Mobility & Stability for Performance (MSP)

“A course that combines applied science with never-before-presented practical approaches, drawn from the toughest athletic contexts, to break barriers and elevate both function and performance through movement.”

Part 1: Pre-course online presentation, quizzes and reflective learning through references

Duration:

4 hours, plus extra time the student chooses when reading further references.

Assessment:

Short answer, true/false, and multiple-choice questions that reflect a concise, well-considered understanding.

Part 2: The Pillar 🧍

1. Course Description 📝

Background:
The concept of the core has evolved. We now refer to it as the “pillar,” defining it as the shoulders, hips, and the area between—the trunk or torso. The pillar allows for functional breathing, organ protection, control of forces, and force transmission. Performance in rehabilitation, exercise, and sports performance relies on the ability to respond and adapt to external and internal stimuli, blending mobility, stability, and motor control.

This part of the course discusses how motor control can be the limiting factor in sports performance. Successful human movement skills are built on central and peripheral processing of rich sensory information—context-specific and reflex-driven. Cueing, feedback, and dosage (as they relate to learning, retention, and transfer of motor learning) are well-studied yet rarely taught in applied settings.

The exercise drills provide a practical window on what has been deficient in 20th and 21st century rehabilitation, exercise, and sports performance science and a starting point to improve fundamental movement. These drills serve as guidelines for improving positions, patterns, and power. The ability to provide feedback and cueing on movement results, and the capacity to speak about mobility, stability, and motor control, will be developed.

2. Learning Outcomes 🎯

By the end of the Pillar workshop, participants will be able to:

Coach, cue, and educe mobility, stability, and motor control of the trunk using various drills, exercises, and techniques, with improving feedback, cueing, and dosage.
State the modern definition and purpose of “the pillar” as it relates to rehabilitation, exercise, and sports performance.
Describe a concise model of how mobility and motor control sum to produce human behaviors.
Classify barriers to performance into four main categories.
Recall the difference between static and dynamic motor control.
Demonstrate improved mobility and motor control of the pillar in multiple positions and patterns.
Apply functional breathing to enhance mobility and support motor control.
Determine effective positioning and patterning for pillar performance based on individual behavior.

3. Goal/Rationale for the Course 🙌

Raise conscious instructing and competency for students of rehabilitation, exercise, and sports performance.
Increase acknowledgment of mobility, stability, and motor control as a limiting factor in functional capacity.
Confront errors in exercise culture by improving understanding of the scientific systems and building blocks for movement skills.
Enhance students’ ability to assess motor control competency and improve the pillar’s movement skills for rehabilitation, exercise, and sports performance.

4. Content 📚

Pre-course online lecture: Harnessing brain power to optimize rehabilitation, exercise, and sports performance—layering neuromuscular output, feedback, cueing, and dosage for skill learning, retention, and transfer.
Live Lecture 1: The essence and barriers of rehabilitation, exercise, and sports performance behaviors.
Practical 1: Assessing rolling as the fundamental pillar mobility, stability, and motor control strategy (purpose, description, implications, and prerequisites for ground-level neuromuscular control).
Practical 2: Interventions to improve pillar mobility, stability, and motor control in ground-level, quadruped, transitional, and standing/walking positions. Students alternate between being coached/cued and providing coaching/cueing.

5. Student Responsibilities 🤝

Participation: Arrive on time, attend all lectures, and actively engage as both instructor/clinician/coach and patient/client/athlete.
Exercises: Fully participate in all drills, instruct peers, and read/study references diligently.

6. Optional Student Tasks 🤝

Discussion & Writing: Engage in group discussions; write clear analyses and syntheses of exercise drills.

7. Duration ⏱

2 hours

Part 3: Mobility drills for the upper and lower quarter, incorporating mobility of the pillar 🙋🧍🦵

1. Course Description 📝

Background:

Earlier, we explored that performance in rehabilitation, exercise, and sports performance relies on the ability to respond and then adapt to external and internal stimuli, blending mobility, stability, and motor control.

The first part of the course (“the pillar”) discussed motor control as a limiting factor in sports performance. This second part of the course continues exploring the expression, absorption, storage, and release of energy from the pillar, specifically involving the shoulder girdle and upper limb. Cueing, feedback, and dosage of learning movement—together with mobility drills—are crucial to higher performance in the upper quarter.

The exercise drills here provide an opportunity to improve the mobility to get into starting and finishing positions, essential for what is to come – the improvement of patterns to support power.

2. Learning Outcomes 🎯

By the end of this section of the course, participants will be able to:

Coach, cue, and educe enhanced mobility of the upper quarter, pillar and lower quarter using various drills, exercises, and techniques, with improved feedback, cueing, and dosage.
State the modern definition and purpose of, “the upper quarter” and “the lower quarter” in rehab, exercise, and sports performance.

3. Goal/Rationale for the Course 🙌

Raise conscious instructing and competency for students in rehab, exercise, and sports performance.
Increase acknowledgment of mobility, stability, and motor control as a limiting factor in functional capacity.
Confront errors in exercise culture by deepening understanding of the scientific systems behind movement skills, specifically improving mobility drills to support movement.
Enhance students’ ability to improve mobility in themselves and clients.

4. Content 📚

We will explore interventions to improve mobility in ground-level, quadruped, transitional, and standing/walking positions. Students rotate between receiving coaching/cueing and delivering it.

5. Student Responsibilities 🤝

Participation: Punctual attendance, active engagement, and involvement as both coach/clinician and athlete/client.
Exercises: Participate and instruct all drills, study references.
Discussion & Writing: Contribute to group discussions; provide clear written reflections.
Assessment: Short answer, true/false, and multiple-choice questions evaluating understanding.

6. Duration ⏱

3 hours.

Part 4: Upper and lower quarter static and dynamic motor control drills, including the pillar 🙋🧍🦵

1. Course Description 📝

Background:

Cueing, feedback, and dosage of learning motor control are rarely taught in applied settings. This part of the course explores these crucial coaching elements and accompanying motor control and stability drills to produce changed behavior and higher performance in the upper and lower quarters, involving the pillar. Drills will address performance behaviors such as rolling, crawling, climbing, chopping, lifting, running, jumping, landing, and changing direction—guidelines for improving positions, patterns, and power. The ability to provide feedback, cue movements, and articulate mobility/stability/motor control will be developed.

2. Learning Outcomes 🎯

By the end of the Lower Quarter workshop, participants will be able to:

Coach, cue, and educe static and dynamic stability and motor control of the upper and lower quarter using various drills, exercises, and techniques, with improved feedback, cueing, and dosage.
Describe a concise model of how mobility and motor control sum to produce human behaviors.
Recall the classification of barriers to performance into four main categories.
Practically regress and progress between drills that bias static and dynamic motor control.
Describe the concept of overflow and irradiation as it applies to the upper and lower quarter, involving the pillar.
Demonstrate improved motor control of the upper and lower quarter in multiple positions and patterns.
Apply functional breathing to enhance motor control and force production, absorption, and transmission.
Determine effective positioning and patterning for upper and lower quarter performance based on individual behavior.

3. Goal/Rationale for the Course 🙌

Raise conscious instructing and competency for students of rehab, exercise, and sports performance.
Increase acknowledgment of mobility, stability, and motor control as a limiting factor in functional capacity.
Confront errors in exercise culture by reinforcing scientific systems and building blocks for movement skills.
Enhance students’ ability to assess motor control competency and improve lower quarter movement skills.

4. Content 📚

Lecture 1: Review of the essence and barriers of rehabilitation, exercise, and sports performance behaviors.
Practical 1: Lower quarter rolling as a fundamental mobility, stability, and motor control strategy (purpose, description, implications, and prerequisites for neuromuscular control at ground level).
Lecture 2: Review of harnessing brain power for motor skill learning, retention, and transfer—focusing on neuromuscular output, feedback, cueing, and dosage.
Practical 2: Interventions to improve lower quarter mobility, stability, and motor control at ground level, quadruped, transitional, standing/walking, and greater-than-bodyweight positions. Includes linking movement prep for sports involving linear, lateral, and multidirectional running.

6. Duration ⏱

6.5 hours

Student Responsibilities 🤝

Participation: Timely arrival, engagement in lectures, and active practical involvement as coach/instructor/athlete.
Exercises: Full participation in drills, instruct peers, study references thoroughly.
Discussion & Writing: Contribute to practical group discussions; provide clear written analyses of exercise drills.
Assessment: Short answer, true/false, and multiple-choice formats measuring mastery of the course material.

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