A cool place for friends and family members of Santa Monica Gymnastics Center to come hang out. So nuke the popcorn in the microwave; Snoopy dance...dance..dance around the room...then pull up a chair, and be prepared to laugh and cry; to feel embarrassed and inspired; and to just sit back, relax and enjoy these music videos.
There is much more than just hip flexors and quads in relation to
structures that limit motion for the back leg of splits. The hip joint
has two types of stabilizers to support it, static and dynamic
stabilizers. Static stabilizers are more passive things out of the
athlete’s control like inherent boney congruency or shape,
ligaments/capsular tissue, and the labrum. Dynamic stabilizers are
muscular based structures like the hip flexors, hip rotators, and
other glute/adductor muscles. These muscular dynamic components tie in
heavily with neurological control and strength to maintain hip stability
during motion. Passive hip stabilizers like the iliofemoral ligament, ligamentous
teres, labrum, and anterior hip capsule are very important structures in
the front of the hip that assist in stability during high force skills
in gymnastics. The iliofemoral ligament and extension of the anterior
capsule have been noted in anatomical research
to restrain external rotation and extension ranges of motion, like seen
in extreme back leg split positions, and stabilize the hip against
excessive movement out of the front of the joint. The labrum is a
fibrocartilage ring of tissue that deepens the socket, aids in joint
stability, and helps disperse forces. Research suggests it too can be stressed with excessive movement of the femoral head out of the hip socket.
Old school habits will die hard, though; and when coaches are still getting results (or perceived results), will their methods evolve? Or stick with what they know and with what's been done for ages? I'd love to see research examination on rhythmic gymnasts.
Another important point is that gymnasts in the video are
clearly hyper mobile individuals who don’t have an issue with passive
range of motion. I’d be willing to bet money on the fact that on xray
they have morphological hip changes like hip dysplasia or
femoroacetabular version that make passive flexibility easy. They also
likely have connective tissue level differences that makes it possible
for them to get into these positions, with naturally reduced static
ligamentous and capsular capabilities. These naturally mobile gymnasts
with reduced static stability depend on exceptional dynamic stability to
keep their hips safe and to increase their gymnastics performance.
This is usually the case for most flexibility examples in videos or
presentations, where gymnasts who have huge flexibility ranges naturally
are chose to demonstrate the drills. I will tell you honestly not all
gymnasts will have the same hip anatomy. The same drill that is easy for
one gymnast demonstrating the drill with underlying hip dysplasia or
differences in morpholocial boney alignment will completely destroy
another gymnast’s hips who don’t have that naturally.
When non-athletes want to run fast they set about moving their legs
as fast as they can, so you might assume that Bolt has achieved this
exceptional record by making his legs move faster than everyone else
has. But this idea doesn't stand up - in fact, it falls flat on its
face. "Elite sprinters don't swing their legs any faster than recreational runners," says Dr Sam Allen of Loughborough University. Instead, the difference is that a top sprinter takes longer and more powerful strides. Research
shows that an amateur runner often takes between 50 and 55 steps to
complete 100m, while an elite sprinter takes in the region of 45. "Elite
athletes generate so much more power, owing to the fact they naturally
have more fast-twitch muscle fibres. These elite athletes therefore
spend a lot less time on the ground which results in them being
propelled forward much quicker," says Allen. Studies led by the American based researcher Peter
Weyand have found that at top speed an elite sprinter's foot will
typically spend 0.08 seconds in contact with the ground at the beginning
of each stride compared with about 0.12 seconds for an amateur athlete. Sam
Allen says the fastest sprinters seem to be spend about 60% of the time
in the air, with no foot on the ground, while for amateur athletes it's
more like 50%.
I
had a patient recently ask me if it is okay for her thirteen-month-old
daughter to be W-sitting during playtime. The short answer is: absolutely NOT! It
is never ok to be sitting like this for a prolonged period of time, and
should be stopped immediately whenever you see it. There are a few
postural and developmental reasons for this, and I'll go into some
detail on all of them:
I caught a few minutes of this (and have not had time yet to study the whole thing) from National Congress when it was live-streaming on Saturday morning. I couldn't watch it at the time, due to heading off for work. Glad it is made available:
Wade
used to talk about landing with toes slightly turned in with the knees
knocked together as one stable unit; I believe he made mention that the
landing technique he favored was pooled from aerial ski jumpers- who
have to have fantastic landing technique.
But from what
I saw of the video lecture,
current thinking seems to suggest that this technique appears to be
harsh on the knees. Shoulder width apart with toes facing forward is
encouraged.
