Don’t Overlook Small Progressions In Life
Every Friday afternoon I proudly head up the Hughes Household “Daddy Daycare”. Currently not accepting applications and only comprising of one very cute almost 5 month old, Fridays are a day I look forward to.
My favorite thing is to witness my daughter’s growth and small changes. Two weeks ago during Daddy Daycare, I walked by my favorite ficus tree holding Kennedy and was elated to see her reach out to feel the leaves on this tree! It was a milestone moment for me and I was thrilled to witness it. Of course I had to repeat it several times to ensure she was intentionally reaching for the leaves. She was!
So last week I brought her up close to the tree to see what she would do and this time she reached out and grabbed a handful of leaves and squeezed them between her little fingers. It was clear grabbing was a new skill Kennedy added to her growing movement abilities.
Last night in an unprecedented leap in skill building, she not only timed her grab for the leaves as we walked by perfectly but she pulled as she grabbed! The synchronization of the grab and pull technique was something only a proud movement-obsessed Father would pick up on, but I was certainly taking note.
When you have a five month old life is a constant string of little progressions that build on one another. It’s been amazing to see her grow and learn daily. If you have children, you know what I mean. Each small improvement is noted and tested and logged away in the brain of the proud parent.
Why This Matters
Besides being a cute antidote of a proud father, this story reminds me of how often we overlook the progressions we make in our adult lives. Sure we grow the most as infants, but we keep progressing throughout our lives. Who is taking note of our daily advances or feeling concern over a regression?
I can say our team cares about the smaller movement progressions in your athleticism. We feel pride with the advances and progress our clients demonstrate. We feel pangs of concern any time we see a regression in movement. Together we’ve invested countless hours into training our eyes to pick up on the details of your movement. It’s our job to be as smart and attentive as a proud father of a five month old. Why? Because you deserve that level of care and attention.
Here are three reasons why you will benefit from this level of oversight and care:
- The Answer is Almost Always in the Details
We don’t expect you to know why something is happening in your body, but we do expect you to share with us what you are experiencing. Seeing dysfunction is one thing, but we’ll never be able to feel your personal dysfunction. Keeping the feedback loop open with you is critical. Knowing an athlete is feeling something is what catapults us into looking into the details. Never doubt the importance of your feeling. Our team is then able to find the details that matter and contribute to your movement advances. We have even provide a service entirely dedicated to observing the details free from distraction. Taking the time to analyze and determine which details contribute to your success is why we are passionate about the 3D Movement Assessment. That’s where so many details are unmasked!
- Catch the Evolution as It’s Happening
Athletes are always evolving. Sometimes an evolution is a progression to recovery or a new performance gain. Sometimes an evolution is a slight regression of flexibility and coordination that can lead to pain or injury. These changes can be so slight and small that they go undetected often by the athlete. Just like Kennedy may not recall the gains she’s making, so an athlete may not realize their speed is increasing until they test their mile time. But the parent, or coach, can catch it! This is a trained skill and enables our team to applaud in sincerity the improvements no matter how insignificant it seems to the athlete. It also enables us to alert the athlete to a shift in the wrong direction. Like anything, the sooner you catch a regression the easier it is to get back on track and reduce the risk of injury.
- Building to Success
Progression is worth celebrating. We all want to improve. We know in movement there is no such place as stagnation, there is only gains or losses. What is success for you? It’s unique to each athlete. We know that and love that. It makes our jobs interesting! We pride ourselves on vocalizing the progressions we see. We also pride ourselves on the ability to quickly identify regressions and share this with you to allow for proactive problem solving. We partner with you to keep you moving forward and are quick to alert you if you are off course of your goals. Why? Because one of the best feelings in the world is to achieve what you’ve set out to accomplish and we want this for you.
In Closing
Our commitment to you is to be proud, to take note of the details, to verbalize what we notice and to partner with you always to finding your personal success! We hope you feel this and see our team improving whether we’ve been a coach for one month or 10 years! We will continue to stay loyal to our learning curve so you are benefited!
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