Basebuilding to Uprising (Patreon)

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

Getting up from the baby crawl position with no gaps in stability—demonstrated by a child.

Analyzing child's play

A child begins in a baby crawl position—stable, low to the ground, at ease. From here, he lifts one hand and places a foot in its place, forming a new configuration with four grounded supports. Then, using his lead knee as an armrest, he leans into it with his free hand, transitioning to a half kneel—another strong position. Using the armrest, he pushes himself up to standing. It's an unhurried, seamless, and stable transition. So stable, in fact, that he punctuates it with a spontaneous jump—joyful and unprompted.

Adult exploration

Part of what we are exploring as adults through the LMA approach is the child's intuition. For adults, complex movements often become techniques and forms to memorize. But for children, those same movements emerge as expressions of comfort, curiosity, and moment-to-moment correspondence with gravity and ground. For them, it's subtle Wayfinding. For adults, it's often trial, error, and somatic re-education.

Don't mimic his mechanics—seek what made them possible: comfort, sequencing, support, intuition. Your task is not to memorize the movement but to dwell in the conditions that gave rise to it.

Tips for adults

• Slow down.

• Don't mask instability with speed.

• Pause in each phase and feel into its stability—or instability.

• If needed, use the half kneel as a guidepost on the way up and down.

• When you press into your knee, feel the ground press back.

• You are a bridge between ground and air—let the ground push you up.

• And maybe—only if it feels right—you end with a little celebration.

– Sam