Q about developing hip strength/torque for sports/martial arts

[teddyFBI]

I'd be especially interested in hearing from anyone who trains in the martial arts.

I've always been a pretty good, albeit not elite athlete, train w/ weights regularly and am in good shape.

But one thing I've been told incessently, irrespective of what sport I'm playing, is that I'm not using my HIPS enough. Happens in all sports that require some hip rotation to generate power -- baseball, golf, tennis come to mind. And now I'm getting the same feedback from the instructors in muay thai kickboxing that I've just recently taken up. I'm told my kicks are all legs, and no hips, meaning that guys half my size can generate substantially more power than me, even though there's probably not a free weight movement that they'd outlift me in.

Same goes for golf/baseball/etc. I just seem to be terrible at tapping into the force that comes with good hip rotation.

Am looking for some way to improve this -- is it a technique that just comes with repitition/practice, or are there exercises I can do to train myself to do this better?

[TheBlueMonster]

I'd say repetition and practice. But if you want, get those rubber excercise bands and loop one end around a stationary object, the other around your ankle. Go through the proper kicking motion...just make sure you've got the resistance.

Of course I could be totally wrong but it makes sense to me

[Alobar]

beat: you're bad at sex

[kyleb]

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But one thing I've been told incessently, irrespective of what sport I'm playing, is that I'm not using my HIPS enough.

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Me too, man. I'm not getting enough hip/shoulder separation when it comes to pitching, which leads to me not throwing nearly as hard as I should.

It's a question of mechanics and skill, not muscle mass and conditioning.

However, if you want to build those muscles, you can do core strengthening routines (tons of them on Google - my favorite ones are squats and cable rotation) and generally condition yourself by losing bodyfat. Increasing flexibility in your leg and core muscles will help as well, but overdoing flexibility can lead to a loss of power (at least it does in pitching).

[mbillie1]

I trained in muay thai for about 2 years. Mostly it's technique, you don't need particularly strong hips or anything, you just need to have the appropriate balance and leg delay with your kicks. If you're being told that your kicks are all legs, most likely your legs are out in front. It may be helpful to try to think about leading with your hip (which, if your legs are in front, will usually result in a balanced hip/leg/foot kick). But AFAIK there are no specific hip strength exercises that will benefit you.

[kyleb]

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I trained in muay thai for about 2 years. Mostly it's technique, you don't need particularly strong hips or anything, you just need to have the appropriate balance and leg delay with your kicks. If you're being told that your kicks are all legs, most likely your legs are out in front. It may be helpful to try to think about leading with your hip (which, if your legs are in front, will usually result in a balanced hip/leg/foot kick). But AFAIK there are no specific hip strength exercises that will benefit you.

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This sounds like the exact advice I'm getting from my pitching coaches with regard to hip/shoulder separation for velocity improvements. If you replace the word "leg" with "arm" it's the exact same thing.

Delaying your strikes/throws/swings/whatever by powerfully pulling your arm/shoulder/leg around with your hips is the best way to do anything that heavily relies on core muscles. This includes punching, golfing, swinging a bat, throwing a pitch, delivering a roundhouse kick, etc.

[Thremp]

kyleb is spot on. You just gotta practice. Its probably horrid form that causing this problem since if you weight lift on a regular basis you should have a very strong core from deadlifing/squatting.

Not having any clue what I'm talking about starts here: Maybe focus on "throwing" your hip and snapping your leg around with it could help you visualize it better?

[daryn]

it's more of a mental thing just to get the mechanics down. when you're throwing a roundhouse kick just (assuming you are in a right-handed stance) step forward and to the left with your front foot (approx. 45 degrees) and just swing your right leg like a hammer. your hips are doing the swinging. keep your leg extended, don't do a snap with the knee like a karate kick or something. just do it over and over and over until you get the mechanics down.

[jetfish]

Punching is the best thing I can think of.
Feet roughly shoulder width apart, one foot slightly ahead of the other.
Square up to the (bag/person/watermelon) you're punching, hips/shoulder basically parallel to the plane of the surface you're hitting.
Lead foot/hand are the same. When you throw the punch, you're after almost a 90 degree rotation in your hips and shoulders. You should end up with a straight line from your knuckles(big 2 only, other 2 break easily) down your wrist/forearm/upper arm/shoulders.

Since you're focusing specifically on hip rotation, pay attention to it. Look down, make sure you're starting off parallel. Do it in slow motion, watch the rotation. Pay attention, critique yourself. You should feel the power in just the rotation, whether you throw the punch or not.

You can also test the power you're getting from the rotation by extending your punch almost all the way before you throw it. Leave it 1-2 inches off the bag, rotate your hips/shoulders like normal and pop the punch. You should generate almost all the power you do with the longer windup. Bruce Lee popularized the 1 inch punch, as I recall. His theory was all the power came from the entire body uncoiling at once, and the fist itself didn't need to travel far.
If you want to develop muscles in your hips, that's a whole different thing. Easiest and most embarassing way to do that is hold a leg straight out in front of you, as high as you can lift it straight(stretch beforehand). With that leg held out straight the whole time, move it from in front of you, to the sidekick position. Keep it straight, and move it around to the back(full 180 from where it started). From there(in back) bring it back to the sidekick position, and back to the front. Set it down. That's 1. The goal with that exercise is to move your leg extremely slowly. After you can do 10 or so with each leg(and super freakin slow), find something 3-4 feet tall, and do the leg lifts over it. Standing next to a table works well.

Good luck.

[TalkingDonkey]

What Daryn said. Especially for body/leg kicks, make sure that you're not "kicking" so much as turning your hips/body and whipping your leg around. FWIW I like to have the inside of my lead foot parallel w/the target rather than 45 degrees - but to each his own.

If you have time, see if you can take some basic wrestling/judo - both are fantastic for utilizing the hips, especially judo.