Part 3: Practice Efficiency Principles - The Practice of Natural Movement

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”

 

—Leonardo da Vinci

 

We acquire movement efficiency through practice, and that practice must be efficient. Practice efficiency requires a method to ensure that you use the energy and time you dedicate to improving your movement optimally to generate the best results.

Movement efficiency and practice efficiency naturally work hand in hand the same way movement skills and physical capacity work hand in hand. Understanding the twelve Natural Movement principles—focusing especially on practical, unspecialized, progressive, adaptable, efficient, and mindful practice—and knowing the movement efficiency principles is obviously a great start. In this part of the book, my goal is to share practical information to help you make your self-learning practice as effective as possible to boost your progress and maximize your results.

You put practical and unspecialized principles into practice by directly starting to learn diverse techniques from several Natural Movement skills. You apply the progressive principle by starting with the simpler and easier movements before proceeding to the more complex and difficult movements. You establish quality and efficient movement before adding volume, intensity, or complexity. Thanks to the efficient and mindful principles, you engage your mind to consistently increase the quality and efficiency of every movement you make. In the process, you naturally gain mobility, stability, strength, balance, coordination, endurance, overall adaptability, and greater levels of real-world physical capability. It is that simple.

Yet you don’t necessarily make progress just because of your intention and efforts to improve. Mindfulness by itself is not a guarantee that you will improve as fast as you would like, or even that you will improve at all. Learning whole, complex new movements or movements you’ve done before but haven’t known how to do efficiently can be a real challenge. Even after you’ve learned techniques, going through the progressions to develop higher levels of efficiency, strength, and metabolic conditioning is not always intuitive.

Beyond the specifics of each technique or movement variation you learn, there are many interrelated aspects of practice you need to pay attention to, and it can be confusing and counterproductive if you don’t do it right. In the absence of a teacher or trainer, you must teach and train yourself. Though the guidance and feedback of a competent person are always useful, this book is designed to help you be your own teacher. This part about practice efficiency principles is dedicated to giving you practical insights and simple, effective tips so that you can learn the art of efficient movement as well as the art of efficient practice.

The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means and the exercise of ordinary qualities . . . . These may for the most part be summed in these two: common sense and perseverance.”

—Samuel Smiles