Developing the skills of movement, fitness, and athletic performance are a lot like developing the skills to read. The product is a sum of all the parts.
While certain phonetic “rules” make up the constructs of reading, certain primitive, reflexive movements create a foundation for advanced physical skill.
The more we practice phonetic skills in reading, all throughout life, the greater the likelihood we’ll be able to navigate a word or passage we don’t initially know how to read. Physical skill works the same way. The more we practice and maintain the basic skills, the greater the likelihood we can continue to advance when we hit “road bumps” in fitness or performance.
Lack of movement (sedentary) or too much of only a select group of movements (sport overspecialization) has limited kids “practice time” with the basic foundational movement patterns. This renders them with either no practice with foundational movement, or practice in only one context of movement.
In either case, a general array of foundational movement skills are neglected.
Crawling is one of the reflexive movement skills that provide the foundation for contra-lateral movement (gait), trunk stabilization, hip flexion/extension cycles, shoulder stability, and many other essential foundations for higher level learned movements like skipping, jumping, etc.
There is also research to suggest a significant amount of neural activity, improving communication between the two hemispheres of the brain. Crawling is used in various forms of modern cognitive therapy.
Inserting crawl variations into warm ups or integrating them elsewhere during class, practice, or training allows kids of all ages and levels to practice this essential foundational movement skill and reap the benefits for life.
The basic crawl pattern in as follows:
- Start in the “All 4’s” position.
- Either keep the knees on the ground (beginners) or lift the knees off the ground (advanced).
- Keeping the hips parallel to the ground and even (should not significantly shift side-to-side) the right hand and left knee/foot should move and contact the ground at the same time during the crawl motion, followed by the left hand and right leg.
To add a challenge (and more learning opportunity) to the crawl, have the kids crawl in multiple directions, navigate obstacle courses, or add resistance to the movement (weight vest, weight sled).
What to say when kids ask “Why are we doing this?”
- Crawling helps train your brain to run faster (have them stand up and do the crawling motion).
- Crawling makes your shoulders strong and healthy.
- Crawling uses ALL of your core muscles.
- If you’re going to be strong, fast, fit, etc., you have to be able to do what a baby does.
- It’s like running with bodyweight in a backpack. It’s a big-time challenge!
- It helps you be able to do more push-ups.
Brett Klika CEO and co-founder of SPIDERfit is an international award- winning certified strength and conditioning coach, author, and motivational speaker with over 20 years experience motivating and inspiring youngsters to a life of health, fitness, and performance.
Brett consults with schools, athletic organizations, fitness professionals, and fortune 500 companies around the world.
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