From the Ground Up Athletic Performance Podcast Dr. Pat Davidson Episode 50 "RTBP 7 Pillars of movement, The propulsion arc, Mechanical Examination of Elasticity and Reactivity"
This week's episode marks my 50th episode and is my one year anniversary for the podcast. On this episode, I sat down with Dr. Pat Davidson author of A coaches guide to optimizing movement: Rethinking the Big Patterns. Pat also runs a great seminar series where he discusses many of the ideas mentioned on this episode. We start the conversation by talking about what inspired him to develop his own categorical system. Pat shares many of his early inspirations and how they drove him to think critically and also inspired him to synthesize the systems he encountered into an approachable and useable framework. Throughout the entire conversation Pat jumped around the 7 Pillars of movement, which is one of the foundational aspects of the approaches shared in RTBP. The 7 pillars of movement are as listed 1) Movement Quality 2) Movement Quantity 3) Movement Standardization 4) Movement Progression 5) Movement Strategy 6) Muscular Orientation 7) Muscular Action.
Within each of the pillars listed above Dr. Pat has organized a framework to help identify, adapt, and advance movement in light of the given focus or ability of an individual. We spend a good bit of time discussing Pillar 1 Quality, Pat shares the exercise taxonomy which lives under the quality pillar as 13 different motor patterns. These 13 motor patterns can be arranged under the umbrella of Control Patterns, Athletic Patterns, or Resistance patterns. Control patterns really tell us what an individual's potential is to correctly perform a given movement pattern. If individuals can't display it on the table they certainly can't display it under time constraints or in dynamic environments. Dr. Pat shares a good bit on pillar 3 which is movement standardization , which is where sensorimotor competency comes into play, what does the individual feel? What individuals feel may be a more telling example of a persons given proficiency than the coaches eye. Pillar 4 is described as an algorithm that can be used to build the desired motor patterns that are necessary and required to move. This pillar includes the 10 principles of progression, which may also be used to regress exercises to the specific requirements of a given individual. Pillar 4 also includes the propulsion arc, which we spend the last portion of the conversation devoted to. The propulsion arc encompasses three zones of movement, which are denoted as either expansion or compression dominant and are also incorporated into the gait cycle process. This pillar doesn't tell you why someone struggles with a given movement; however, it tells you how you can fix their inadequate forms of movement.
Pillar 5,6,7 allow for you to explain how pillar 4 was able to guide individuals towards more proficient models of movement. Pillar 5 is movement strategies (Compression/Expansion) ,Pillar 6 Muscular orientation (Eccentric/Concentric) ,Pillar 7 Muscular action (Yielding/Overcoming). We spend the last part of the conversation talking about the importance of managing forces, muscular orientation, and how the last three pillars can explain why someone is able to perform in a dynamic, elastic, and explosive manner. The last portion of the conversation is food for thought and something that has really guided my programming rationale and choices in recent times. Dr. Pat did a great job of breaking this dense topic down into something that is manageable and digestible. Check out his offerings listed below for an even more in depth dive.