Essential mobility vs. non-essential sophisticated drills

Mobility training seems popular these days. I’ve been teaching mobility drills for decades and I’ve been through multiple iterations.  

Let’s first define mobility as “voluntarily moving an articulation through its full rang of motion (ROM)” 

As opposed to flexibility training, wherein you hold a static position.  

Just as in exercise, there are simple mobility and compound mobility movements.  

An example is internally and external rotating the upper arm, versus performing a full-squat, butt-to-floor.  

Some people refer to locomotion drills as mobility— for example, a bear crawl or a duck walk.  

And then, there are drills encompassing complex movement patterns, such as the bio mechanical drills used in some Russian martial arts.  

What I’ve found, over time, is that the more complicated the patterns and flows, the less carryover value to anything else.  

I avow that such drills are a waste of one’s time, being mere skills with no practical purpose for the average householder.  

An example

I saw a complicated video tutorial on how to progress to the so-called lizard, or crocodile crawl, which is a sophisticated cross-crawl pattern in which the trainee hovers about one-inch above the floor, requiring prodigious agility, motor ability, and strength. Outside of looking very cool, it has little real-world application.  

There’s no reason not to do it, but, if your goal is to improve in a certain sport or recreational activity, you’re better off simply doing more of your activity to develop its specificity.  

Sticking with the tried and true basics of forward-and-back bending, spinal extension, spinal twisting, shoulder circles, and rotations of wrists and ankles, shin-rolls, squatting, and the like, are all viable, useful drills that enhance your ability to move and perform universal sports activities—especially those requiring more than average ROM, like jiujitsu.  

I have seen people getting carried away with so-called animal flows,—which is fine, if you have the time and interest, and desire something outside of sports training—but don’t do it with the expectation of improving sports performance in your chosen sport, in which you’d do far better to exercise and practice the specific drills and movements of that sport, in order to improve.  

Case in point 

I had a guy who came to me recently, and he enjoys playing basketball. “Dave” had been feeling stiff and tight, and was getting winded on the basketball court during fast breaks.  

Attempting to make his body more supple, he started a program of animal flows and crawls… and soon realized that it wasn’t helping his basketball game at all.  

Now, I’m not claiming to know anything about basketball— and I may go down in history as one of the all-time worst basketball players in the physical education department of Westchester Teaching college—I was a wrestler, for goodness sake! 

That said, I understand motor learning, and the law of specificity — and one set of skills does not transfer to another.  

To become good at something, you must practice it in as close to game conditions as possible.  

I put Dave on a basic strength training program using body weight and timed static contraction (TSC) isometrics, and a regimen of stretching at the close of each day. During the week, I advised Dave to do “basketball stuff” like ball-handling drills, various shots, practicing lay-ups and rebounds, and for specific conditioning, to perform “suicide sprints” on the court, and fast breakaways, while dribbling the ball. In other words, physical rehearsal of what he’d be doing in a live game.  

Dave soon found that his wind had improved and enjoys much better performance on the court.  

In essence, there is nothing wrong per se with acquiring animal flows and sophisticated movement complexes—if you like that kind of thing—but don’t expect it to increase your ability in any other recreational activity.