Sports | Human Movement

Human Movement

Twelve years of climbing made me a specialist in a relatively narrow movement repertoire. Beyond climbing lies a much broader world of movement, with skills and problems that rarely appear on the wall.My movement practice started in 2023 at HiddenBody with Rich Andoh and Jori Meijer. There I learned a broader way of thinking about physical practice, working across strength, coordination, acrobatics, partner work and body awareness.

Explore the six fields →
At sunset in an outdoor training park, a human flag held horizontally from the upright of a bar frame, body straight and legs together
At night, hanging inverted by the feet from the girder of an arched footbridge, arms down, the bridge and the figure both reflected in still water

Practice

A Few Things I’m Practicing

A selection of skills and movement problems I have been working with.

Human flag

Wall run

Front lever pull-up

Handstands

Rail balancing

One-arm pull-up

Bat hang

Muscle-ups

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Beyond a single practice

Climbing taught me depth.

Movement is teaching me range.

Years of climbing taught me to refine a narrow set of problems to a very high level. Movement introduces unfamiliar tasks, different disciplines and new ways of coordinating the body. The aim is not to replace climbing, but to expand the physical vocabulary I can bring back to it.

Specialisation builds precision.

Variety builds adaptability.

In climbing I could return to the same problems until the response became precise. To develop skills outside that familiar domain, I have to accept becoming a beginner again. Movement deliberately puts me in situations I have not solved before, where learning the response is part of the practice.

The practice is organised around six fields.

At night, a front lever held under the deck of an arched footbridge over a canal, the body horizontal, lamplight along both banks and a moored boat below

The Six Fields

Human Movement is organised around six fields: Athletics, Acrobatics, Dance, Fighting, Awareness and Physical Preparedness.

Athletics

Moving the body through space with speed, coordination and control.

Running · Jumping · Displacement

Movement practice was brought into the open largely through Ido Portal’s Movement Culture. Marcello Palozzo made it concrete through the six defined fields, which form the structure of the Human Movement Studies programme I start in October 2026. I have trained across these fields since 2023; I did not define them.

At sunset beside water, a straddle handstand held on a wooden box, the sky orange behind a treeline

What a movement practice looks like

A practice usually begins with a warm-up, followed by a main practice built around two of the six areas below, and finishes with a cool-down. The emphasis changes from session to session depending on what I am working on.

  1. 01

    Strength & Mobility

    Building a strong, resilient body that can move freely through its available range.

    Examples

    Pushing, pulling, squatting, lunging, hanging and active mobility work.

    Common in gymnastics, calisthenics, strength training and athletics.

    A horizontal hold on wooden parallettes at sunset, body level and arms bent to about ninety degrees
    Bent-arm planche (90° hold)

  2. 02

    Locomotion

    Moving through space by continually shifting weight across the feet, hands and ground.

    Examples

    Sprinting, jumping, crawling, climbing, footwork, dancing and transitions.

    Found across parkour, breakdance, capoeira, athletics and climbing.

    Hanging one-handed from the underside of a bridge above a canal, one leg extended over the water
    Hanging under a bridge

  3. 03

    Partner Interaction

    Moving with another person, where timing, pressure and intention are constantly changing.

    Examples

    Mirroring, counterbalancing, manipulating position, evading, striking and responding to another body.

    Related to martial arts, partner dance, acro-yoga and other forms of physical play.

    Outdoors, one practitioner grips the other's extended arm with both hands and pulls him off balance, leaving him tipped forward on one leg with the other lifted behind
    Taking a partner off balance

  4. 04

    Handstands & Inversions

    Learning to support, balance and move while the body’s usual relationship with gravity is reversed.

    Examples

    Handstands, headstands, cartwheels, bridges, rolls and basic inverted transitions.

    Common in gymnastics, breakdance, capoeira and circus practice.

    At night, a straight handstand on the narrow stone coping of a canal wall, water to one side and lit houses behind
    Straight handstand, canal wall coping

  5. 05

    Play & Games

    Using changing rules and unpredictable constraints to solve movement problems in real time.

    Examples

    Reacting to commands, dodging, chasing, reading space, deciding quickly and improvising.

    Seen in childhood games, football, martial arts, dodgeball and many forms of physical play.

  6. 06

    Throwing, Catching, Kicking & Striking

    Interacting with moving objects to develop timing, accuracy, tracking and coordination.

    Examples

    Throwing and catching balls, kicking moving targets, striking objects and juggling.

    Found in football, basketball, tennis, juggling, dodgeball and racket sports.