Fixing sprinters posture using the foot hyperarch mechanic

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Mar 23, 2011
492
18
Noblseville, IN
The late push pattern

Here are some clues to look for if you suspect your student is not getting much posterior usage when driving. Pay extra attention to how long it takes before the drive leg starts to straighten. If leg straightening is delayed until after the "h" position, the student critically needs HA training (all athletes would become more explosive with HA training).

The_late_push_pattern.jpg
 
Last edited:
Jun 18, 2012
3,183
48
Utah
IMO, best post (with visuals) yet on this thread! I believe Ueno is the poster child for having a thrust-dominant rather than stride-dominant drive.
 
Last edited:
May 30, 2013
1,442
83
Binghamton, NY
Questions:

1.) do you feel this is an "absolute"?
In other words, can you find an example of a high level pitcher that has poor HA mechanic?

2.) is it black and white? or shades of grey?
you present these illustrations and suggest either you have it or you dont. but are there degrees in between?
example: after work on the subject, your DD started to keep that heel off the ground and learned to run with better form.
so, is that progress?

3.) it this related to physical maturity?
Comparing to Ueno as the gold-standard is fine, but can we find an example of a 12 yr old girl to use as an HA model? You suggest that HA is something some % of the population does naturally, so I would expect there are some young pitchers out there that exhibit this trait.
I always have to temper my fixations upon model pitcher attributes, with what is the physical strength/coordination/control of the younger pitcher.
 
Last edited:
Dec 19, 2014
2
1
This is an area that I am now focusing on with my DD.
I recommend that you 1st ensure that a proper rocker mechanism is in place and that your daughter has full Range in the ankle. Without this you will be unable to strengthen the supportive muscles let alone get in position to extend the great toe. All necessary for glutes to fire.
With full range and a normal rocker mechanism, you can begin to not only strengthen the anterior muscles while lengthening the posterior, but develop neurological patterning for continued success.
Coach Donovan
 
Mar 23, 2011
492
18
Noblseville, IN
Questions:

1.) do you feel this is an "absolute"?
In other words, can you find an example of a high level pitcher that has poor HA mechanic?

There are plenty of examples of pitchers who don't drive with sprinter's posture, but I bet even most of them have decent glute activation in order to make a D1 college team. If you are like me and think java's drive mechanics are absolutes, then yes HA is an absolute. Many of the sprinting references in the drive mechanics thread are teaching elements that HA would likely fix automatically. Without an active hyperarch, you are leaving too much on the table. It's incredibly hard to get off the rubber at 3 o'clock without it. It's possible and I've seen a few who make it, but their drive is still lacking power.

HA is bigger than pitching, it's an athletic lifestyle change. If your feet are not automatically interacting with your glutes, you are destined for mediocracy. My dad (and thousands of other coaches) used to say "you can't teach speed". HA changes that.


2.) is it black and white? or shades of grey?
you present these illustrations and suggest either you have it or you dont. but are there degrees in between?
example: after work on the subject, your DD started to keep that heel off the ground and learned to run with better form.
so, is that progress?

On a broad scale, I think there are two primary sub groups of kids:

Group 1 - Kids who have some level of hyperarch mechanism that automatically engages and recruits the glutes.

Group 2 - Kids with no hyperarch mechanism and rarely initiate a glute response in an athletic movement.


Group 1 girls cover the shades of grey, and IMO all have a chance to excel to various levels.

Group 2 girls have very little chance of making it far. Time filters them out quickly. Heart, desire, and ability can keep them around a long time, but the more they train with their peers, the further the athletic gap gets. These kids will always be working from a huge deficit.

Shades of grey, yes there are many. The first sub group is to activate or not. The shades of grey deal with how strong your hyperarch is. My DD can jog with HA and has huge improvements, but when she sprints, her feet still break down. Just recently has our training advanced to include sprinting. Some people's HA is so strong that they are active all day-everyday (LeBron James).

At the highest level of HA when you engage your HA, your glutes will automatically contract and become rock hard. In Chong's experience, basketball players and track and field athletes can progress to the highest level of HA in 3 months of training... But those sports run and sprint a lot. For softball players, who don't do a ton of sprinting. It's going to require more time or lots of extra practices to get there.

3.) it this related to physical maturity?
Comparing to Ueno as the gold-standard is fine, but can we find an example of a 12 yr old girl to use as an HA model? You suggest that HA is something some % of the population does naturally, so I would expect there are some young pitchers out there that exhibit this trait.
I always have to temper my fixations upon model pitcher attributes, with what is the physical strength/coordination/control of the younger pitcher.


I would recommend contacting Chong for questions on training age, but I'm pretty sure that all toddlers are correctly engaging HA (it's how the body is designed). At least until the feet become so comfortable that they find relaxed mode. Some stay in active mode (LeBron, Iverson) some will go relaxed and get stuck there (me, DD, and many B/C/D athletes). Lots of B/A athletes will also be somewhere in between. I also don't think it's maturity based since I'm in my 40's and although having always played a lot of sports, I had never felt posterior side support like I did the first time I did a squat with my HA engaged. Night and day... If only I knew that when spending hours a day playing basketball in college. Things would have been very different.

I have very few clips of 12u pitchers (only DD and other kids who need help) and especially not of their feet or ankles. Go to any track and field event, and get the two fastest at the 100m, I guarantee they are activating. Regardless of age, any kid you see running or doing athletic stuff and they look light on their feet, they are probably activating. When you see that overweight girl or boy who is surprisingly fast, probably activating. It's not a big/small thing, not a young/old thing, not an in shape/out of shape thing. It is an independent attribute.

It's all about muscle efficiency and if your glutes are not being used when you run, you are wasting lots of extra energy while producing sub par results.

A while back my DW ran a 5k for the first time in forever. Of all the sore muscles afterward, her glutes were trashed. For her "activating" was never something she ever thought about. Her glutes just worked, and she always assumed everyone else was the same way. For people like me however, I never felt sore glutes, even after 28 days of intense 4 a-day workouts and a 15 mile run while attending a high intensity wrestling camp... Though my athletic life, I received my fair share of sprinting technique/explosiveness instruction, and I never learned to use my glutes. They were simply "off".

If you introduce HA to a middle of the road group 1 kid, it could be the difference between playing college or not.

To me as a group 2 athlete, I think to learn HA would have been the single biggest athletic improvement that could have been made in my life. If you introduce HA to a group 2 kid with heart and desire, it could be all the difference in the world.
 

tjintx

A real searcher
May 27, 2012
795
18
TEXAS
Nicely done JRyan,
I posted this clip somewhere else trying to help others understand a difference in movement.
The relationship between athleticism and high level movements are often short circuited in the lack of this action...

bolt-pullback-posterior.gif
 
Mar 23, 2011
492
18
Noblseville, IN
Nicely done JRyan,
I posted this clip somewhere else trying to help others understand a difference in movement.
The relationship between athleticism and high level movements are often short circuited in the lack of this action...

bolt-pullback-posterior.gif

Great clip tjintx! Bolt's foot has become a rigid lever due to the HA mechanic. I don't think he has any idea that he is HA engaged, it just happens for him...

I would encourage people to watch the clip and see how his foot strikes and rebounds from the ground. That's not a bunch of muscles working in harmony to look that way, his ankle is simply locked. As a result his feet are like springs... He's not dumping a bunch energy into the ground like DD used to run.
 
Mar 23, 2011
492
18
Noblseville, IN
When you say "lock the ankle", what exactly do you mean?

That's how the mechanic works. It has the effect of locking the ankle so that the force going into the ground is absorbed into the "springiness" of the foot and literally makes it like there are springs in the feet. Try and feel that in the Bolt video. Try and see his feet as rigid levers instead of as a bunch of lower leg and calf muscles working independently yet in perfect harmony. They are simply levers transmitting force from the ground up and back down the posterior drive chain.
 
Mar 23, 2011
492
18
Noblseville, IN
I thought that it would be good to follow up with some updates. We had a busy summer and a frustrating fall. DD dedicated a lot of time and energy into summer workouts. Extra leg strengthening workouts 6 days a week (on top of hitting, pitching lessons, and regular practice/tourney schedule) to try and build on the progress that she'd made with the HA training. Well, a problem presented itself late summer. The bottom joint in her big toe began hurting. A lot. After some time trying to rest it, we found it was not going away. The symptoms appeared to be that of turf-toe. We closed out the fall not being able to develop much. The pain in the joint affected everything from walking to pitching. After seeing doctors and finally getting a shot in her toe, she finally appears to be back to normal.

It didn't take too much reflection to see where the injury occurred. She wasn't keeping her feet "active" while doing the workouts, and she was running, jumping, climbing stairs just like she had always done pre-HA. Instead of being locked and digging in, her toes were bending and flexing during all the workouts leading to an overuse injury.

I've been thinking and praying for insight into how to better recognize this destructive pattern in athletes. I'll share some clips in the next post.
 

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