Hello Dear Steven,

The grace and smoothness of the WBI gliding test is not computing from my hands to brain in a way that is allowing me to feel confident to prescribe a heel lift and or what size of a lift to give out.

I have read your blog from the 9/11 clinic where you provide some helpful tips on accurately performing the gliding WBI test were u suggest spreading the feet wider apart, and gliding the pelvis from side to side with smaller movements that provide a greater input of accurate perceivable data that allows us to really feel the femur head lock up or collapse.  I need to put more miles on this and i am looking forward to, and i would appreciate some more advice or tips on how to go about mastering this procedure, as it is of the utmost importance for this work, yet there are blocks i am facing with this right now?

A patient i saw this week was in need of a heel lift and when his posture was evaluated the lower right shoulder blade and gluteal fold was higher than left, when a heal lift of 7mm was placed under the right heel, the shoulder blades and gluteal folds balanced. However, I was not able to convincingly feel it was the right lift when testing him from gliding side to side, but i felt it was helpful for him because it did balance out his posture. I am wondering what your thoughts are on this, to me i obviously want to feel it is the right lift for a person based on the gliding test having balance on both sides of the gliding, but im curious if looking at the posture balance out is analogous with the gliding or rocking of the pelvis being in balance?

Thank YOU

Forest

hmmm.  i know you know i am going to say this, so i don’t want to disappoint you:  we prescribe a WBI correction based upon FUNCTIONAL DYNAMICS of the pelvis with precision and accuracy, corroborated as needed by tentorial Breath symmetry… and NEVER as the result of casual random observation of landmarks!!!!!  NEVER NEVER NEVER if yo are choosing to be truly responsible based upon this model.  if i felt that changing landmarks is a reasonable therapeutic goal i would have developed and taught it.  the system works… based upon probably 10’s of thousands of clinical case success!  don’t short it.  check it out.  make it work for you.  it is the best thing out there that i know of (humbly).  if you are having problems, check your hand placement:  low enough on to the femurs and off of the pelvis; lateral enough to be on the femoral necks.
while one can generalize that eventually the shoulders and gluteal folds will level out eventually, this is often not the case initially… and might take a while to manifest or depending upon other factors they may never totally level, however the WBI would be in integrity….  ot answer your question directly… OBSERVATION OF POSTURAL SHIFTS IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR OR ANALOGOUS TO THE GLIDE OR ROCKING TEST!  sorry to be so emphatic but i want to be totally crystal clear!  go back over the tapes.  if you do not have them get them.  practice on everybody!  this is not that hard… and it is way too important of a therapeutic tool to not become proficient.
have blessed holy days (and nights)