Clean Run - August 2020 - 15

A Few Well-Designed Movements
By Stacy Weeks
"A few well-designed movements,
properly performed in a balanced
sequence." -Joseph Pilates

Handler fitness has become very
popular in the UK in recent years,
with many people now trying to offer something in this area (worryingly, many are unqualified). But looking at the handler side is actually not
new in the UK. Steve Croxford, former Chairman of the GB Kennel Club,
introduced Dog Agility Quickness
(DAQ) in the 1990s. One of the handlers who qualified in this program,
Mary Ann Nester, had a professional
background in sports and is now one
of my clients.
Just as the title of this article (the
words of Joseph Pilates) suggests,
less can be considerably more if it is
well planned. The focus and objective must be relative to the goal in
order to see long term results, not
just quick fixes.
August 20 | Clean Run

In the UK, dog agility has changed
significantly. When I started nearly 13 years ago, we were still weaving the dogs on one side only! Our
sport, and it is becoming a sport (for
the humans as well as the dogs),
has changed over the years, looking
quite different to the hobbyist activity it started out as, entertaining the
crowds in a demo at Crufts in 1978.

I'm going to help you see how big
changes in your movement ability, speed, and coordination can be
achieved without having to flog
yourself in the gym. You don't have
to be a certain age, height, weight,
speed, body type, or gender to be
successful at this sport.

Stacy working with a client.
For anyone who doesn't know who
Joseph Pilates was, he invented
Pilates in the early 20th century.
Joseph moved to New York after the
first world war, and his method is
now practiced globally. Pilates is a
very specific strength and conditioning program. It is used by sports professionals all over the world to help
them improve their sports performance. It is incredibly versatile and
employs the art of concentration
whilst moving.

My own Pilates studio and biomechanics clinic in the southwest of
England works with all sorts of people, including Olympic athletes/prospects. In 2013, I started working with
agility handlers, using Pilates and basic strength and conditioning exercises. Every one of those handlers, many
of whom I still work with today, saw
the benefit in the ring and reported
that they were moving better. The results continue coming in, and Control
Precision Flow™ is now in its seventh
year. The program uses elite sport
protocols to help dog sport handlers
move better. Unlike some other programs, it is backed by science and research, drawing on a wide range of
fitness disciplines, not just the regular fitness training, and strength and
conditioning exercises you get from a
personal trainer/coach. My program
is now the longest-running dedicated fitness program for dog sport handlers in the world.

Understanding What Our Sport
Requires of Our Bodies
Basic fitness exercises are great if you
want to lose weight and get a general level of cardio and muscular fitness, but we need to look more at
what our sport needs our bodies to
do and how our dogs need us to run.
This is different for everyone and
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Clean Run - August 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - August 2020