I have mentioned
in a couple blogs the importance of alignment.
In October 2016 blog “Key To Practicing” I noted that alignment was one
of the four keys to practicing.
In this blog, I
will expand on the importance of alignment and how it is critical to minimizing
impact to your body and/or unnecessary overuse of your muscles.
Many martial arts
can be harsh on your body. The impact
alone can cause damage and injury over time.
By practicing and constantly ensuring correct alignment while practicing
martial arts, you will minimize impact and injury to your body. In addition, it
actually takes more muscular effort to stay out of alignment instead of using
the skeletal body in proper alignment to maintain the posture. While I will not be going over every stance
and every technique, I will include several examples to provide the rationale
on the criticality of focusing on alignment in protecting your body. Let’s start by looking at stances.
Stances
In stances,
alignment ensures the skeletal system is in the best position to support the
body. In the correct alignment you are
countering gravity, not putting too much pressure on your joints and ensuring
not overusing tendons, ligaments, or muscles.
Let’s look at a couple of examples.
In horse stance
the correct alignment is knees over the ankle, as much as possible,
pointing straight ahead and hips and shoulders square with the back straight. If your knees are too forward or pointed
inward or outward, then you are putting pressure on the joint of your knees
which over time causes damage. In addition, you are using quadriceps more out
of alignment which can cause muscular strain over time. If your back is not straight and over the
hips, you are adding strain to your spine and lower back muscles that can lead
to injury.
In formal cat
stance, the correct alignment is hips and shoulders square, with back straight,
front knee points in the forward direction with knee above ankle and knee bent
approximately 45 degrees from horizontal, and stance locked into hip. If you are not locked into your hip, you are
putting the strain on knees, ankles, and quadriceps to counterbalance the
gravity of being on one leg. Over time,
this constant strain can lead to ankle issues, knee issues, or strain on your
quadriceps.
Techniques
In throwing
hundreds and thousands of techniques, every time you make impact and are not
aligned you are adding force to your body that eventually can and probably will
lead to an injury. Let’s look at a
couple of examples.
In throwing
punches, the proper alignment at impact is wrists flat with first two
knuckles pointed at target and punching arm remains slightly bent. Even
if it does not hurt the first two hundred times you throw a punch against a
hard surface without your knuckles aligned, it could be the 201st
that the resulting force through the hand will result in injury to your
knuckles or your wrist.
In throwing high
block, the proper alignment at impact is blocking arm covers head, arm at
approximately 45 degree angle from horizon, wrist flat and slightly in front of
elbow, and slight body lean (straight line from heel of foot to fist). If the blocking arm angle is too flat then
the force of any overhead strike will not deflect some of the the force causing
a bone injury or break. If the wrist is
not flat and the overhead strike hits the wrist, it will result in a wrist
injury (bones and or tendons/ligaments).
If the body lean is not correct, the force from the overhead strike can
cause damage to the lower back versus allowing the force to pass through the
body to ground.
In throwing
sidekicks, the proper alignment at impact is support foot rotates on ball of
foot until heel points toward the target, hips rotated downward and foot contact
will be on the outer edge; toes pointed downward toward floor. If you do not rotate hips downward to your
lock point, the resulting force going through your lower back will cause injury
over time (if you are unsure of your
lock point, work with a certified instructor as soon as possible). In addition if your foot position is not
correct, you could injure your toes.
I highly recommend
all of you take time to practice, reinforce and ensure your alignment is
correct by watching yourself in a mirror, reviewing a video of yourself, hitting
bags (bags do not lie – if you are not aligned you will feel it where you
should not), and/or asking a certified instructor to look at your alignment. Over time this will improve the effectiveness
of your techniques and reduce injuries.
Regards,
Kelly
"You can only fight the way you
practice." ~ Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645), legendary Japanese samurai and
author of The Book of Five Rings
