Crawling

We just started our first pre-season baseball fitness module today, & it made me think up this post. I use crawling quite a bit in both conditioning & rehab. In fact, my wall slide routines for the injured shoulder are nothing more than modified crawling when you think of it. If you are fortunate enough to attend this year's GAIN meeting in Fla, Steve Myrland will put everyone through his crawl progressions in our AM workout.

A few of my pals are going to be new baby daddys, so I thought I'd post some research on crawling. Here is a quote from Dr. Carla Hannaford, a biologist who specializes in children with learning disabilities:

"We have known for years that children who miss the vitally important crawling stage may exhibit learning difficulties later on. Crawling, a cross lateral movement, activates development of the corpus callosum (the nerve pathways between the two hemispheres of the cerebrum). This gets both sides of the body working together, including the arms, legs, eyes (binocular vision) and the ears (binaural hearing). With equal stimulation, the senses more fully access the environment and both sides of the body can mover in a more integrated way for more efficient action." She recommends the book, "Caution, Save your baby, throw out your equipment" by Laura Sobell.

However, the topic is not without controversy. David Tracer, associate professor of anthropology, health, and behavioral sciences at the University of Colorado at Denver studied indiginous cultures and challenges Dr. Hannaford's theory. Read on:

http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=103153&org=NSF