I recently attended ‘DNS applied to the Tennis Athlete’ in LA which was facilitated by Professor Pavel Kolar.
Pavel is an extraordinary Clinician because of his training, his experience, and his ongoing commitment to the evolution of DNS. He also has a superb team of Physiotherapists who travel the world delivering courses and contributing to the further development of the System/Approach.
I was having a drink with Hans Lindgren DC one night during the course, and we discussed Pavel’s Observational and Palpatory skills. He doesn’t take a patient history prior to assessing them, as he doesn’t want this information to bias his findings! He will also check scans after assessment, to see if his palpation was accurate to the information in the scan. It is this level of big picture upgrade of global function which sees the DNS Approach continue to lead the world in its ability to bring best practice to the table at the result level.
The third skill I want to highlight is the supervision of exercise/movement. Pavel and the Team of Prague Physiotherapists are exceptional at creating Global Centration. This means that the entire posture is organised for Global efficiency via the process of Developmental Kinesiology.
My confidence in DNS is a product of the changes I have noticed in my posture/stability/function as I practice, play and experiment with the neurodevelopmental perspective, and the incredible changes that I observe in my clients, as they improve through practice and understanding! Number one for me though, remains that DNS is Intrinsic to All of Us as Humans. If you have taken the time to study Evolution, you would appreciate how amazing it is, that we have the capacity to stabilise as Upright Organisms!
If you are seeing me in a consult, I will follow this process of Observation, Palpation (Bodywork) and Supervision.
Observation
I observe standing posture, single leg stance, squat, quadruped, Prone plank, kneeling lunge and most importantly your walking pattern. If you are coming from a sport or task based background, I will ask you to shadow the patterns that you want to improve or understand better, and this is a wonderfully buy-in for both of us, as we go deeper!
Palpation
I use a proprioceptive form of bodywork, to check in with the observations, and begin to change the habitual perception of the body. The treatment opens the window for change.
Supervision
When we go to the exercises, we start with the integration of respiration/stability in supine. The challenge for the vast majority of us is to learn that the diaphragm can change its shape to activate intra-abdominal pressure. This pressure is the basis for stabilising the spine from inside!
Learning how to bring the diaphragm into a horizontal position, and maintain this using stabilising function, is the basis for lengthening the spine intrinsically. This is practiced in supported positions, and progressively taken into more challenging positions, where coordination and balance challenges come increasingly into play.
The posture-movement spectrum that is observable in the first 15 months of life, is the movement template that is the key to full-function through your life-span! This is because transverse plane function is the key to gliding and the highest performance of skilful movement.
Our walking, running, hitting, striking, kicking and throwing patterns all require efficient rotation to be sustainable. You’re never too young or too old to start!