Read time – 05:00 Minutes

Coach Abhi’s disclaimer : The content written in this blog post is only for general information purpose, and not to be taken as medical advise. The reader is expected to use his or her common sense before using any of this information. I disclaim all responsiblity for any liability, loss or risk, which is incurred as a consequence of the use and application of any of the contents of this blog post.

My son is going to be three soon. From the time he has learnt to walk, he grew up in the dance school and the gymnasium. In fact he took his first step to walk in my wife’s dance school when he was ten months old. Till now, my wife and I have not taught him any deliberate movement or dance/sports skills or exercises, or how to move. Why? He is THREE! That is why. We are given “advise” on how important motor skills are! Or suggestions on which sport he must play. (Yes, it happens!) Sometimes it can get a little annoying (we let it pass) to listen as parents. We believe in free play and let Ethan learn all the movement skills necessary to balance, to fall and get back up, overcome obstacles, to roll, and move like a ninja, and do seemingly tricky movement. How did we do this? It is simple, we took him to the local park, almost every day. Toddlers learn to play, and to move naturally when given the right environment in the presence of a parent.

Observing my toddler boy fascinates me, as to how is it possible to move with such agility. In fact I record some of the movement patterns he does on the floor and try it myself, so who is learning from whom? A long time back, every adult had these movements in them until losing it to a ‘sedentary’ life. The fact that adults do not move and do not play, are perhaps some of the main reasons for illness (both physical and mental). For an urbanized child, play in this technological era does not mean going outdoors, it means a close to realistic experience of racing, shooting and strategy games on high end gadgets. Sony rightly named its video game console ‘playstation’ redefining the idea and the scope of play. Who could imagine this becoming a sport itself. This is play after all. No, technology is not the culprit, and don’t demonize gadgets. It is not an agenda of any gaming companies to keep people indoors, it is the abuse of such gadgets which is the real problem. As adults we need to re-learn some of these ideas of playful movement from toddlers/kids like –

• rolling – forward or backward rolls on the bed (safety first)
• jumping on a trampoline
• hanging from structures and sitting on the floor (as many ways possible)
• running free or sprinting (technique training may be needed for adults)
• crawling like a baby or a bear or mimic any quadrupedal movement

Why should an adult do these? When I am talking about playful movements it does not need any justification, but for the sake of it –

• it might actually save your life – rolling for example is a skill which can greatly decrease the risk of injury during accidental falls
• spatial awareness – learning a sense of proprioception as you move
• improves overall coordination of your body with the senses
• can be a different way to cross train or change the monotony of “fitness” routines
• has a strong carry over effect to disciplines like martial arts, dance in physical preparation

I publish a poll asking my students to vote choosing a training session in the lockdown (for those online classes we teach), somehow every time one particular option of ‘floor exercises’ or ‘locomotion exercises’ never wins the poll. They are smart to understand my language and what I mean, so it is virtually impossible to disguise it as any other option. So Anjan and I, end up teaching it (against their will) as our choice at least once a week. Movement exercises unfortunately have no instant reward or satisfaction of doing three hundred burpees, or the fact that you can’t count your calories (actually you can estimate every physical activity but that is a different matter), or you might end up looking stupid or incapable, or it’s just the attitude of ‘it’s too hard’ or a dislike towards it. Reasons may be one or all, but most of them have forgotten the importance of movement as a form of physical activity. I always make it a point to add these movement practises/drills in my training methods. Some of our gymnasium students or visitors have not really understood why we do Friday’s movement classes. I am hoping that after reading this post the purpose of movement practise is understood.

It was 2010, preparing for something serious at that point of time I was looking for training methods to become more mobile and I had started to move away from conventional bodybuilding style of training. I started exploring martial arts and I stumbled an interesting man called Ido Portal. I was (am) nerdy enough to dig deeper for knowledge, almost intuitively I looked up his work. It did not strike me almost six years later the main stream media would feature him on GQ (UK) or I never imagined back then, this man would become a Messiah leading a global movement culture. In my opinion it is Ido Portal and his disciples (present and former) who represent the movement culture in its true sense. Many mistakenly believe that it was McGregor that made Ido popular, but if you really understand a man like Ido and understand his work, you will dismiss this disbelief.

‘The Ido Portal Method’ is a work of genius the roots of which can be traced to ‘Hacasa’, Ido Portal’s Capoeira and Movement School in Haifa, Israel. Ido’s work is hard to understand at first as his videos on YouTube may not really give the correct picture of him or what he actually does, but if you manage to dig deep on your own with your own critical thinking, you will find treasure! I will leave that exploring work to you readers. Note I am not going to violate any copyright, or intend to drive traffic (on ethical grounds) to my page adding his videos, so please find it yourself on YouTube searching for Ido Portal and in the playlist- watch the collection ‘Ido Moving’. His thoughts are profound and he tells his followers to walk next to him, not behind him. His talks or ideas might not be suitable for all as he talks about “breaking the dogma” and some of things are best heard from the man himself. It is Ido’s work that has inspired me to work more on movement and look at all the diverse nature of human movement.

Another reason why I integrate movement practise is the inspiration I got learning movement drills and preparatory exercises of kusti (wrestling). In our city (Mysuru) it is not so uncommon to see people practising the so-called “animal flow”. Visit the Chamundi hill you will find group of seasoned pailwaan (indigenous wrestlers) walking up hill and down hill on tarmac in their ಹುಲಿ ಹೆಜ್ಜೆ (literal English translation is not possible so let’s call it ‘Tiger Walk’). This is one of the most effective conditioning exercises in my practise. Some simple variations of the quadrupedal movements can include –

• Bear Crawls
• Crab Walk
• Frog Jumps
• Monkey crawl
• Variations of bear crawl

Complex variations of movement are –

• Inch worms
• QL Walk
• Cossack Squat transitions
• Bridge Walk
• And other Capoeira drills

The readers can learn these with simple practise of performing these patterns on floor for a minute, resting for a minute and repeating as needed. The techniques and execution of movement some few variations are complex, and may need coaching inputs. I will be adding a video footage of my demonstration of some of the exercises shortly.

Move my dear readers. Be nimble!

QUOTE THAT INSPIRED ME TO WRITE THIS BLOG POST

“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.” – Bruce Lee

All rights reserved. Copyright © Abhijith Ravindra

My podcast ಶಕ್ತಿ Shakti is now available on Spotify. In our second episode, Shane who is a pro athlete, movement artist and a dancer shares his experiences of being a B-Boyer and his ‘streetfitmovement’. Link attached in the end of this post. Episode is also available on SoundClound. Release date – 5 May 2020, Tuesday.

SOUNDCLOUD LINK – https://soundcloud.com/shaktipodcast