stance, standing lateral flexion, standing extension, full squat, cross-legged sitting, forward fold, and push-up postures. This battery of tests reveals the basis of the stabilising strategy operating and provides the framework for the application of bodywork and individual exercise plan.
I purchased 2 cyclone balls through the week, these are 1kg medicine balls with a rope running through their centre. I have always had an interest in transverse plane or rotational exercise strategies because of my long term involvement with athletes who play tennis and golf. It is interesting that the ‘throwing’ based sports such as tennis, golf, baseball and cricket all have a fascination with the concept of ‘technique’ but the concepts are rarely unpacked any further than the use of the word.
The ‘technical’ aspects of a throwing motion have 4 factors in common. Use of ground reaction forces, angular momentum with a weight shift occurring between the arrangement of the feet (linear momentum), use of the contra-lateral lat/glute slings via changes in length-tension relationship to create torsional force to accelerate the object. Deceleration forces to slow the body down after creating large forces via acceleration of the object through the movement slings and synergistic muscle groups. The act of throwing therefore involves being able to lower or maintain the centre of mass, while creating torsion by rotating the shoulders more than the hips (this is the loading aspect of throwing). Then without a pause accelerate the object by further creating a lag between hips and shoulders, and using leg drive, so that the terminal velocity of the object being accelerated is optimised. The slowing down of the body needs to happen evenly throughout the chain, so that the deceleration forces are evenly distributed.
The cyclone balls I purchased are thus far proving an interesting training tool in achieving this objective (more on this in an upcoming training package). They can be used in space as well as against a wall and provide a good stimulus for transverse plane loading.
The cyclone balls are available through the AOK link on this site. Rockerboards are available by contacting me on phone or email.