Kinetic Link

I mentioned the word efficiency in a reply under the ‘Mets BP’ post.  I wanted to provide some more information on the subject.

If you’ve been around different web sites and started looking into how the body creates optimal movement, you’ve probably come across topics such as kinetic chain or some other reference to how the different segments of the body work together.

What I am trying to do here is be objective and present information as I go through it.  With that said, I’d like to post some excerpts here from what seems to be a pretty good entry level book on the basics of human movement – The Biophysical Foundations of Human Movement (Abernathy and others)

You’ll see I highlighted areas of greatest importance/interest

I’d like to make special note of the summation of speed principle (mentioned directly above figure 11.1).  While I do think a purely “hands” focus is inaccurate and oversimplified, I also think it is unfair to say that hands do “nothing.”  The hands/arms have to “get on board” so to speak and stay connected to the larger “links,” but ideally the hands do not work independently of the body, at least not until the previous segments of the body are finished doing their “work.”  Figure 11.1 is a good representation and the highlighted statement above the figure is a good description, in my opinion. 

What’s the point?  I know it is very common for hitters, coaches, etc. to talk about using the hands.  My suggestions, or at least what I believe this information suggests is that it is much more beneficial to address how to use the body to get the hands where they need to be.  That’s about as simple as I can sum it up!