Observational Mobility
I am a gait enthusiast. I will observe gait wherever I am until I get a sharp jab in my ribs from my wife. I try so hard to explain the gait cycle to her and the pelvic tilt and reciprocal upper- and lower-leg motions but she never buys it and I get the stink eye from her all day.
Being in therapy, there is a natural observation we do with people. Are they standing up straight (I find military folks this way), do they have a Folsom Slump (I find inmates this way), and when a person has an extra rotation and pelvic drop bilaterally I find a black eye and sleeping on the couch the hard way.
The very first time everything clicked for me, I was driving down the street on my way to school and observed what looked like a professional roller blader. As I approached the person, very basic movements were made even clearer and the fog of symmetry and mobility after a year in school was lifted from my eyes. I don't think I passed any tests that day but I did understand gait and mobility better after that.
When I have recounted the story about the roller blade person, some think I am joking. It had to have been the gross mobility of both the upper and lower extremities working together to propel this person forward that made things easier to understand. I have approached some therapists about a time in school when things clicked, especially with gait, and they looked at me strangely. Like they understood it since they could crawl and therapy school was a breeze to get through. Maybe it was for them and they never got called into the director's office multiple times like I did. Sorry Joe and Randy, if I made teaching harder than what it was supposed to be.