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The Halliwick Concept
James McMillan has developed the Halliwick concept since 1950 as a swimming method for people with special needs.
He based the concept on his knowledge of fluidmechanics and added to this theoretical and observational considerations on the reactions of the human body in the aquatic environment. This combination of fluidmechanics and the neurobiological answers of the body led to a sensori-motor learning sequence, called The-Ten-Point-Programme. This sequence leads a person from the adaptation to water to a basic swimming stroke. A central topic in the programme is the achievements of control over rotations around the various body axes. These rotations occur because of the so-called "metacentric” effects, i.e. the relationship between gravitational and buoyant forces. This relationship is being altered by changes in shape and/or density that occur in the disabled body.
Therefore a thorough assessment of both changes in density and shape is needed in order to predict the rotational problems that a swimmer with special needs might have.
The order of teaching in the Ten-Point-Programme is:
- Mental Adjustment / Disengagement
- Sagittal Rotation Control / Disengagement
- Transversal Rotation Control / Disengagement
- Longitudinal Rotation Control / Disengagement
- Combined Rotation Control / Disengagement
- Upthrust or Mental Inversion / Disengagement
- Balance in Stillness / Disengagement
- Turbulent Gliding / Disengagement
- Simple Progression / Disengagement
- Basic Halliwick Movement / Disengagement
The ten points have three stages of motor learning, showing the process-oriented philosophy of the concept. The concept therefore is very popular in neurological and paediatric rehabilitation and is often said to be “Bobath in water”.
In 1974 McMillan was asked to develop an exercise system, based on the Ten-Point-Programme, by the medical director of the Bad Ragaz Health Spa Centre in Switzerland. During a five-year research project, the Water Specific Exercises (WSE) or Logic Approach to Therapy in Water were developed.
The WSE takes into account all elements that are important in planning, executing and assessing the exercise therapy in water. It is therefore a clinical decision making system, which allows choosing between about 10.000 options, combined from the following categories:
- Treatment Objective
- Rotational Plane
- Starting Posture
- Exercise Pattern
- Treatment Technique ( including the choise for depth )
- Mode of Treatment
The photographs show some of the points, being applied either as group activities or as an individual exercise.
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Photo 1: Mental Adjustment, the snake, experiencing turbulence and facilitating head- and trunk control |
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Photo 2: Disengagement, a circle that increases its size and stimulates independence |
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Photo 3: Disengagement: bicycling without eye-contact. Facilitation of trunk stability and head balance |
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Photo 4: Sagittal Rotation Control: working on righting reactions and lengthening of the trunk |
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Photo 5: Vertical Rotation Control: exercising symmetry and selectivity durig graded extension |
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Photo 6: Lateral Rotation Control: the very important breath control in a proper alignment |
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Photo 7: Lateral Rotation Control: demonstration of armactivity |
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Photo 8: Balance in Stillness. Turbulence creates rotation, the swimmer has to stabilise hips and spine |
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Photo 9: McMillan working on longitudinal rotation, using turbulence in a resisting way |
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Photo 10: Breath Control during Mental Adjustment |
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Photo 11: Upthrust or Mental Inversion |
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Photo 12: Sagittal Rotation Control, stabilising the lower trunk |
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Photo 13: Transversal Rotation Control: catching toes, a classical Halliwick game |
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Photo 14: Balance in Stillness with an asymmetric metacentric torque |
Copyright © 2003-2008 - The Halliwick-Hydrotherapy Institute
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