How can I hit/throw/punch/kick farther? The Kinetic Chain.

[kyleb]

Many people in this forum and the Internet in general want to know how to throw a football farther, how to hit a baseball into the bleachers, how to deliver a side snap kick harder, or how to land a punch with devastating effects. All of these activities use the arms or legs, leading many to believe that strengthening those body parts is what allows you to add power or distance.

It's not necessarily true. Take, for example, the act of throwing a baseball. Will strengthening your arm allow you to throw the ball harder and farther? Possibly - but you're focusing on the wrong body part. Utilizing the arm to throw the ball is a good way to land on the surgeon's table. Why is this?

In all of the activities I listed, though the arms/legs are the part of the body that gets the most attention, the real way to increase performance is through better understanding of the kinetic chain. Let's take a look at Barry Bonds hitting his record-breaking 756th home run:



What can we learn? Note how Barry strides sideways to the target and begins the swing with his legs, rotating his body and eventually "throwing the hands" at the ball. (I hate this cue for hitters, but it's a good start for visualization.) The act of rotational hitting (the opposite of linear hitting - think Roberto Clemente for the opposing mechanics) is meant to generate maximum swing speed through the zone. To do so, the kinetic chain has to be in place and followed in the right order:

1) Establish a firm base (stride leg plants initially flexed, then firms up)
2) Rotate on the base (legs and torso rotating on the front leg as it firms up)
3) Deliver the projectile through the release point (in this case, the bat)

To better deliver the bat through the zone, most power hitters hold the bat upright and slightly pointed at the pitcher. This is often called the pre-loading phase of the swing, because in doing so it allows the hitter to simply "hinge" the arms downwards and "maintain the box" (with his arms/shoulders/torso) as he simply rotates his body and release his hands to attack the ball. (That's all a bit complicated and not necessarily relevant to a non-baseball activity, but a full explanation might help some.)

Here's a side cutaway view of David Wright. See how he pre-loads and simply rotates his body to launch his hands?



Here's a super-slow-mo image of the Big Hurt:



How can this help non-baseball people?

That's a fair question. Let's take a good non-sport example, say, punching someone in the chest. Assume that we'll be using a right-hand dominant orthodox fighting style taught by many MMA trainers and traditional martial arts schools:



Weak hand leads, slight sideways tilt facing the opponent, hands up at chest level. (I don't want to get into the debate of various alternate fighting stances found in styles like Jeet Kune Do, which is more of a linear way of attacking the opponent.) We keep the head still and face the opponent at a slight tilt, primarily using the weak arm for defense, feints, or grabs, while the strong arm delivers strikes and begins the advanced grapples.

Now, when we deliver a punch to the target, it is critical to follow the kinetic chain of events to deliver maximum force. All of the aforementioned steps will be of use: Solidifying a firm base, rotating the hips/torso, and finally the arm comes through to strike the target. You'll see some fighters use counter-rotation in the hips to deliver knockout blows - this adds to the power of the swing at the cost of time. Even on jabs and light hooks, you'll see the torso lead the attack if it was meant to damage the opponent.

What are other applications of the kinetic chain?

A very good example came up when I was playing high school soccer. In a group of midfielders, my coach was working with us to improve our defensive abilities and to ensure we didn't get beat on the counter-attack by their strikers and midfielders. One of the primary attacking tactics in soccer is the overlapping run: A defender or midfielder carries the ball near the sideline, passes the ball to a close midfielder or striker, then sprints past his man where the teammate plays the ball back at him and moves down the line, rendering the initial defender useless and burned upfield. To defend against this highly useful tactic, you need to cut the attacker towards the sideline while simultaneously keeping your eye on passing teammates of the attacker to ensure your man doesn't overlap you and burst down the empty sideline. It requires the ability to read the man with the ball.

The default approach to reading the man with the ball involves looking at the attacker's feet and the ball placement - you react to his motions. This will work on lesser skilled opponents if you are fast enough, but the better midfielders have superior foot skills and speed. Even if you possess higher skill than the attacker, you have the unfortunate problem of responding to his attack. Try telling someone the exact spot you are going to touch them on the head and stand 2 feet away from them. See if they can block you more than 10% of the time as you simply touch them on that specific spot. Even when they know exactly where you are going, they can't do anything about it - their reaction time is simply too slow to stop you. So, how can we read the opponent? By using the kinetic chain against him.

When you are lined up with an attacker who might be attempting an overlapping run or a long cross, look at his shoulders, not his feet. This takes time and lots of training before you'll get it down without being burned, but it's the only way to stop the better players. When he goes to pass the ball or set up a long cross, he will firm up a base to do so and rotate his shoulders/torso to initiate his kick. When you see any alteration of the torso, you can cut the angle off and force him to adjust - now you're on the attack and he has to defend.

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I hope this was informative - if you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear them.

[Godfather80]

Well done.

[GetThere1Time]

I generally just lurk here but I just wanted to say I enjoyed this post. The first thing I thought of when I saw this was racquetball. I was a big casual racquetballer in college and the hardest thing for me to grasp was how to land a powerful strike on the ball so low to the ground. I did some research when I was learning the game online and found proper technique is the same idea. It starts with your legs planted 90 degrees to the wall with your shoulder and arm cocked in the opposite direct and your waist twisted a bit, basically you wind yourself up. And rather than hitting the ball with your arm you start the swing with a strong snap of your hips which brings your torso around, then your shoulder, your elbow, and finally your wrist snapping at the end. When done correctly you actually exert very little force in your arm and it sort of just acts like a whip with a racquet attached to it. Needless to say my game improved greatly once I got this down. Unfortunately, your front foot stays planted while your body twists forward which is why you see most long time racquetballers with knee braces.

[That Foreign Guy]

Good post.

Back in my younger days I used to get into "disagreements" with people at the bar quite a lot (macho students think they can prove their toughness by taking on soldiers). You can tell if a guy is serious by watching his torso - if a shoulder moves backwards he's throwing a punch with the other arm.

But yeah, try throwing a punch in the mirror without the opposite shoulder going backwards. Unless you're in almost a completely side on stance, it's almost impossible (and even harder to throw a good one).

The surest way to throw like the proverbial girl is to not involve the kinetic chain properly. As anyone who has tried to learn how to throw with their off hand will know - there's a lot of stuff that goes on in a throw before whipping the arm through.

[maniacut]

comment on playing defense in soccer applicable to playing defense in basketball. If you're solely watching the ball you're going to get burned, i've learned to focus on the guy's core and waist to predict which way he's going.

[cbloom]

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But yeah, try throwing a punch in the mirror without the opposite shoulder going backwards. Unless you're in almost a completely side on stance, it's almost impossible (and even harder to throw a good one).


[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, those are still not trained power punchers though. With a boxer throwing for power, you can see the punch start in the legs; they'll actually crouch down a bit first to bend the legs and then explode forward and jerk/twist the whole body, just like a good MLB hitter.

The thing that's so cool is that when people really use the chain right, it looks so effortless. Barry just swings so smooth and fast you wouldn't think he's getting all that power, but when you use the legs and core muscles it's so much easier.

[Rootabager]

it's hard for me to teach girls to throw a frisbee using their body. They all want to throw with arm only.

[Blarg]

Nice post.

Re martial arts application, one of the keys that martial artists try for is to be non-telegraphic. A non-telegraphic fighter can be significantly slower yet still land the first strike, and that's often enough to make the outcome almost inevitable. There are any number of handicaps that can be overcome simply by being non-telegraphic.

Being non-telegraphic means you can't fire off an initial attack by leading with the body unless you first get someone out of rhythm or responding to a feint, or do what is called attack by drawing -- that is, you leave an opening you know a guy will go for, so you can counter. Those tactics comprise a higher level of fighting that is not necessary with many opponents, but can be necessary with people who prefer to counterattack, and even with some people who are not fighters at all, but simply have good natural rhythm and are alert. Being a beat ahead or behind can make being non-telegraphic unnecessary.

But for most situations, being non-telegraphic is vital. So martial artists try to make both light strikes like jabs and finger strikes and strikes that involve more use of the body unnoticeable until it's too late. That kind of thing is not necessary when hitting a baseball, but is one of the more interesting and frustrating aspects of martial arts. Stand in front of a mirror and try to do a kick or a punch that you can't really see coming visually until it is at full extension. It can take many years to be both that fast and that non-telegraphic. And that's just when you're standing still!

There are so many things to watch for - the head bobbing up and down or slanting on the neck, a shoulder rising or dropping or tilting, a strike going out less than straight so that it becomes more eye-catching, the hips buckling, a dip in body height before launching, a change in foot position, a slight turning of the body, etc. And then there are things that you might not think about much, like a tiny change in expression or a change in breathing. To make a strike or any kind of first move really come out of nowhere, especially to the eye of someone well-trained, is a high achievement. What usually happens is just that we see something but can't stop it. And that may be enough to win a fight, too. But that can usually be conquered or significantly lessened as a threat simply by working on your own speed and timing and becoming more aware of range. But a non-telegraphic attack can't be stopped, and that's what makes it a kind of holy grail. It's not everything about a fight, but with a little luck, it could be, and it's an incredible asset worth many years of practice.