Thanks to my mom, I’ve always dabbled in various forms of athletics from a very young age. Basketball, soccer, baseball, tennis, martial arts…you name it. I’ve probably participated in every major sport at a summer camp at some point in time.
What I began to realize is that to be effective in almost any athletic activity, one needs a powerful core. Core strength refers to the power of the muscles deep within the abs and back. The hips are what grant a person to unlock the power of that core. If you don’t believe me that the hip is important in all sports activities, youtube “turning hip” and the first video you’ll see is a professional golfer showing users how perform a proper golf swing. In baseball, tennis and other sports, they call it “hip rotation.” Mastering the hip rotation timing is essential to unlocking the full power of the core!
Muay Thai (Kickboxing) and Jiu Jitsu (Ground Fighting) really opened my eyes to this power. My Muay Thai coach always stressed the importance of turning the hip when punching and kicking. I would say almost 80% of the power of a punch or kick is derived from the torque generated from the hips.
My Jiu Jitsu instructor would always tell me to “control the hips” when I was on top of an opponent going for submission. I would do this when I was in “side control” by placing my knee right next to his hip so he could not “hip out” back to “his guard,” a more favorable position for him. I realize some of you may not be familiar with this terminology, but my point my point is not to teach you Jiu Jitsu. I just wanted to illustrate yet another example of the hips in action. In fact, the beginning of every jiu jitsu class started with a 10 minute hip moving exercise called “snaking.”
Now that we know how important the hips are, the next step is building and maintaining the core muscles for the hips to use. Sit-ups, crunch’s and Push-ups are excellent core building exercises. I’ve been researching some other methods of building the core, but I’ll share my results in a separate post.
So the next time you’re looking for some extra power – believe me, put your hips into it.
-Nauticaboy
