This is a good one to turn on the posterior shoulders. Simply grab the band and put some tension on it to make and hold a ring shape. Now take the entire ring through the figure-8 cycle as you stand on one foot or walk across the field. The challenge: to be strong while you're moving. Fun and functional.
Play as if Your Life Depends on It
Natural movement and living for the human animal
Crosswalk
This is a two-step movement. Take a diagonal step around your partner, then another to block their path. Just as you step in front, your partner takes her diagonal step and so on. We're still getting this one smoothed out, but once you get it dialed, it should flow smoothly across the field.
Band woodchop
This is a basic diagonal stroke with lateral rotation of the shoulder and gobs of participation by the hips and torso. Use a robust band along with some partner resistance.
Band heckle
Set up with the band around opposing ankles and move as desired. The only "rule" of this game is to keep the tension on the band. Heckle your partner with your movement. You'll be amazed how it pumps your lower body.
Band crawl
Get yourself a set of stretch bands. They're cheap and versatile. In this example, put one around ankles, the other around your wrists and start crawling.
Hip resist TVP
This one is advanced, but worth exploring. Get the rope wrapped and stabilized around your hips, then have your partner give you resistance. Try smooth resistance or heckles in standing or in hopping.
Plank with stretch band
This one is obvious. Be sure you've got your torso stabilized into a good plank position, then start your movement.
Over and under
Get your partner to set up with two golf club separators, one held high, the other low. Step or jump the low one, then duck under the higher one. This is basic bush and terrain navigation; over and under logs and bushes. It's also good for sport performance and it's fun too.
Power Tow
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Start with a big-diameter soft rope. (Try a marine supply store for the best selection.) Then just wrap around your waist and get your partner to give you some smooth, appropriate resistance. You can tow straight ahead, but it's better to get your partner moving left to right. This forces the action into the frontal plane and makes things more interesting. Power your way across the park, switch roles and return the favor.
Heckle walk
Coach Vern Gambetta tells us that his goal is to “build a better biped.” This is great counsel, not just for athletes, but for any human animal. With this in mind, gather up your group and set up a “heckle walk.”
The core idea is simple: promote the ability to walk smoothly, powerfully and effectively in the face of unpredictable obstacles and destabilizing challenges. So, you’re going to take a short walk across the park. Pick a point on the other side of the lawn and make for it, walking with big powerful strides. As you do, your hecklers take up position in and along your path. As you pass, they can heckle you in one of several ways: they can give a light push to hips or shoulders, they can simply stand in your way, forcing you to adjust your path, or they can use a golf club separator as an instant “log” that you’ll need to step over. In all cases, these are light heckles. That is, the idea is to force an adjustment, without seriously distorting the flow of the walk.
The main focus will be on the walker, but the hecklers get lots of movement here as well. They will need to run to take up new positions as the walker passes, leapfrogging their position across the park.
The virtue of this game is that it can be highly adjustable for different people and different purposes. The heckles can be light or more robust. If you’re working with beginners, you can keep everything simple, slow and easy.
For serious athletic training, you can make the heckles fast and vigorous. And of course, the walk can also be a run. Running with hecklers is not only good for the runner, it’s great for the hecklers as well.
Clearly, there’s a learning curve on this game. You’ll want to coach your hecklers to use smart and appropriate heckles. But when they get it all dialed in, you can have a great time with it.
Wobble med ball target touch
Just in case you aren't getting enough stimulation on two wobble boards, add the med ball and a couple of targets. Position your partners just the way you want, then start working the transverse plane. This is core conditioning, but it will also make your legs smarter. It will also wake up your brain.
Double wobble squat
Set up the boards as shown, then simply touch the floor. This one is particularly good for blue collar workers who work on tricky construction sites. It's also good for climbers and backpackers who travel onto slippery and difficult terrain. It's also just good fun.
Multi-plane reach with wobble board
This one is self-explanatory. All you need is a box, a wobble board and two willing partners. It works on a three-count. Two diagonal strokes to the front, then one back and behind. And whatever you do, don't lose your balance!
Ball heckle
Just hold the med ball out in front of you (you're on one foot) and call on your "coach" to heckle it. Your goal is to keep the ball in front of you without losing your stability. If you're the coach, your job is to supply just enough disruption to keep him working.
Multi-plane target touch
Set up as shown on the box with two partners. The idea is to pump your legs while you build strength, flexiblity and intelligence in your hips and torso. Try various speeds. If you're holding up targets, keep adjusting the height and width to give your friend a diversity of movements.
High-low heckle
This one might look competitive, but it's not. The point is to be a friendly opponent, to heckle your partner's balance through arm and leg. Your movements will be nudges. Don't try to win. Instead try to provide a bit of surprise and stimulation. Give your partner something to work with. Of course, you'll be working hard just as it is to stay on one foot, so do what you can. This game can be subtle and meditative or more powerful and robust.
No Crash Test
This game is reminiscent of aikido training. Start by putting a piece of tape in the center of your floor to use as a target. Then spread your group in a big circle around the perimeter of the room. Give them these instructions:
“Your job is to walk across the room by crossing the tape target. Don’t run into one another. Adjust your path to get as close to the tape as possible. Ready, go.”
As will instantly become obvious, there’s going to be lots of congestion in the center. The key is to adjust your speed and your body position to slide past one another. The aikido element here is to turn your body as necessary: either fill up space or create openings for others to fill.
There is huge potential in this game for variation and mastery. You might, for example, direct everyone to keep their hands behind their backs. This makes the game a matter of pure body position. Or, you can allow hand contact to hips and shoulders. In this variation, you can nudge people with light touches as you “swim” through the crowd.
Obviously, the game works best with the right number of people, something that you’ll learn through experience. Also, you can make things more interesting by adjusting the speed. Slow walks are easy and meditative, but when you move to a brisk pace, things get exciting. The stress is higher now and players will have to be alert and integrated.
Naturally, there will be some collisions in the course of this game, but keep moving anyway. There is still plenty to be learned by resuming your momentum after a glitch.
This game has the potential to be immensely rich and transformative. Practice it often.
Hi-low traveling touch
Two high touches, then two low touches, traveling across the field. It's trickier than you might think.
Use what you've got
Play a beat you can repeat. Use your golf club separators and any other toys you've got handy. We had a wobble board, a boat bumper and a 5 gallon water bottle. Stand on one foot to engage your butt, or add steps as desired. Make up your own licks.
Fitness golf
If you haven't got a set of golf club separators yet, it's time to get with the program. This exercise/game is fun and sweaty. Just get in the rhythm as shown. Be sure to use a strong stance and really reach high for the match at the top. Also, be sure to emphasize a complementary reach to the back side. In theory, you could do this same maneuver without the sticks, but the sticks give you the pop and allow you to really swing away. It's really fun.
Vertical breast stroke
This is a simple but powerful antidote for desk-bound computer bodies. Set up a stance as desired, then look up at the sky. Now pretend you're in the swimming pool, doing a lazy breast stroke. Hands go up, part the "water" and then circle back for the next stroke. As you'll soon see, this one really pumps the upper back and gives your spine the sensation that it's been missing all day. Play around with stance variations: you can do it on tip-toes, flat footed or in a lunge stance. In any case, feel the stretch in your chest and relish the way this movement turns on your breathing.
Stomp! lite
This one is a poor-man's variation on a typical Stomp! routine. Because it's super-simple, people can learn it in a minute and spend the rest of the time working up a sweat. Get yourself some golf club separators from the local country club shop and start making up your own physical rhythms.
Cliff edge line pass
This one is super fun, functional and engaging. Step up to the line and stand on one foot as shown. Pretend that the line is the edge of a cliff. If you fall off, the game's over. You can stand on either foot, but you'll find that putting the arch side to the line is more challenging. Start passing the med ball back and forth, but make your throws super-precise. The point is to challenge your partner to stretch just to the limit of his comfort zone and maintain his balance and composure. Be sure to talk it up. If the throws are too easy or too far out of reach, speak up! You'll also want to experiment with different med balls and distances.
Lateral hop pass
This is robust, but if you're game, it's worth it. Make sure that you're a good hopper, then get comfortable with the hurdle. Then, syncronize with your partner and you're off!
Dance Monkeys Dance
"Dance Monkeys Dance" is a slam poem by Ernie Cline, bastardized by Paulo Ang. This should be required viewing for all amateur and professional primatologists.
Alternative med ball
Just because it's a medicine ball doesn't mean you have to pick it up and throw it. Why not stand on one and do some rope-a-dope games? You might want to run away and join the circus after this one, or if nothing else, you'll enjoy some faster proprioception and a smarter body.
King of the circle: 3 or more
If you've been playing tthe King of the Circle game, you know that it's fun and a really good pump for legs and torso. You've got to be aware of your position and you've got to be both solid and agile. This one-on-one game is a good one, but there's no reason that more people can't step in. Make the circle bigger as necessary, then invite 3, 4, or 5 people in, with the same set of instructions: stay in the circle by holding your ground or by maneuver and guile. With more people things are more unpredictable and even more fun. You can't really say where the next challenge will come from, so you'll have to be flexible.
Head fake med ball
Active med ball passing demands a certain level of concentration and as such, is a good antidote for those of us who are afflicted with various levels of ADD. (Given today's fragmented, multi-tasking environment, this includes many of us.)
In this game, set up a small group in a circle and choose a med ball big enough to be physically significant. (In other words, there should consequences to missing a catch!) Now start passing around the circle, but mix up the directions. In other words, pass left or right or across the circle at your whim. Once people are comfortable with this movement, start adding eye fakes and head fakes to the action. Make eye contact with one person, then throw to someone else. This increases the concentration demand.
Now, increase the challenge further by moving around the room at will. Fake a throw, step, turn and throw. Everyone has to be on full alert now. If you keep the intensity level high, players will enjoy a highly focused experince and break a sweat at the same time.
Log field slam dunk
If you done some GoAnimal games, you may be familiar with the popular "med ball slam dunk through hula hoop." This is a great game because it offers great movement and if you're so inclined, a major pump.
So, let's go one step further. Get yourself some of those plastic golf club separators (they're cheap plastic tubes). Set up your group across the room or field. At one end is the hoop master, holding the hula hoop at an appropriate level. At the other end is the athlete, holding a med ball and poised for action. In between is a line of hecklers, each holding two tubes, roughly at knee height. (These are the "logs" in the "log field.")
On the command "GO!" the athlete starts stepping/running over the "logs," then does a slam dunk through the hoop. As he goes to collect the rebound, the hoop master runs to the other end of the line and the whole process reverses direction. As you will soon see, the athlete gets a tremendous pump and even the hoop master gets some action.
If you don't have golf club tubes, you can simply play light defense. Defenders get between the athlete and the hoop and force him to maneuver. After the slam, the whole field changes direction.
(photos coming soon)
Team builds
This is a game/exercise that you create on the spot. It’s basically a choreography. The group leader picks a movement that he likes and calls it “1.” The next person adds a move and calls it “2.” Everyone rehearses 1+2. Now the next person adds another move and calls it “3.” Everyone rehearses 1+2+3. And so on, linking the sequence together into a smooth, flowing movement.
For fitness, you’ll want to mix things up with a diversity of moves. Some flowing, some focused, some fast, some slow. If someone chooses an upper body movement, try to follow with a lower body step, squat or lunge. If someone does a powerful jump, follow with a slow, graceful sliding movement or a couple of quick hops. The point is to make the sequence both holistic and integrative.
In any case, keep adding movements and rehearsing the sequence each time. Eventually, your memory capacity will be taxed and you’ll want to either call for a stop, or better yet, a cyclic return to the original movement. This way, you can loop the whole process and turn the phrase into a musical-movement theme.
Clearly, this process requires a certain amount of leadership, but also a willingness by the leader to get out of the way. Guide the rehearsal, but don’t interfere if someone chooses movements that aren’t to your liking. The point is to work with what you’ve got. If someone makes a poor choice, just keep working to smooth out the sequence.
Ultimately, the whole thing tends to work itself out. Everyone in the group gets to have a voice and everyone gets to work through the rough spots. Once you get a sequence dialed, you might want to write it down for future use, or just let it go and create a new one next time around.
Partner sit back diagonal
Set up as shown in the clip and start moving! As you'll see, this one really turns on your quads while it fires your torso. Plus, it builds a sense of teamwork.
Aiki med ball
In all probability, you’re already using a medicine ball in your gym or training facility. You’ve probably got some basic drills, plus you just like to have fun throwing the thing around. In most settings, med balls are used for core conditioning, but there are actually many ways to use them.
hard ball
This most obvious use is for no-nonsense strength conditioning; we might call this macho med ball. The goal is to build power in your torso, arms and legs. Use a heavy ball and heave it at your partner with as much power as he or she can handle. On the receiving end, take the throw straight on and absorb the energy with muscle. Be strong and tough. Work from a good stance and feel the power in your hips, legs and abdomen. Then return the throw. This is good work.
oblique ball
Oblique ball is also a strength event, but now you’re working diagonals. Your arms are acting as lever arms that transmit power to and from your torso. The whole idea here is to work your abdominal obliques. The basic move is similar to the woodchop. Look for a diagonal throw to your partner and squeeze your abs on both the throw and the receive. If you’re doing it right, your torso will get pumped.
soft ball
Aiki ball is an entirely different kind of movement. The goal is not to exercise power, but to practice the subtle art of non-resistance. Receive the throw, but without conflict. Blend with the pass. Catch the ball, but create an arc that redirects the energy and returns it back into your throw. Specific instructions are difficult because there are so many possible adjustments and arcs; you'll just have to try it. (This practice is best conducted outdoors and well clear of obstacles. It takes some time to learn the trajectory of your return throws, so be ready for errant passes)
the aikido connection
You can even imagine that the med ball is a punch attack or a knife strike. The first priority: get your body off the line, get your torso out of the way. Receive the attack by making the movement your own. Get inside the path of the attack and adjust its trajectory to meet your needs.
This type of med ball practice won’t build fitness in the conventional sense. You won’t really build core strength or power. But you will increase your physical intelligence, especially your sense of position and your total agility.
Welcome to the GoAnimal Weblog
GoAnimal is a health and fitness philosophy that is primal, practical and playful. Primal, in the way that it pursues core physical qualities and connects with human evolution. Practical, because it teaches us how to integrate movement into our daily lives and train for the way we actually live. Playful, in the way that it creates new games and looks for humor at every opportunity. By combining the study of human evolution, functional performance and play, GoAnimal provides an integrated philosophy that is meaningful, sustainable and highly effective.
The GoAnimal method is described in detail at www.goanimal.com and in the book Play as if Your Life Depends on It.
Please note that I’m available for seminars, presentations and workshops. Visit www.playformance for complete information.
Cheers,
Frank Forencich
Seattle, Washington
