Basebuilding Against the Wind (Patreon)

• If you’re new to LMA, start with our table of contents

Basebuilding, in LMA terms, means building your base of support—the area of your body in contact with the ground that sustains your stability.

The activity

In the video, the practitioner begins seated on the floor, with their knees bent and feet flat. Their partner leans into them with their arms—gently but consistently—offering haptic information. The partner stops once the practitioner is up. The task is to stand without any gap in stability. It's not about rising quickly or slowly, but about moving in a Way that's undeniable.

We often rush to mask instability, but rushing often creates more instability—and risk. When we are stable, we can move deliberately. Yet too many steps can also increase instability. This is why we seek efficiency—not speed, not slowness, but undeniable continuity. This, in LMA, is flow.

Our solution

After many iterations, this is what our practitioners arrived at: a table position on the way up, supported by four points of contact. Context matters. This time, they're not starting prone; they begin seated.

Their four supports form a table: one hand and one foot in front, a knee and the ball of the foot behind. This new table allows them to maintain their gaze on their partner throughout. They transition to a half kneel and stand up.

The table is not a fixed form but a dynamic scaffold—adjusting moment to moment to support the rising center of mass. Instead of resisting their partner's force, they recycle it—flowing with the pressure, not against it.

Undeniable Ways

For safety and accessibility, we seek movement solutions that minimize points of weakness and don't rely on exceptional physical attributes. There may be many ways to move, but not all of them hold. In LMA, reliable means likely to succeed under pressure—not just when conditions are ideal. It means moving with assurance, not by chance.

Questions I ask practitioners:

• Could you move this way 50 years from now?

• Could you still do it 10 years from now?

• Is this solution only available when you're at your physical best?

• How would you move at your worst?

• If it's working—but just barely—would it still work if your partner were bigger, stronger, and pushing harder?

Possible guidepost:

• Can you find the half kneel on the way up and down?

Under just a little pressure, many solutions fall apart. That's the point. The partner's force is not an obstacle—it's guidance toward movements that hold.

– Sam