Anyway, i thought of that when I saw this piece of research. It is about golf, but the principle is the same.
"Up until now, the evidence for 'loading the hips' has all been anecdotal," says Dr Su Stewart , who led the research. "Coaches emphasise it, and certainly any golfer can feel the tension the movement creates. What we have shown is how closely this relatively small movement correlates with increased angular velocity at the club head. A great golf drive is not simply about creating torque by rotating the body around the spine, it is also about creating torque within the hips by rotating the pelvis around the right hip joint itself."
In the study, eight right-handed male golfers with handicaps below five were tested in the laboratory with a variety of techniques including an array of 12 motion-capture cameras and 39 reflective markers (35 on the participants, four on the club).
When the results were analysed, significant correlations were found between club-head angular velocity at the moment of impact with the ball and left and right maximum hip moment. What's more right-hip torque was significantly correlated to swing intensity both at the top of the backswing and at mid-downswing showing that the right hip is instrumental in initiating and driving the downswings that achieve the greatest distance and so suggesting new avenues for both research and coaching.
3 comments:
This is called a side hip snap in Circular Strength Training vocabulary - a very common movement in sport and life in general (punching, elbow strikes, throwing, pushing, etc.). It may be new to the white coats, but this has been around as long as men have, and taught since the earliest martial arts were developed.
I train this movement regularly with clubbell training - specifically the lateral exercises such as the side swing, side semi and mill, among others. I think it's the most appropriate tool for conditioning that specific movement.
Peter Constardine demonstrates the power possible from a full ROM side hip snap in application to a few strikes. What's important to realize is that this power is available in martial art, golf, and any other physical activity.
Also, you can generate quite a bit of power from a less than full side hip snap. Even a much tighter twist can produce a lot of force, and one of the things I like to teach is to only use as much force is necessary to accomplish the task at hand.
Obviously with a self defense situation or driving a golf ball, you want to generate as much power as possible. But with other activities, it may be of benefit to conserve energy and only use a tighter side hip snap.
Good stuff, Chris!
physics? more joints that can be brought to bear more opportunities to generate, load and transfer energy??
just saying...
thanks Chris. outstanding finds
mc
Very neat. What he was saying about transferring the hip IR/ER combo from other sports - golf, ice hockey, etc. to striking is such a simple, but obviously powerful idea.
Post a Comment