I want to summarize a post that I brought to the wannagetfast.com forum,which has some very interesting training implications. The post is regarding myofascial winding and its neurological aspect. A coach I recently met who works with MMA &track athletes brought to my attention that elite level sprinters spiral and rotates their hands during arm swing. This is something I have noticed (in some athletes),but never gave much attention to. This coach said that while analyzing Usain Bolt’s running technique he started to notice the spiral winding of the hands and after some research,it started to make sense to him. I think you can notice his left arm here:
The coach who brought this to my attention has used this myofascial winding to increase performance out of the start and during a CMJ with great results in performance. During the winding,the hands are hyper-prone when the arms are behind the back and hyper supinated when in front of the body. He reports increases by as much as 6″in the first step of the start and 2″plus in CMJ,with numerous and multiple athletes. Alex V brought this article Everything You Know About Muscle is Wrong to my attention,which talks about the organelles of the myofascia and its role in communication with the CNS. Discussing this with a friend who is a Z-Health trainer,he explained that what my right hand does,my left foot will be stimulated to do the opposite of and vice versa for opposite limbs. With that thinking,as a runner goes to push off the big toe of the extended leg during sprinting,if the opposite arm’s hand is slightly supinated or externally rotated that drive foot should be more likely to be pronated or internally rotated which will help get to the big toe and increase function reflexively and naturally. Most movements that are mastered are spiral in nature like that of a high-level martial-artist punching or blocking. Here is the best one of all:
This coach has developed some spiral winding hand/foot drills that can increase almost all physical abilities,and carry over to all other aspects of performance (i.e. Sprinting,jumping,even lifting). He uses these drills as compensatory drills in between regular training exercises like,running,jumping,and lifting,to increase performance during training as well. These drills are all inertial based training with spiral winding for the arms,wrists,hands,legs,ankles,and feet(sorry I can’t go into more detail on the drills,but this might become a monetary venture for this particular individual so I don’t want to ruin that for him). I remember talking with Steven Davidson about halters used during ancient times to increase jumping performance and these types of drills triggers those thoughts. The ancient athletes used the lightweight objects in training and competition to increase performance by swinging them around in their arms and then releasing them at the top of the jump to propel themselves off of. I am thinking now this swing effect contributed to the storing of elastic energy and inhibition of the hip musculature more so then the propulsion effect of halters. This is all speculation of course,but a guy can guess. Anyway,West58 of the wannagetfast forum used it with his athletes and had great success. Kelly Baggett said when he jumps he does this naturally,as some of you experienced jumpers will. When you’re working with your athletes give it a shot and see what happens.
Jeremy
