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.
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