Fundamental and Skill:
Enhancing the Whole Through a Part
By
Adam Wolf PT, LMT, FAFS
This summer I was fortunate to have spent hours in the park with my three‐and‐a‐half‐year‐old daughter, Alexia. Simply spending time in a playful environment, observing how she develops movements that were not possible months ago, is a highlight of my life. Lately she has enjoyed playing catch as well as hopscotch, which proves endlessly entertaining because she hasn’t quite mastered the developmental skill. Skill is defined as “the learned capacity to carry out pre‐determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both.” Skills take on many forms, including those that emphasize control and coordination of large muscle groups, such as throwing, kicking, and tumbling, as well as those requiring small muscle groups that must be tuned precisely, such as fine motor skills.
Regardless of skill, performance is required to match the task to one’s capabilities, and is accomplished by applying a strategy to the performance. For example, a tradesman will choose tools and manipulate them in ways which match his capacities for exerting force while exercising fine motor control to the requirements of the material being used (such as wood or metal). These patterns are reinforced by repetition of task which allows for subconscious sequencing strategies, combined with the human ability to look ahead toward a projected result. Some strategies are more efficient than others, in that less time, effort, and energy must be used to obtain the end result, as the essence of skill is choosing and carrying out strategies that are efficient.
To be skilled is to ably adjust to changing variables, which requires a large movement vocabulary, also known as fundamentals. Fundamentals are defined as “of the minimum constituents without whom a system would be what it is, relating to essential structure, function or facts, as in fundamental change.” Related to Applied Functional Science (AFS), the fundamental understanding of Chain Reaction™ Biomechanics (CRB) and comprehending that joints/muscles concurrently move in all three planes of motion is paramount. This principle allows for an assessment strategy that utilizes authentic forces to look at an entire system with an integrated mindset, identifying asymmetries in specific parts of the kinetic chain that often result in pain and injury. AFS recognizes that the body is driven in a variety of ways (potentially via a hand, foot, or head) to create subconscious reactions that decelerate mass and momentum, thus stimulating proprioceptors (eccentric load) efficiently and, in turn, transforming energy to explode (or concentric shortening).
Enhancing movement fundamentals is a key component of AFS and the foundation for which skills are built. If a repertoire of subconscious reactions that the nervous system has previously encountered is assembled, the risk of injury is minimized and the patient/client is set up for success. Skill enhancement is first accomplished through a movement analysis and a thought process that allows for the part to be looked at within the whole. This paradigm allows for identification of movements that comprise a skill, specifically the points in time when the body transforms loading into exploding, called the Transformational Zone. A Transformational Zone (TZ) is unique to each task and allows for recognition of when a part is, or more importantly is not, working proficiently within the whole. Often there are multiple TZs for any activity, an example being walking – the first TZ being when the right foot hits the ground (right stride) and the second with the left foot (left stride). An understanding of CRB, combined with the AFS strategies of assessment, provides insight as to these TZs and whether the correct triplane motions are occurring.
Breaking up skills to the fundamental basis of the skill is a strategy to improve a skill set. Regardless of activity, the basic components of a macro movement, such as skipping, can be broken down into parts and worked on independently. This can (if integrated) simultaneously increase the efficiency of the skill. For example, jumping off two feet and landing on the left, followed immediately by a left hop to a landing with both feet repeated can enhance Alexia’s fundamental ability to skip by providing a similar TZ, which is landing on one foot and quickly hopping off. This movement pattern is called “jopping.” We can then tweak it a variety of ways, including utilizing components of a matrix system to enhance difficulty and variety of movement. The application should be fun and promote a proprioceptively consistent environment to that of skipping. It is important to note to those who teach, that any new performances can be difficult because the movement pattern is not “grooved” into our being. Therefore, it is the responsibility of a practitioner to coach fundamental successes that improve the skill of interest.
Resources:
• Gray, Gary. Functional Video Digest: Tweakology v.3.6
• Gray, Gary; Tiberio, David. Fast Function: Fundamentals and Skills
• Schmidt, Richard. “Motor Learning & Performance: From Principles to
Practice.” Human Kinetics Books, 1991