Movement Drills

Diver's Prep is used to help the body connect with ground and over the power point of each foot. It should be used daily as an anchor for connection with 1) ground, 2) connection with breath and then 3) safe effective movement after the first two connections are correct. 

Titanic helps to teach the body where the "power point" of foot is located and how to properly move through this key point on the foot. 

The Heel-Toe Drill with Knees Together, teaches the body to roll through the feet and utilize the power of the medial arch. It also teaches the push off from the power point of the feet to help engage the powerful posas muscles. 

The Stork Drill improves strength of the muscles that work the medial arch to point and flex the foot.  It also helps teach you that walking and running can be made much more efficient by using gravity to power you forward when you are walking or running on a flat surface. 

Walking across a river on a log teaches us to walk with our knees closer together. This is the first step in unlocking the hips for walking and running. It helps the hips to move more naturally and lubricates the head of the femur in the hip joint. It also saves the knees because the femurs are designed to rotate. When the femurs rotate, this takes rotational strain off of the knees. Key for reducing knee pain and preventing knee surgery. 

The Cigarette Out Drill helps open medial and lateral rotation of the femur in the hip joint. This rotation is critical in keeping the hip joints and knee joints healthy. It is useful to prevent hip and knee surgery because it helps lubricate the hip, knee and ankle joints. 

The Cuban Motion Drill comes from the ballroom community and was used to help open the hips and help train to keep the weight moving through the body center and over the medial arches of the feet. It is a useful exercise for all athletes because it creates flexible and powerful hips. 

The Dancer's Walk Drill teaches us to be sure to walk with turnout. To do this internal/external rotation of femur in the hip is needed and practiced. It also teaches mid-foot strike and to push off from the power point of the sending foot. 

Supercharged squats use a block between the knees and the hands for more complete muscle engagement making this a true full-body exercise. Having a block between the knees helps engage the abductors and adductors for a more complete leg engagement effectively pairing these muscles with the large and powerful gluteal muscles, the quadriceps and the hamstrings. This allows you to go safely and more deeply into a squat. 

Side lunges are critical for sports like tennis, football, lacrosse, volleyball and even golf. When done correctly, side lunges teach how to move from the power point of the feet. This is important because it engages the deep psoas muscles which creates a noticeable increase in hip flexibility, speed, strength and balance. 

Air Bench connects the feet to the back while opening the back and teaching the quadriceps and hamstrings to work together. Great for opening a tight back and for opening tight hamstrings. 

The slant board is very effective for opening the muscles of the back line, including the calves and the hamstrings. Other exercises are then added to teach core breathing and how to move using breathing to engage the core muscles to lengthen and strengthen the spine which helps reduce back pain. 

The Dancer's Eight Count Step Drill teaches us to move our legs in all directions. This improves balance, coordination and strengthens all of the muscles that direct the movement of the femur in the hip joint.