How to Improve Your Coordination: The 15-Minute Neuro

Introduction

Hey, hi, and hello everyone! Welcome to the RNP Lab, where we’ll once again discuss neuro-postural reprogramming this week. In this neuro quarter, we will answer two questions, as we are inundated with inquiries. We’re trying to connect the dots between those questions, and this week, there’s a significant link, even if the audience is a bit different.

This week's questions are: "What are the priority elements to work on in motor coordination for children and teens?" and "What exercises should be included at the beginning of training (Thai boxing) for coordination and range of motion?" So, we’ll be discussing coordination a lot, and then range of motion.

Motor Coordination: From General to Specific

When we talk about coordination, it’s quite broad. We can touch on several concepts. We always refer to cephalocaudal development, meaning what happens at the top before what happens at the periphery. I would start with everything related to eye-hand and eye-foot coordination.

Convergence Exercises for Eye-Hand-Foot Coordination

An example of a convergence exercise is juggling two, three, or four balls with the hand, then gradually incorporating the foot, as done in soccer. What’s interesting in coordination, as we delve a little deeper into motor patterns, is the dissociation of upper-lower and also left-right, particularly for hemispheric commissures. Basic coordination is walking, so we need to revisit all the steps that lead to walking: turning over, crawling, etc. All these stages can be beneficial.

The Crucial Role of the Cerebellum in Coordination

Coordination is strongly linked to the cerebellum. Rhythm and correlation heavily rely on the cerebellum, so it’s essential to work around that. The cerebellum is structured like a butterfly, with a body and lateral parts. The lateral parts are used a lot. Everything is interconnected, so a balance exercise can improve coordination since it’s part of the cerebellum.

Everything related to finger and arm coordination falls under the lateral part of the cerebellum. More central aspects, like balance, pertain to the vermis of the cerebellum. We need to work on coordination through the parts that enable this, starting with motor skills in a broad sense, and then in a finer way depending on what we are looking for and the tests conducted. If a cerebellum test reveals a problem in the median part, we know what needs to be addressed.

Making Coordination Exercises Fun, Especially for Kids

For a child or adolescent, it’s essential to keep it playful. These types of exercises can be made very fun, especially in a group. We can set goals related to sports or practice, with objectives for cerebellum development. This makes the session super cool, fun, and engaging. We actually have a lot of such exercises on our training platform, in the exercise section, with about 500 videos correcting movement.

We aim to transform something that might seem complicated when discussing vermis and cerebellum into something very easy to implement, without people being overly aware of it. The goal is to integrate postural work through play. For people, it will be a warm-up, a game, and in the end, we will have reintegrated what needed to be. That’s pretty cool! As they say, the success of your program depends on engagement, and almost everyone loves to play, so making it fun makes things much more accessible.

I made a big mistake in my life: wanting to implement something learned exactly as is, immediately. When I started to understand the power of neuro, I wanted to implement everything. Now, I implement it in a playful way so that people don’t consciously notice it. All my warm-ups are based on play: a fun game, a collective group game, friendly competitions, and collaborative thinking games. This requires a lot of creativity from me, but in the end, it’s well-received. It fosters group engagement and develops cohesion, which is very positive for performance and coordination.

Coordination and Primitive Reflexes for Thai Boxing

There are quite a few primitive reflexes related to coordination. To answer the second question regarding exercises at the start of Thai boxing preparation, we will focus on the neuro aspect, as there’s so much to say about physical preparation. In boxing, many primitive reflexes contribute to the development of various coordination skills.

Reflexes and Specific Movements

• Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR): It develops coordination and helps cross the midline, which is very interesting. Many people cannot touch their knee with the opposite hand because they can’t cross that line.
• Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (STNR): It’s interesting for head-arm-leg coordination and allows communication between the visual, proprioceptive, and vestibular systems, thus aligning with cerebellar work.

I like to incorporate segmental turns in warm-ups, and I recommend doing this in Thai boxing. On the ground, do turns using your arms, legs, head, or both. This enhances overall coordination, works on spinal rotation, and the ability to move in various positions, which is essential in boxing, a sport with an interesting transverse plane. This frees movements and provides more organized and fluid motions, which also meets the demand for range.

Other Important Reflexes

• Palmar Grasp Reflex: Allows hand-leg coordination.
• Babinski Reflex: Frees hip movements.
• Galant Reflex: Releases hips and allows overall motor coordination.
• Perez Reflex: There are many things that work on coordination. It’s essential to know when and which ones to use, as we can find exercises common to two or three reflexes, allowing a good warm-up and a strong start to preparation.

To know which reflex to focus on to free up coordination, testing is necessary. If you are on our online training, you will find tests and exercises. In our online postural follow-ups, we target what is blocking you based on your sport, imbalances, and issues. We observe significant improvements in a very short time on major problems. This is interesting when seeking performance: we directly target and develop the individual in the most optimal way possible before wanting to specialize in their sport, in order to eliminate limitations.

Avoid Early Hyperspecialization and Value Play

It’s important to emphasize, especially for children, the need to avoid early hyperspecialization. Canadian studies on developmental stages are fascinating to read, and they are full of games. The basic idea is to think about developmental stages to find the appropriate games relative to the objectives, rather than having a list of games.

Hyperspecialization, as you said, could be the subject of a webinar on its own. Some succeed with hyperspecialization, but they may be in the minority. There are always exceptions that prove the rule, but we cannot make it a general rule. It’s a trend to do static mobility exercises in warm-ups, but I don’t see the point since children move a lot and already have access to that mobility. Let them play, that’s what will maintain their mobility, because mobility is not flexibility or suppleness per se; it’s motor control.

I think it would be interesting to observe five or six-year-olds coming out of classes and heading to recess. They play with a ball; they do what they want! Like a leopard that needs to leap or run, it doesn’t need to stretch. That’s another discussion. I think we’ve answered this week’s question.

Every Monday evening around 9 PM, we share this on our various platforms: YouTube, Facebook (Labo RNP), Instagram (Labo RNP), and on the Nos Minutes app. You will also find all webinars on our training platform. Questions are posed on Fridays. See you soon! Bye!