Break it Down

I like the idea here about "grooving a habit so that you reflexively respond in the correct manner" ...

Exercise is like music!  When I was child learning piano, you would break it right down.  Take a couple of bars ... left hand ... right hand ... hands together.  Sometimes ... you would go over and over a specific fingering.  It did not always feel comfortable but once you got the groove of it, it would just flow!

Earlier this year I attended a functional fitness workshop as part of an educational conference.  The guy taking it gave me a lightbulb moment!  He said for years, we have taught children PE by teaching some skills and expecting them to go for it.  I used the analogy of music.  He used the analogy of writing.  First we teach children their phonics ... they make words ... then they make sentences ... then they put those together and do paragraphs.  Often in PE, we ask children to jump straight into paragraphs instead of helping them make words and sentences.  Wow.  Yes.  That was my experience too ... and as an uncoordinated child ... it wasn't a positive experience, I couldn't get it.

Yesterday I was working with my coach and this is what we did.  We took the movement of a push jerk and broke it right down.  We spent a lot of time just working on dropping into position with hips back.  Once I got that (and it took a bit) ... we added driving hips through and extending ... coming up onto toes and then once we had that ... we added dropping back down with feet jumping out.  Words ... sentences ... paragraph.  Back to the basics.  What do you need to work on?  Break it down and build it back up.  You won't regret it!