Cooperating with Force Learning outcomes To understand the - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Cooperating with Force

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Learning outcomes

• To understand the importance of postural

alignment in relation to efficient movement and injury prevention

• To be able to body sense and demonstrate

cooperation with force to help create controlled, fluid forward momentum

• To understand basic biomechanics of walking and

running gait

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The Five-Element Theory

• Earth – physical support and stability
• Water – provides fluidity to motion
• Fire – strength and power, work and transformation
• Air – breath, inspiration, mind-body connection
• Space/Ether – a container for the other elements,

creates space for things to happen

Ref: Chi Marathon p174

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Gathering and Issuing

Visualise gathering (storing or collecting) energy in the dantien then feel this energy issuing from there through the body to create fluid, efficient,

• movement. This is working from the centre or core

“In the chi practice of Needle in Cotton you gather energy to your centre by drawing it away from your

• periphery. That gathered energy adds strength

and alignment to your support stance”

Ref: Chi Marathon p94

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Alignment & Relaxation

Ensuring the body is optimally aligned in every postural position to allow the maximal muscular relaxation

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Shifu Heng Wei

“If you don't know how to relax... you don't know how to make power”

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The body is composed of myofascial meridians with all systems intertwined

• Superficial back line
• Superficial front line
• Lateral line
• Spiral line
• Arm lines
• Functional lines
• Deep front line

Myofascial Meridians

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The Spiral Line

• Helps maintain balance

across all planes

• Overall movement function is

to create spirals and rotations in the body and to steady the truck and leg to keep it from folding into rotational collapse

Thomas Myers – Anatomy Trains

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• Can be considered as appendicular

supplements to the spiral line

• Appear as spirals on the body
• Work as helical patterns
• Example of use is contralateral

counterbalance between shoulder and hip when walking and running

Thomas Myers – Anatomy Trains

The Functional Lines

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Cooperating with Force

Newton’s first law of motion states that an object at rest tends to remain at rest unless acted upon by an external force.

• Work with the force of gravity to help create

forward momentum

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Cooperating with Force

Newton's third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction

• Use the force of the oncoming road to create

energy to maintain or increase momentum

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Balance & Control

Find balance between the amount of alignment and relaxation required at any given moment to create controlled, fluid movement

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Lean

Earth & Water

Find a window of balance within a controlled forward fall

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• Build an aligned column
• Relax lower legs, shoulders and arms
• Feel contact with the ground at tripod
• Focus at the dantien (body’s approximate centre of

mass – COM)

• COM moves ahead of the contact with ground
• Release ankles, roll over front two points of the

tripod and pick up the heel

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How can you regain COM height?

Options the body might use to regain height:

• Actively pushing off with toes/lower legs
• Passive arch and achilles recoil
• Straightening the knee with the big muscles of the upper leg,

hip and core before peel off “I would much rather regain a little COM height passively or by using big muscles than propel myself forward and upward with the small muscles of the lower leg”.

Adapted from The Physics of Chi Running, Lean Analysis – David Stretanski echifitness.com

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Arm Swing

• Optimal upper body alignment is essential to the

mechanics of a fluid arm swing

• The emphasis of the arm swing is back-relax (load-

recoil)

• The TLJ (Thoracolumbar Junction) is our pivot

point since ~65º of rotation primarily comes from mid/upper thoracic vertebrae*

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Thoracic spine

• ~65º of rotation primarily

coming from mid/upper thoracic vertebrae

• Compare with Lumbar

spine that has only ~12º

• f rotation – limited in

this plane

(*Figures adapted from Hamill and Knutsen, 1995)

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When we have optimal upper body alignment at any given time and outer core muscles are ‘unglued’ from inner core muscles, arms will swing rearwards from a stable shoulder girdle

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A rearward arm swing counter-balances your forward fall, helping you to find your window of balance and control the forward fall

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Begin Running

Earth & Water

• KISS – Keep it short and simple
• Keep aligned and relaxed
• Lead with the dantien
• Find the window of balance and focus on smooth

transition into running with hardly any increase in breath rate

• Control the forward fall keeping a short stride out

front allowing the ankles to lift behind

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• As you run think of it as practising a series of one-

legged posture stances, balancing on the support leg and releasing and relaxing the empty leg

• Where possible use a very gradual downhill
• Try total nasal breathing

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Gears & Stride Length

Earth, Water & Fire

• Allow stride length to increase behind the dantien

(COM)

• Create ‘space’ and relax at the hip
• Feel subtle rotation of the thoracic spine (from pivot point)
• Let the road take your leg rearward
• Find window of balance in each gear
• Use lean as your accelerator, keep needle in place as

you lead with the dantien

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Fig 1a: Aerial view of pelvis and foot position in static stance Fig 1b: Aerial view at point where the right foot leaves the ground over the front tripod

• points. If the foot remains

parallel, the hip will extend and internally rotate. The pelvic girdle will make a subtle rotate clockwise and to a lesser extent the shoulder girdle will rotate counter clockwise to balance the rotation.

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• Stride length is achieved by hip extension plus internal rotation,

creating subtle transverse rotation of the pelvis from our pivot point

• For this to happen, it is essential that alignment, relaxation,

balance and control are intuitive

• The student should have sufficient ROM / mobility in the hip and

spine combined with pelvic and core stability. (Needle in Cotton)

• Visualise the outer core moving around the inner core
• Transverse rotation is minimal and should not be forced but be

controlled and balanced

• Body sense and find balance in this transverse plane just as you

find your window of balance for your lean in the sagittal plane

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• In a controlled forward fall we are cooperating with

the force of the oncoming road and storing elastic potential energy during the rearward leg and contralateral arm swing

• We then use this energy to maintain and/or increase

forward momentum

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Energy

• Potential energy is stored energy in regards to an
• bject’s position
• Gravitational potential energy
• Elastic potential energy
• Kinetic energy is the energy of motion

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Potential energy

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“In running, the body has an effective muscle work- minimizing strategy – many of the foot muscles don’t technically push you off the ground like during

• walking. Instead, the muscles provide an isometric-

type tension to stabilize the tendons and help in the function of the unique mechanism that takes impact energy, sometimes referred to as “elastic energy” associated with gravity and impact”

http://naturalrunningcenter.com/2011/05/01/elastic-recoil/

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Cadence

Earth, Water & Fire

Cadence is a consequence of all the Chi Running focuses coming together

Danny Dreyer

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• When walking and running are arms and legs are

pendulums

• When walking they are long pendulums
• When running we shorten the pendulums – elbow

flexed at 90º on a flat surface, knee flexed to varying degrees depending on pace

• Heel peels off the ground and floats up behind

(shortening the pendulum) as the force of the road swings the leg rearward

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• A shorter pendulum equals a quicker swing
• Optimal cadence is between 170-180 spm
• Cadence remains the same regardless of pace so

that our RPE (rate of perceived exertion) is gradual as we change up through the gears

• ‘Picking up’ the heels/ankles and relaxing the lower

legs allows for quick, light steps

• Speed is a consequence of optimal cadence plus

increased stride-length

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“A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the equilibrium position. When released, the restoring force combined with the pendulum’s mass causes it to oscillate about the equilibrium position, swinging back and forth. The time for one complete cycle, a left swing and a right swing, is called the period. The period depends on the length of the pendulum, and also to a slight degree on the amplitude, the width of the pendulum's swing.”

wikipedia

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Creating the Wheel

Earth, Water, Fire, Air

• Create window of balance within a large

wheel

• Upper body moving forwards – lower body

moving rearwards

• Leading with the dantien
• Create a smaller wheel with the lower body

as the hip extends and heel lifts of the ground, shortening the pendulum

• Leg swings back through (recoil)
• Initial point of contact with the ground is

made

• Repeat as a controlled forward fall

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Practice

Earth, Water, Fire, Air

• Practice visualisations and Y’Chi focus
• Observe breath
• Practice total nasal breathing
• Practice hill running
• Practice gathering and issuing

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• The information presented here is a useful reference

for your practice and teaching

• It is not meant to be conclusive but to encourage

you to research, question and learn

• Always remember that the beauty of Chi Running is

it’s simplicity

Conclusion

Cooperation with Force