Fixing sprinters posture using the foot hyperarch mechanic

Weight lifters are not inherently fast and in many cases are slow. In a foot race, I'd take a chunky lineman over a stacked lifter.

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You should read my post again. I said "quick", not "fast". Also, I said *COMPETITIVE* weight lifters...not the bozos down at the gym (and I am one of those bozos) who lift weight in order to build strength.

Competitive weight lifting requires extremely quick feet. Competitive weight lifters have much quicker feet than any football lineman.

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I appreciate you bringing this issue up. However, it is pretty clear by looking at *COMPETITIVE* weight lifters that they use the techniques you are discussing.

You are right, I misread your initial post so I've deleted out the comments that I had followed up with. Sorry about that.

To be clear on the terminology, competitive weight lifting involves the snatch and the clean and jerk. Those lifts require extreme feet quickness. Competitive weight lifting is *NOT* the same as competitive powerlifting . Powerlifting is more about strength--deadlift, bench press, etc.

Competitive weight lifting requires very quick feet. There are drills and exercises done by competitive weight lifters to improve feet quickness. The keys to quick feet are basically the same in competitive weight lifting and pitching.

Foot speed is irrelevant in pitching. There is no second step in pitching. There is only a single push off. So, the issue is how a pitcher can generate maximum force during that single push off.

Competitive weight lifters generate maximum force during the jump they do when they lift. They train extensively to develop a *single* explosive push from their feet and legs. Similarly, Pitchers need *ONE* explosive push from the rubber.

they washed out of athletics primarily due to speed.

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I don't think Kellani Rickets or Cat Osterman won many foot races. (Both are great athletes.)

If pitching were about foot speed, there would be a lot of washed out pitchers.

Thanks for the lifting breakdown, that is good. I am funny about the phrase "one explosive push". When I think of using the word "push", I think of a long push all the way through to the toes. To me, the word push does not invoke any thoughts of the type of motion that the glutes produce.

I'm not necessarily driving this to foot speed, but it is definitely a good measurable. Quickness has a relativism to size. I see plenty of bigger girls who are very quick "for their size". Also I definitely put a disclaimer on my comments for tall pitchers like Cat. The leverage advantage of being tall might very well start to out weigh the need for explosiveness that average HS height pitchers require.

As a quad dominant athlete playing intramural basketball in college (occasionally playing with D1 men and women team members) I had a great first step. I was a great defender but was slow as sh$t and could not jump well for my size. So to me, there is something beyond the speed of the first step. I don't know how to quantify it.

Digging deeper. In the model pitcher database that I created, I count frames between push off and plant (among other things). DD's time from drive foot push to separation from the rubber was 9 frames (same as Cat and better than Abbot and Finch). Abbot and Finch did stay in air slightly longer (5 frames vs 4 frames for DD), Cat was in the air 6 frames. On the surface looking at the data, one could conclude that DD is comparable to these pros in terms of push-off, but two seconds of clip watching paint a very different picture.

To me, the big difference between DD and the pros that the data can't show is in the force of the weight transfer into the front foot. For the pros, their COG was still carrying good velocity when their foot planted, but for DD her COG had decelerated a great deal. The pro's have more forward posture where as DD had too much negative tilt and was likely reaching out with her front foot. An argument could be made that DD should have planted a frame or two earlier to have better weight transfer into plant but then the secondary check point of zero frames between stride foot plant and arm at 9 o'clock would be completely out of whack.

sluggers said:

I don't think Kellani Rickets or Cat Osterman won many foot races. (Both are great athletes.)

If pitching were about foot speed, there would be a lot of washed out pitchers.

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Check out this AB from Rickets. Granted she's starting from the left box, she got to first in less than 3 seconds... That's PDQ in my book.

Rickets laying down a bunt...

So I pulled the HA topic into a couple other threads. To stop cluttering the other thread and keep this one comprehensive, I'll answer questions here.

Link to monkey-butt thread
link to other recent glute activation thread
link to the original glute activation thread

D Up said:

What do you do to train HA. We do some running on the toes to feel the bounce. I haven't dug deep into it as of yet.
I am wondering what you are referring to when you say HA training. I know what HA is but I'm interested in what you mean by training

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It is detailed in this thread (link).

If your athlete is heavily quad dominant, running on the toes will be completely foreign to her. Early on we worked with Kelly Bagget who wrote the Vertical Jump Bible. He advised to practice running on our toes. It was horribly awkward for both of us, and we never made progress with it.

You might find that quad dominant kids, have no concept of the toes being able to offer support for leverage. To them, the ball of the feet is the limit to using their toes. Actually running on toes seems like a ballerina trying to run on her toes . IMO if they can do it, they probably have some level of glute activation and running on toes will definitely be a great help (although for them just plain sprinting is good to).

HA squats and toe hops while activating feet is excellent to do.

Obviously I'm a big fan of Chong, but the sucky part is that he is keeping the way to engage the hyperarch a secret to drive book sales. I think that the method needs to become public especially if he wishes for his claim to be legitimized. I'm very frustrated at this especially in that the book doesn't explain the "secret" very well.

BEGINNER AS NEEDED


INTERMEDIATE


ADVANCED

D Up said:

When you say HA do you simply mean on your toes? Ankle locked?

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HA is bigger than just toes and involves activating the arch under the foot in a way that doesn't just arch the whole foot . It's like pulling the ball and the heel together while keeping the foot flat on the ground.

To practice with HA the arch activation must remain engaged. You will find that a locked ankle is a byproduct. Once activated, you'll notice the ankle is locked. There once was a video, but it was pulled... Technically this is still a secret (link).

A sign that you are activating is that the tibial anterior tendon will noticeably pop out. For quad dominant people, watch for this when they squat. It probably won't fire at all. For moderate quad/glute it might flicker on/off. For glute dominant people, it will fire up instantly and remain during the squat (down and up).




Here is an example of a natural athlete doing a 1/4 squat (she had no idea what HA was or how to do it). Feel the tension that builds in her foot/shin complex as she squats (it is a rigid lever). Her glutes have activated automatically. She does not feel "all quads" when she squats. She would have a good glute driven drive mechanic if she pitched. She does have excellent sprinting form.



This is what a 1/4 squat looks like for quad dominant folks. There is no tension forming in the foot/shin combo until the very end at the range of motion limit. This is called "forced dorsiflextion". This person (me) does not engage the glutes naturally and would result in the late push pattern when driving off the mound. This person has terrible sprinting form and feels "all quads" whenever squatting or "getting down and ready" in the infield.

D Up said:

In your opinion what are you looking for in the rear hip?

Are you looking for the hip to pop forward sooner? What is it that you are seeing as a problem?

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Watch the rear hip in these two clips. Specifically compare the relationship of the upper torso and upper rear leg.

Good (pops, generates thrust).............Bad (no thrust at all)


Two profoundly different mechanisms of forward propulsion going on here. This difference in mechanism is also present in running, jumping, diving, first-step movements, etc. Basically everything that your travel team does to improve speed/reaction times.

This is why group A and group B athletes will continue to diverge as they continue to practice together doing the same workouts.

One might ask, "Ok, I get it. Two different ways to run. Why is one better than the other? Can't they both make improvements?"

Yes, both types can make improvements, but the wrong way is not optimal and will only realize a fraction of the gains of the optimal method.

"Why is this way more optimal?"



Generally it is very difficult for people to increase their running/sprinting cadence. Therefore if cadence is relatively constant, the only way to improve speed is to increase the stride length. The glutes provide a very efficient way to propel the body forward especially compared with trying to laterally push using a quad on an upper leg that is mostly vertical (not efficient). The glutes however thrust forward very well (efficient).

As glutes get stronger and more reactive, obviously they increase thrust. When they increase forward thrust, the athlete will glide forward longer upon each stride (stride length increases). So even though a kid might not get faster in terms of cadence, they will get faster because each step gets them farther.

This clip shows the difference between no glutes and some glutes. Measuring the distance of each after 20 steps shows a marked improvement in distance resulting in a significant increase in speed.


"So how does this apply in pitching?"

As kids with good glute activation age and develop, their pitching stride length will increase. Also because of the increase in speed, their force going into plant will also increase. For kids who don't activate, they clearly develop at a much slower rate. It takes big strength gains for marginal improvements. Stride length stays low and force into plant is reduced. If they try and reach out with the front foot to increase stride length, their force into plant will be even worse. You can see this in they way that they fall back on the rear leg. They cannot "stick the landing" the same way that a glute active kid does.

Also without using the glute properly into plant, quad-dom. kids have to stop using primarily legs. Stopping a forward moving body with a vertical-ish quad is also inefficient. These kids will tend to bleed the plant badly. You can compensate for this with "crack the nut" and "push back the front leg" (like Monica Abbott), but this too is a marginal improvement. A band-aide so to speak. It will not recover the thrust and stride distance that was AWOL from the start.

jryan15 said:

Watch the rear hip in these two clips. Specifically compare the relationship of the upper torso and upper rear leg.

Good (pops, generates thrust).............Bad (no thrust at all)

Two profoundly different mechanisms of forward propulsion going on here. This difference in mechanism is also present in running, jumping, diving, first-step movements, etc. Basically everything that your travel team does to improve speed/reaction times.

This is why group A and group B athletes will continue to diverge as they continue to practice together doing the same workouts.

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I'm not trying to troll you or give you a hard time, I'm honestly having a very hard time identifying what it is you've isolated as the key factor (caused by the hyperarch theory).

In these gifs you've posted, I see a high caliber division one athlete compared with your daughter. I'm trying to see the difference in the two, obviously one will be more explosive of the two, but not seeing the relation between upper leg and upper torso (although the second gif you can't see the upper torso).

I've read quite a few posts of yours, this is obviously something you've spent countless hours breaking down, I'd love to be able to see the difference, specifically the ability to see specifically the traits in a person who has this deficiency.