Regaining your balance: An important skill
NOTE - This post was originally written for our 'weekly warble' segment in a few Facebook groups for the community local to our gym.
Welcome to the weekly warble here at Ideanthro Movement!
In this week's warble I'm going to talk about one of the things that, when my clients do it, pleases me most as a fitness coach. The reason I'm going to talk about this particular thing is that it gives me a good excuse to explain why it's important.
So what is this thing that pleases me so much when my clients do it?
I am incredibly pleased when, as a client is practicing a movement skill and they happen to make a mistake and lose their balance, they then manage to seamlessly regain that balance again. This pleases me for several reasons.
At a very basic level I'm obviously pleased that they didn't take a fall in the gym, but it's more than that. Falls prevention is incredibly important at all ages, but it becomes more apparent as we age and cease to bounce off the floor without injury the way toddlers and children do!
Here's the thing that's often overlooked. For a fall to happen it requires two things to occur. First we must lose our balance, and second we must fail to regain it before we hit the ground or another object. Most of the time when we think about falls prevention we think about the first part, but the second is at least equally important. If we get better at regaining our balance once it is lost, not only does it make us less likely to fall, but it also opens up the possibility of learning new movements safely. As you get better at regaining your balance it makes it easier to practice and learn other skills like climbing, balancing, vaulting and many more.
And that's why it excites me when a client loses their balance and manages to seemlessly regain it. It's the possibilities that the recovery presents. It says to me, ok, this person has the opportunity to practice new movement skills without the risk of a fall, and that's exciting for me as a coach because it's a road by which my client can make progress and grow along their movement journey.
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