Let’s look at how best to perform a posterior horizontal weight shift with minimal knee bend.
Don’t panic.
Ok, intuitively and emotionally, you might just have panicked a little. “I hope this doesn’t come with a quiz.” Or, moved to power off mode. And switched off.
In sport as in life, acceptance of weight that takes you backward means that soon you can shift your weight forward, with greater force, and that can be an advantage.
From picking stuff up to springing into action the hinge pattern is a fundamental movement skill. Piggyback’s make life seem a little better and a little simpler too. A posterior horizontal weight shift with minimal knee bend.
Weighing somebody down with lots of information is much like coaching the hinge pattern. Weigh them down too heavily and you might not get them back. Lighten the load, dumb it down too far, and you might not go back far enough to learn anything at all.
The flip side of dumbing down information is the necessary work of ensuring we can get back up, to achieve what feels impossible. The work of understanding what is necessary to know, what is possible to achieve, and what can feel impossible when we begin.
| Crawl. From the ground up Hinge Pattern | |
| Necessary: Crawl | Hinge pattern safely for conditioning purposes |
| Possible: Walk | Lift own bodyweight using a hinge pattern |
| Impossible: Run | Game-changing levels of strength1.5 x 2 bodyweight |
The ability to curate, organise information should be as fundamental a skill as a hinge or squat pattern. A skill that allows us to see the necessary information we need to move on. And as importantly the gaps in knowledge that hold us back.
Here is the necessary information to move from a walk to crawl in the hinge pattern. Remember when you are reading this, it may be necessary to feel like you are going backward. But backward is exactly where you may need to go, as it is necessary for forward movement.
| Crawl. What is necessary Hinge Pattern | |
| Prerequisites | Circumferential breath mechanics Toe Touch: The ability to touch your toes. Active Straight Leg Raise Score of 3 Hinge Patterning |
None of the information presented here is complex. It requires nothing more than a remedial understanding of how the body works. A standard of knowledge, necessary for us to move well.
Moving well should be our expectation, not an enviable standard.
As in life, it is advisable although not mandatory that we earn the right to proceed. Crawl before we walk. The alternative is to dumb ourselves down so far that we risk falling backward, so far in fact, that we can’t get back up again.