The only muscle that can limit knee extension, regardless of hip position, is the short head of the biceps femoris. We stuck an acupuncture needle in it, released a trigger point, took him to full extension, cleaned up the soleus and got his ankle moving.
-Gray Cook
The Applying the Model to Real Life Examples resource has some very provocative and evocative information. Most would be surprised that I follow Gray Cook closely, as I don’t use the FMS by the book, save two tests that I feel are very important for training and I score them based on degrees. His information has a lot of great gems and I suggest his book Movement and this DVD as part of one’s library. Unfortunately I believe some of his colleagues need to be different minded to create a wider perspective on therapy since like minded people inbreed thought pathways, thus limiting the evolution of great ideas. I find it interesting that Cook used nerve stimulation and not movement or corrective exercise to fix an athlete, something that people need to talk more about. Did Gray find the hamstring restriction on the leg raise test? Did the the NBA team not use the FMS to find the restricted biceps femoris?
We don’t need more Gray Cooks, we need more independent thinkers who will have a great counterpoint that force the audience to draw their own conclusion. I am far more curious to see what Gray does differently, or what he gets from visiting people that are far different in their approach. I wish Gray would have sat down and listened to Kelvin Giles talk about physical competence and share his thoughts on the PCA. It would be great to see what Brett Jones thought of the PCA scoring methods and test selection. What if Cook got Dartfish Certified? What would screening look like in 2016? What do certified FMS followers think of the Access and Correct resource? We need more talking and discussion, not splinter cells. Following one methodology is for lemmings, not leaders. Frankly I use what I want and this perhaps bothers many organizations or groups, but it’s about choosing the best options for the athletes.
I often take the opposite view of popular ideas to create harmony and keep centered, and this is keeping me from getting burnt from bias. Thinking different isn’t just a good Apple advertisement, but it’s healthy not to be on the bandwagon of things. Out of the box thinking is now common enough that conventional wisdom is new, but just having an open mind is a great start. Open enough to let in good discussion, not too open your brain falls out. I think the next few years we will see more and more open approaches as we look ourselves instead of thought leaders for direction.
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