Human development and performance are not linear. Whether we are watching a child learn to move, helping an athlete develop their capabilities, or supporting someone returning from injury, there is a progression that needs to be respected.
The GPTQA Flow provides a framework for understanding that progression.
At its simplest, the GPTQA Flow demonstrates the development of a human from the foundations of MIND and BODY, through MOTOR, FUNCTION, FITNESS and SPORT. Importantly, it is not simply a one-way pathway. When something goes wrong – particularly when injury occurs – we can use the flow as a cycle, working backwards through the stages to identify what may need attention before progressing forward again.
The Foundations – MIND + BODY
At either side of the bridge are two fundamental pillars: MIND and BODY.
MIND
The MIND represents the psychological and sociological makeup of the individual.
Stress, anxiety, fatigue, confidence, motivation and the environment around us can all influence how we move and perform. When the mind is under stress or experiencing anxiety, it is very likely that the body will not perform at its best. Performance is not simply physical.
BODY
The BODY represents the physical makeup of the individual.
Strength, mobility, coordination, pain, injury and physical capacity all influence how effectively we can move and perform. And just as the mind can influence the body, the relationship works in the other direction. If the body is under duress, injured or experiencing strain, it is very likely that the mind will also be affected. The two are interconnected. Before we ask someone to perform, we need to understand the person.
MOTOR: Learning to Control Movement
Once we have considered the foundations of MIND and BODY, we move into MOTOR control.
Motor control is about our ability to control movement, from the simplest actions to increasingly complex ones.
This includes both fine and gross motor control. Fine motor control might involve using your fingers to pick up a small object. Gross motor control involves controlling larger movements of the limbs and body.
These foundational movement skills are easy to overlook, particularly when the end goal is sport or performance. However, effective movement begins with the ability to control the body. Before we can ask someone to perform a movement under pressure, we need to establish that they can control the movement in the first place.
FUNCTION: Putting Movement Together
Next comes FUNCTION.
Function relates to the body’s ability to perform coordinated movements, such as walking, running, jumping or squatting, without additional load. This is where motor control begins to become meaningful movement.
Can we walk effectively?
Can we squat with control?
Can we coordinate our limbs?
Can we move our body through space without unnecessary compensations?
Function provides the bridge between simply being able to control movement and being able to perform movement effectively.
FITNESS: Adding Load and Demand
FITNESS takes function and adds load. We can think of fitness as loaded function.
A bodyweight squat becomes a weighted squat.
Running becomes running faster, further or against greater demands.
The fundamental movement pattern remains, but the physical demand increases. This is an important distinction. If someone cannot perform a movement effectively without load, adding significant load may simply reinforce an existing problem. Fitness should build upon function rather than replace it.
SPORT: Fitness with Rules and Equipment
At the top of the progression is SPORT. Sport takes fitness and introduces additional parameters. We add equipment, rules, opponents, decisions, speed, pressure and unpredictable environments.
A person might have the fitness to run quickly, but sport asks them to do it while controlling a ball, responding to an opponent, following rules and making decisions.
Sport is therefore not simply “being fit.”
It is fitness applied within a specific environment.
The GPTQA Flow in Practice – Human Development
The progression sounds logical, yet in practice it is often fast-tracked.
Consider a four-year-old child who is placed into a sporting team. They may be told to kick a ball, keep it inside the lines, follow the rules and play like their favourite professional footballer. The sporting environment can be a fantastic tool for development. But there is an important question to ask:
Can the child actually control their body well enough to perform the movements required of them?
If they are still developing fundamental motor control and functional movement, the answer may be no. This doesn’t mean that children shouldn’t participate in sport. Quite the opposite, sport can be the tool through which development occurs.
The focus, however, should remain on the child’s functional development rather than simply expecting them to perform the sport-specific task. The sport becomes the environment in which we develop the person.
The GPTQA Flow in Practice – Injury and Rehabilitation
The GPTQA Flow becomes particularly useful when we experience injury.
A common response to a sporting injury is to return to the gym and start rebuilding strength around the injured area. This makes sense. Strength is important. But strength sits within the FITNESS component of the flow.
If we immediately return to fitness without asking why the injury occurred, we may miss something further down the chain.
Could there be a functional limitation?
Could there be an issue with movement?
Could motor control have played a role?
Could the individual’s physical or psychological state have contributed?
Simply strengthening the area around an injury may improve capacity without necessarily addressing the underlying movement problem.
Rather than viewing rehabilitation as a straight line back to sport, the GPTQA Flow encourages us to cycle back through the stages. At each stage, we ask whether the individual is ready to progress. If they are, we move forward. If they aren’t, we identify the weakness and address it before progressing. This creates a more considered pathway back to performance.
There is no fixed timeline
One of the most important aspects of the GPTQA Flow is that each stage can take a different amount of time. A particular stage might take 30 seconds. For another person, it might identify a weakness that requires weeks, months or longer to address. The framework isn’t about spending a prescribed amount of time at each level, it is about checking the foundations before increasing the demands. The flow adapts to the individual.
Whether we are working with a child learning to move, an athlete trying to improve performance, or an injured individual returning to sport, the temptation is often to focus on the end goal. The GPTQA Flow asks us to look at what comes before it. By respecting the progression, we can use sport and performance as tools for development while recognising that sometimes the best way forward is to take a step back.
NOTE: The GPTQA Flow was originally developed by Graham Dudley, CEO of Global Performance Testing International.
