ABOUT THIS EPISODE
In this episode, Coach Ryan Patrick sits down with Dr. Sam Liu, biomechanist, researcher, and movement specialist with the Miami Marlins organization, to break down the true physics behind jumping, dunking, and speed.
They dive into what most coaches misunderstand about impulse, force, and timing — and how understanding the mechanical objective of movement changes everything. From countermovement jumps to approach takeoffs, Sam translates complex biomechanics into simple, actionable concepts every coach and athlete can apply.
If you’ve ever looked at a force plate trace or a highlight dunk and wondered what’s really happening there, this episode is for you.
Chapters
00:00 – Intro: Dunks, data, and the science of flight
04:25 – The simple physics behind jumping higher
08:45 – Why more approach speed isn’t always better
12:10 – Force × Time: What coaches get wrong about impulse
17:00 – The “Mechanical Objectives” framework explained
21:40 – How to use biomechanics without overcomplicating training
28:15 – What elite jumpers really do differently
33:50 – Jumping with vs. without a ball: The overlooked factor
39:10 – Translating jump mechanics to pitching and sprinting
47:15 – Absorbing force vs. managing momentum
52:40 – What Sam’s research is revealing about human performance
57:30 – Final thoughts: curiosity, humility, and the pursuit of better coaching
🔗 Links & Resources
Follow Dr. Sam Liu on Instagram
Dr. Liu’s research publications:
Connect with Coach Ryan Patrick:
Key Takeaways
✅ What great jumpers do with force
✅ Mechanical objectives simplify coaching by focusing on outcomes, not aesthetics.
✅ The biggest limiter to jump height
✅ Force plates are tools → interpretation > data.
✅ The principles that make a better jumper also make a better pitcher or sprinter.
SHOW NOTES 🔗
TRANSCRIPT 🔗
00:00:00.050 --> 00:00:10.189
But the opposite could be true in the very short term, especially within a session if you're trying to play around with, you know, having an athlete experiment with a range of initial approach velocity.
00:00:10.429 --> 00:00:17.359
And those two relationships can simultaneously exist because they exist at different scales and contexts.
00:00:23.510 --> 00:00:25.763
Mhm.
00:00:25.763 --> 00:00:28.016
Mhm.
00:00:28.016 --> 00:00:30.269
Mhm.
00:00:30.269 --> 00:00:32.523
Mhm.
00:00:32.523 --> 00:00:34.777
Mhm.
00:00:34.777 --> 00:00:37.030
Mhm.
00:00:38.835 --> 00:00:40.515
Sam likes biomechanics.
00:00:40.606 --> 00:00:43.066
Uh, welcome to the Athletic Performance Podcast.
00:00:44.206 --> 00:00:44.536
Thank you.
00:00:44.536 --> 00:00:45.915
Yeah, I'm honored to have you here, man.
00:00:45.915 --> 00:00:46.996
I know you got a busy schedule.
00:00:46.996 --> 00:00:50.835
We've been trying to work this out for a little bit as you kind of settle into your new job.
00:00:50.835 --> 00:01:00.316
But, uh, I think for people who are unfamiliar with your work and kind of your just career trajectory up to this point, just give me, gimme a quick backstory and kind of bring us up to speed on you.
00:01:02.386 --> 00:01:05.656
Well, I actually did my undergraduate degree over in the uk.
00:01:05.896 --> 00:01:15.766
I did engineering science at Oxford, so, and I did not discover biomechanics as a potential pathway or subject until the third year of my undergraduate.
00:01:16.486 --> 00:01:26.475
And then I did a biomechanics based masters was more so focusing on modeling how the foot moves as you as different healthy and clinical populations walk and turn.
00:01:26.475 --> 00:01:29.396
That's actually a huge area of research in the biomechanics field.
00:01:30.406 --> 00:01:32.475
But I really wanted to do more with sports.
00:01:32.596 --> 00:01:40.126
So that's where I came over to the States and did my PhD in biomedical engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology.
00:01:40.906 --> 00:01:49.695
And my dissertation was focusing on understanding the fundamental mechanics behind baseball pitching, as well as fast forward running and jumping and dunking.
00:01:50.626 --> 00:02:02.686
I sort of came into this degree wanting to learn more about the jump technique, quote unquote, and my professor was like, we have this major league baseball grant research that somebody needs to do.
00:02:02.926 --> 00:02:05.055
And she's like, do you wanna use it to get started?
00:02:05.055 --> 00:02:09.795
Because the training, the the, the methods of data analysis are largely similar.
00:02:10.485 --> 00:02:22.635
And she's, and then I was like, yeah, I'm gonna get a great exposure to, you know, these kind of biomechanical research in the sports setting and eventually develop my own research pathway during my PhD to study more dunking and jumping.
00:02:22.635 --> 00:02:25.996
So now I have a few publications for each of the topics.
00:02:27.105 --> 00:02:29.475
Yeah, I think for guys on the outside, it's.
00:02:30.001 --> 00:02:37.890
You don't realize how difficult it is to do performance-based research in a laboratory setting because there's just not a ton of money there.
00:02:39.330 --> 00:02:41.790
Yeah, no, there's definitely no money for support.
00:02:41.881 --> 00:02:46.770
I tried to apply to a few research grants to support the efforts and I'm currently over two.
00:02:47.461 --> 00:02:49.621
I made it to the finalist rounds for both.
00:02:50.100 --> 00:02:57.091
Didn't quite get the money at the end, but, and also there's other difficulties, like for example, finding a participants.
00:02:57.091 --> 00:02:59.941
Generally you're limited by the people you have access to.
00:03:00.510 --> 00:03:07.471
Uhhuh, I have a great community on Instagram with, in terms of dunkers, so that's taken care of a lot of the participants in my studies.
00:03:08.341 --> 00:03:12.600
But yeah, I, you know, the rest of my participants are really athletes from D three.
00:03:12.841 --> 00:03:17.850
So that limits, in terms that limits you in, in terms of what you can infer from your results?
00:03:18.390 --> 00:03:19.170
Yeah, for sure.
00:03:19.170 --> 00:03:28.080
I remember,'cause when I was going through graduate school, um, I went to the university or Colorado State University, so you know, we had a really diverse um.
00:03:29.205 --> 00:03:32.205
Professorship and, and research interest there.
00:03:32.205 --> 00:03:39.195
I mean, we had guys that were far, far on the, the spectrum of physiology, you know, growing muscle cells, uh, in the laboratory.
00:03:39.436 --> 00:03:41.265
And then we had guys on the biomechanics end.
00:03:41.265 --> 00:03:51.045
And so I kind of found my way towards them'cause I'm like, this is probably the most sport adjacent thing that I could find, but you still have to kind of like almost tie it in with injury stuff.
00:03:51.045 --> 00:03:56.235
So we were doing, uh, jumping and asymmetries and tying that back, you know, to ACL risk and stuff.
00:03:56.235 --> 00:03:59.116
But like, that was as close as I could get at the time, so I'm a little jealous.
00:03:59.116 --> 00:04:00.165
You got to look at dunking.
00:04:01.006 --> 00:04:22.696
Um, but with that in mind, man, I, I do wanna start at the top and talk about jumping and the, the biomechanic stuff is coming more and more into the private sector guys are getting force plates and so I think just having a fundamental understanding of some of the biomechanical and physiologic principles that really underpin performance is.
00:04:23.100 --> 00:04:24.511
Huge for a lot of guys.
00:04:24.511 --> 00:04:27.480
And so let's just start at the top.
00:04:27.690 --> 00:04:35.310
What, what would you clarify as the determinants of maximizing your vert?
00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:42.990
And then moreover, what does this actually mean to like the 16-year-old athletes we're training or the coaches who are, are working with them?
00:04:45.271 --> 00:04:48.211
So I'm gonna tackle this from two perspectives.
00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:51.901
From the physics perspective, it's actually remarkably simple.
00:04:51.901 --> 00:04:51.990
Mm-hmm.
00:04:52.711 --> 00:04:58.350
The projectile equation is pretty much the only equation you need, and it's about maximizing your upward velocity.
00:04:58.350 --> 00:05:01.860
A takeoff, or, you know, some people will call it takeoff velocity.
00:05:02.250 --> 00:05:02.490
Yep.
00:05:02.850 --> 00:05:17.250
And in order to maximize that variable, you need to find a movement technique that allows you to have not only an advantageous initial condition or your initial velocity, as well as maximizing your fourth generation during the jump, during the ground contact.
00:05:18.031 --> 00:05:21.480
And that's basically what people often refer to as vertical impulse.
00:05:21.915 --> 00:05:26.355
Which is the summation of the force you generate over a duration.
00:05:27.375 --> 00:05:38.146
So basically to jump as high as you can from a physics perspective, you wanna maximize your vertical impulse and you wanna have a good initial condition, which is the result of your running approach.
00:05:39.286 --> 00:05:41.740
From a training perspective, it's slightly different.
00:05:42.040 --> 00:05:42.461
Mm-hmm.
00:05:42.540 --> 00:05:47.716
Because we have to treat the human as a complex system that sort of develops over time.
00:05:48.466 --> 00:05:54.735
So for a young athlete, it's really about doing the specific practice enough to develop your own movement patterns.
00:05:55.425 --> 00:06:01.755
And then you can either experiment with different jump technique modifications for like very specific drills and Q cues.
00:06:01.755 --> 00:06:02.446
Mm-hmm.
00:06:02.716 --> 00:06:18.076
Or just practicing a variety of jumps, because I still believe in the variability of practice, which allows you to naturally find your own technique, whichever side you take on that continuum of, you know, specific drills versus variability and constraint based approaches.
00:06:19.185 --> 00:06:26.175
It's about exposing your body to, you know, generally the better way to jump, generally the better way to generate more force.
00:06:27.255 --> 00:06:38.716
And then you also need to develop yourself physically to be able to generate high forces at each of the major lower limb joints and build sufficient muscle tissues to stay healthy, to allow you to practice enough over the long term.
00:06:39.586 --> 00:06:42.946
So that is the, uh, what I think are the major, major terms.
00:06:43.216 --> 00:06:45.016
The other things are also the icing on top.
00:06:46.125 --> 00:06:46.516
Okay.
00:06:47.115 --> 00:06:50.026
So you talk about these initial conditions.
00:06:50.326 --> 00:06:57.346
Most of the assessment assessments that we're using are gonna be the static, you know, hands-on hips jump.
00:06:58.665 --> 00:07:07.156
What, what information is useful from that and what is really missing when we're looking at an approach jump, which would be more practical to a sports setting?
00:07:08.925 --> 00:07:14.146
Yeah, I actually think, okay, there are research done.
00:07:14.610 --> 00:07:21.540
That found some correlation in, you know, counter movement jump performance as against running jump performance.
00:07:21.540 --> 00:07:28.170
I actually cited that paper quite a lot, but it, I think it only tells you that you are generally a good jumper.
00:07:28.711 --> 00:07:28.800
Mm-hmm.
00:07:29.521 --> 00:07:31.651
Because the tasks are very different.
00:07:31.711 --> 00:07:34.411
The task demands on the body are also very different.
00:07:35.011 --> 00:07:38.701
Your movement strategies between the tasks are likely very different.
00:07:39.271 --> 00:07:48.930
And I think the better of a running jumper you are, the more different it's going to look from your counter movement, jump movement patterns and strategies.
00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:54.180
So I like counter movement jumps for other aspects of performance.
00:07:54.180 --> 00:08:04.440
For example, how you, it's actually great for monitoring fatigue, especially if you wanna track, you know, the more details of how you jump as opposed to just a jump height itself.
00:08:04.471 --> 00:08:05.071
Mm-hmm.
00:08:05.310 --> 00:08:10.321
I think it's fine to track yourself and you track your general ability to handle eccentric forces, even though.
00:08:11.026 --> 00:08:14.475
That specific task is a little bit too limited.
00:08:14.505 --> 00:08:20.326
You need to like, play around with different kinds of jumps on the force plate to understand your eccentric capabilities.
00:08:20.745 --> 00:08:20.836
Mm-hmm.
00:08:21.076 --> 00:08:28.576
But in terms of like very specific transfer, I, I don't believe there's a lot, a lot of similarities between a running jump and a stationary jump.
00:08:28.995 --> 00:08:36.346
It's best to just look at how the athlete in front of you is doing a running jump, if you wanna, if you're curious about, you know, running jump performance.
00:08:37.515 --> 00:08:37.875
Yeah.
00:08:37.875 --> 00:09:01.155
So with that running jump, um, how much does, like the approach velocity compare to these, this ability to handle these centric forces, like modify uh, that performance or do you see, I guess what I mean to ask is do you see that elite jumpers can handle more approach velocity or is there kind of a, a strategy dependent solution that these athletes are, are using that might differ among good jumpers?
00:09:02.895 --> 00:09:04.336
No, that's a great question actually.
00:09:04.336 --> 00:09:05.895
'cause this sort of touches on.
00:09:06.495 --> 00:09:10.936
Some of the approaches that you could do statistically, obviously I'm not gonna go too deep into that.
00:09:11.385 --> 00:09:11.566
Yeah.
00:09:11.566 --> 00:09:16.336
But basically there are trends that are generally good on the population level.
00:09:16.365 --> 00:09:21.255
If you list every boss or athlete ever, let's try to go up for a dunk.
00:09:21.586 --> 00:09:21.676
Mm-hmm.
00:09:21.916 --> 00:09:26.355
You're going to see a trend that higher jumping athletes usually come in with more C.
00:09:26.985 --> 00:09:27.196
Okay.
00:09:27.196 --> 00:09:38.596
So that is the general trend, and it's a fine baseline guideline to tell, to tell you in which direction you should try to take your training to now for an individual athlete's development.
00:09:38.596 --> 00:09:52.275
Over time, I think eventually you will end up using more and more approach velocity as your eccentric capabilities, as you mentioned, goes up as your technique becomes better suited to handle more initial approach velocity.
00:09:52.275 --> 00:09:52.995
Mm-hmm.
00:09:53.020 --> 00:09:57.946
But in the very short term, having too much approach velocity can exceed your ability to control it.
00:09:58.365 --> 00:09:59.806
It will actually make you jump lower.
00:10:00.630 --> 00:10:08.821
So there's this general trend at the population level and over a very long time that sort of mean, that sort of tells you that, you know, more velocity is good.
00:10:09.480 --> 00:10:19.620
But the opposite could be true in the very short term, especially within a session if you're trying to play around with, you know, having an athlete experiment with a range of initial approach velocity.
00:10:19.860 --> 00:10:26.791
And those two relationships can simultaneously exist because they exist at different scales and contexts.
00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:27.990
Okay.
00:10:28.591 --> 00:10:29.971
Uh, I got a follow up question to this.
00:10:29.971 --> 00:10:50.701
I know I'm already throwing you some curve balls, like one question in, um, so in the, in our setting, you know, when we're watching athletes go into an approach, we're looking at something, say, you know, I want to monitor hip height management, meaning I don't want my athletes to drop their center of mass too quickly, so.
00:10:51.780 --> 00:10:59.910
With respect to these elite jumpers, one of the things I know that they're doing well is their time to take off is, is pretty quick.
00:10:59.910 --> 00:11:08.581
You know, they're a, we would, you know, quantify this as explosive force, or they're able to apply these very, very large forces in very short timeframes.
00:11:08.581 --> 00:11:14.431
Yet on the flip side, we're talking about applying force over time to create this impulse.
00:11:15.030 --> 00:11:29.431
So my question is, when we're trying to apply this large magnitude of force in very short timeframes, are there certain, uh, biomechanical configurations, like joint angles, things like that, that really help athletes do this?
00:11:29.431 --> 00:11:37.230
Or do we start to look at some of the, you know, the physiologic characteristics of, you know, their strength, their eccentric, um, force producing capabilities?
00:11:37.230 --> 00:11:41.461
Are those the things that actually modify this force producing potential?
00:11:43.291 --> 00:11:43.591
No.
00:11:43.995 --> 00:11:45.796
Another, another great question actually.
00:11:45.796 --> 00:11:53.985
I, I'm, I'm loving, I'm loving where these are, these are going, so I think those, I mean, those things are intrinsically intertwined, right?
00:11:53.985 --> 00:12:00.946
Your physiological capabilities determines how well you're able to join my force against the ground, which is your biomechanics.
00:12:01.576 --> 00:12:01.696
Mm-hmm.
00:12:01.701 --> 00:12:10.605
So I actually kind of wanna touch on the impulse and time idea, and I think it's actually a big misconception Okay.
00:12:10.605 --> 00:12:14.985
In how people apply this impulse definition and impulse relationship.
00:12:15.436 --> 00:12:24.316
So the way impulse is often communicated by a lot of, uh, coaches is that it's, um, it's force multiplied by time.
00:12:24.885 --> 00:12:25.155
Mm-hmm.
00:12:25.395 --> 00:12:25.515
Right?
00:12:25.515 --> 00:12:27.015
That's generally the definition.
00:12:27.826 --> 00:12:37.005
But what really determines the your jump height and your takeover velocity, and what really matters in vertical jump is your net impulse.
00:12:37.125 --> 00:12:43.125
And net impulse in the physics term is the sum of all of your impulse applied, which means it includes your body weight.
00:12:43.576 --> 00:12:59.895
And your force that you apply against the ground, you wanna apply maximum force that exceeds your body weight, and you wanna do that for as long as possible, but you can't physically do that as long as possible because you can only generate forces that exceed all your own body weight.
00:13:00.196 --> 00:13:03.375
You know, as you mentioned, from certain joint configurations, right?
00:13:03.375 --> 00:13:03.946
Mm-hmm.
00:13:04.051 --> 00:13:10.995
So that's sort of the idea of having a, a lower minimum po minimum vertical position.
00:13:10.995 --> 00:13:15.225
AK more squatted, more flexed over position at the bottom of the jump.
00:13:15.796 --> 00:13:22.395
This is where that could be helpful because it gives you more time to generate more force that exceeds your body weight.
00:13:23.296 --> 00:13:28.035
It's not about generating very low force over a long time, right?
00:13:28.336 --> 00:13:29.836
That's not a viable strategy.
00:13:30.076 --> 00:13:31.426
You have to beat your body weight.
00:13:31.426 --> 00:13:34.245
You have to beat gravity in order for you to jump higher.
00:13:34.576 --> 00:13:40.186
That's why it's more important to, for your ability, it's more important to train your ability to generate high forces.
00:13:40.921 --> 00:13:45.900
As opposed to play around other things with time, it's also a lot more modifiable, right?
00:13:45.900 --> 00:13:54.961
You get stronger in your lower limb joints across a variety of exercises, you're gonna be, have a higher likelihood of being able to generate more force that way.
00:13:55.980 --> 00:13:56.880
No, that makes sense.
00:13:56.880 --> 00:14:03.961
You know, I work mostly with developing athletes, so getting them stronger is kind of the first stop, right?
00:14:03.961 --> 00:14:08.341
Like, um, I always say you don't put, you know, you don't put a spoiler on a Prius.
00:14:08.341 --> 00:14:12.961
Like we want a car with a bigger engine before we start fine tuning and, and modifying that.
00:14:13.051 --> 00:14:21.990
And I think a lot of coaches have used this analogy, so it's, it's nothing new, but I'm always in the back of my mind considering this constraint of time, right?
00:14:21.990 --> 00:14:35.850
Because even if I generate high forces, if I'm taking, you know, a 10th of a second longer, which doesn't sound like much, like I might not be at the apex of my jump when I need to snatch that rebound and somebody else might grab that.
00:14:35.850 --> 00:14:39.630
So how, how flexible is this time variable?
00:14:40.426 --> 00:14:48.285
When it comes to applying forces above body weight, I mean, what is the range that you're seeing for, you know, these elite jumpers?
00:14:50.115 --> 00:14:58.785
Um, well sadly I don't have access to elite jumpers data, but just from first principles generally, the shorter the better.
00:14:58.846 --> 00:15:01.365
Especially if you add in the constraints of time.
00:15:01.725 --> 00:15:11.385
And there's also a thing where, in example of grabbing a rebound, you might actually trade off between your maximum jump height versus your time to get off the ground.
00:15:11.410 --> 00:15:11.831
Mm-hmm.
00:15:11.985 --> 00:15:21.556
There's this flexibility and trade off between, you know, force application and time such that it needs to just satisfy the task demand at hand Right when you grab a rebound.
00:15:22.275 --> 00:15:22.515
Okay.
00:15:22.515 --> 00:15:25.936
I'm also making a different argument in basketball'cause I've been a basketball player.
00:15:25.936 --> 00:15:29.115
If you need to jump that high to grab a rebound, you did not box out well.
00:15:29.926 --> 00:15:30.076
So
00:15:30.466 --> 00:15:31.755
do your work on the ground.
00:15:31.755 --> 00:15:32.115
Right.
00:15:32.206 --> 00:15:36.916
And you might not have to, you might not need all of your maximum jumping capabilities.
00:15:37.846 --> 00:15:42.706
But the idea is for different tasks in different contexts, you're gonna have different movement strategies.
00:15:42.706 --> 00:15:44.985
Your body finds the best way to trade off.
00:15:45.436 --> 00:15:51.316
And to me, from a training perspective, the best way to target those is to target the different ends of the spectrum.
00:15:51.466 --> 00:15:51.706
Right?
00:15:51.706 --> 00:15:56.416
This is, I know it's a controversial topic to talk about surfing the curve.
00:15:56.985 --> 00:15:57.135
Mm-hmm.
00:15:57.375 --> 00:16:02.985
But just from strictly maximizing your training stimuli in like the different extremes, you wanna go to the extremes.
00:16:03.105 --> 00:16:11.686
So, you know, if you wanna play, play with speed, jump as fast as you can off the ground in a variety of contexts, and you, you end up being able to do it.
00:16:11.985 --> 00:16:14.025
And when the game comes and also box out,
00:16:14.865 --> 00:16:15.855
also box out.
00:16:15.885 --> 00:16:20.566
I think that also box out immediately, soon, as soon as the shot goes up.
00:16:21.255 --> 00:16:28.096
Oh man, I coach some teams and, and that is like the one thing, I don't know why at the youth level they just, that those eyes just go to the ball and they're just waiting.
00:16:28.936 --> 00:16:30.826
Um, you kind of already answered this, but.
00:16:31.291 --> 00:16:45.000
You know, I, I don't know, it was one of the videos I watched of you, our previous podcast, but you talked about your framework centering on the mechanical objectives of any movement or sporting action, which, you know, is just, I think, a great foundational starting point.
00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:56.071
So for a young athlete, um, should we encourage them to seek, mimic, or emulate, you know, what elite technique looks like?
00:16:56.581 --> 00:16:58.230
Or is there a better starting point?
00:17:00.270 --> 00:17:08.611
So I actually used to think you should not try to copy techniques of athletes with very clearly very different physical capabilities than you.
00:17:08.611 --> 00:17:09.540
Mm-hmm.
00:17:09.655 --> 00:17:13.080
But now actually I've changed my mind a little bit.
00:17:13.080 --> 00:17:13.111
Okay.
00:17:13.441 --> 00:17:19.560
I think for the youth athlete's perspective, there's nothing wrong in trying to mimic and emulate different techniques.
00:17:20.550 --> 00:17:22.411
If anything, it's a good exposure.
00:17:22.921 --> 00:17:25.951
We can move slightly differently and just see what it feels like.
00:17:26.010 --> 00:17:31.800
I think it's actually valuable in terms of your development, just because again, of the movement variability.
00:17:32.760 --> 00:17:39.631
But I do think it's important not to be fixated on looking that specific way over your performance.
00:17:40.471 --> 00:17:48.330
It could be a fun thing to experiment with, like who hasn't gone out there and tried a basket of move on the court, you know, after you saw on the NBA.
00:17:48.330 --> 00:17:48.570
Right.
00:17:48.570 --> 00:17:49.711
You, you, you all try it.
00:17:49.740 --> 00:17:56.461
It's a great fun, it's a great way for you to develop body control, but you shouldn't feel dejected if you don't look exactly the same.
00:17:57.240 --> 00:18:01.080
You can try it, but do not judge your technique through how it looks.
00:18:01.080 --> 00:18:07.050
You should judge it through how it performs, especially if you're already actively engaging, you know, in the same sport.
00:18:07.740 --> 00:18:17.161
I think it's actually much more important for coaches and researchers to understand this mechanical objective perspective when it comes to movement technique.
00:18:17.851 --> 00:18:23.580
And also I can sort of go into, you know, the, the biggest strengths and benefits of viewing movements this way a bit later.
00:18:23.766 --> 00:18:24.185
Mm-hmm.
00:18:25.141 --> 00:18:28.651
It's very important to keep in mind the mechanical objectives of the task.
00:18:28.891 --> 00:18:35.730
If you are studying more sports specific movements, that goes beyond just your regular account movement jumps, et cetera, right?
00:18:36.121 --> 00:18:38.490
'cause in sports you have the task at hand.
00:18:39.030 --> 00:18:42.090
You also have things like perception, action, reacting to defenders.
00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:44.971
You also have environmental factors and other stuff.
00:18:45.451 --> 00:18:51.151
So yeah, I think it's more important for coaches to know this, to understand this mechanical objective perspective.
00:18:52.020 --> 00:19:04.560
No, I think that's great because I mean, when I was on the come up, I was a big NBA guy and we used to go to this, um, like half court you could rent and we would do low rim dunks trying to basically recreate everything.
00:19:04.560 --> 00:19:09.961
Vince Carter did, um, on probably like a seven and a half foot ramp, you know, when I was like 10.
00:19:10.381 --> 00:19:14.580
But, um, you, you, I think the body control piece is way understated.
00:19:14.580 --> 00:19:16.891
Just, you know, knowing where you are in space.
00:19:17.221 --> 00:19:23.250
Um, this is kind of more on my end of the spectrum in terms of application, but if we kind of anchor.
00:19:24.211 --> 00:19:32.010
This mechanical objective first, what is the, what is the progression in the practice or what should it look like for a young athlete?
00:19:33.990 --> 00:19:39.330
Yes, so I, I think I'll first start by like explaining what this mechanical objective perspective is.
00:19:39.336 --> 00:19:39.346
Mm-hmm.
00:19:39.425 --> 00:19:45.780
And this sort of like, I know ties into a later question on the impulse momentum relationship because they're all very closely related.
00:19:46.621 --> 00:19:46.861
Okay.
00:19:46.861 --> 00:19:53.790
So the mechanical objectives are basically the minimum requirements in order for you to successfully complete a task.
00:19:54.840 --> 00:19:58.560
So I'll give a variety of examples so people can have a general idea.
00:19:59.161 --> 00:19:59.280
Mm-hmm.
00:19:59.550 --> 00:20:07.711
So in jumping, the minimum requirements for you to complete a task is to generate enough force to defeat gravity and allow you to be airborne.
00:20:08.971 --> 00:20:13.800
Any technique that allows you to do that technically is a successful technique.
00:20:13.980 --> 00:20:18.691
Obviously there are some that's more successful than the others, but any technique is successful.
00:20:20.131 --> 00:20:20.760
Additionally.
00:20:21.645 --> 00:20:22.576
I'll give you more examples.
00:20:22.635 --> 00:20:22.695
Yeah.
00:20:22.965 --> 00:20:25.125
Um, in our lab, we like to study.
00:20:25.455 --> 00:20:29.236
Besides my exciting research, there's also other less, I'm just kidding.
00:20:29.715 --> 00:20:35.625
Equally important, but maybe less exciting research such as older adults walking and turning and balance.
00:20:36.105 --> 00:20:36.195
Mm-hmm.
00:20:36.435 --> 00:20:46.875
So in their case, their mechanical objective is walking straight, redirecting your body's momentum and orientation, get to your destination without falling.
00:20:47.385 --> 00:20:48.645
That's their mechanical objective.
00:20:49.965 --> 00:20:57.226
In a squat example, you wanna squat down with a rate and then generate enough vertical force to stand back up.
00:20:57.766 --> 00:20:58.875
That is the mechanical objective.
00:20:58.965 --> 00:21:02.056
And again, in those you wanna maintain balance and not follow.
00:21:02.836 --> 00:21:10.036
So mechanical objectives tells you, you know, what are the basic requirements for this task to be successfully completed?
00:21:10.935 --> 00:21:18.405
And it does not care about how you are doing when you explore, when you, when you view things from that perspective.
00:21:19.050 --> 00:21:24.060
You'll realize there are many different movement techniques that can work for different individuals.
00:21:24.961 --> 00:21:30.421
So this is when it, so that encompasses people categorizing different athletes.
00:21:30.421 --> 00:21:31.921
You know, elastic power.
00:21:32.191 --> 00:21:32.280
Yeah.
00:21:32.310 --> 00:21:37.141
Why narrow a SA And also it tells you what factors are more important in movements.
00:21:37.830 --> 00:21:42.421
Because mechanical objectives are usually about how you regulate the body's momentum.
00:21:43.351 --> 00:21:45.361
Momentum is controlled by forces.
00:21:46.020 --> 00:21:49.500
It's not controlled by how you look and what positions you hit.
00:21:50.191 --> 00:21:58.590
It's controlled by what kind of forces you can generate using your, using different positions and using different limb and body configuration.
00:21:59.431 --> 00:22:04.351
So it's like a very over encompassing framework when it comes to analyzing movements.
00:22:05.401 --> 00:22:11.490
When it comes to applying it to athletes, it, it tells you what factors are important versus not.
00:22:11.490 --> 00:22:12.691
For example, in jumping.
00:22:13.320 --> 00:22:22.770
You wanna frame your jump technique development around things that will help you generate as much force as possible and things that will prevent you from having too much of a downward crash.
00:22:22.770 --> 00:22:22.980
Right.
00:22:22.980 --> 00:22:33.961
People talk about hip height management, it's really talking about managing your initial downward velocity, and you can use some of it to generate more force through the stretch filling cycle.
00:22:34.381 --> 00:22:34.471
Mm-hmm.
00:22:34.711 --> 00:22:36.030
But it's only up to a certain point.
00:22:36.691 --> 00:22:38.760
It tells you like which of the diets you can play with.
00:22:39.421 --> 00:22:54.540
And instead of focusing on, you know, this is where your arm should be at this time point, you can look at the bigger rocks, I think the more important stuff, and it's, it's less specific, but it gives room for the athlete to figure out through experimentation and practice.
00:22:56.520 --> 00:22:57.090
So I'll stop there.
00:22:57.721 --> 00:22:58.230
Okay.
00:22:58.230 --> 00:23:02.431
There's a lot to unpack here, so I'm trying to digest all this one.
00:23:02.520 --> 00:23:11.250
One area that you talked about was, um, you know, these, this categorization of athletes because I think conceptually.
00:23:11.790 --> 00:23:24.270
It's easy to decide what interventions might be relevant to improve, you know, these mechanical requirements or minimum necessary, um, capabilities that we need to get right.
00:23:24.270 --> 00:23:25.111
Defeating gravity.
00:23:25.621 --> 00:23:30.721
So you mentioned like the elastic versus the, um, muscular athletes.
00:23:30.721 --> 00:23:32.310
Very common one that we understand.
00:23:32.316 --> 00:23:40.381
People that are more into like the, um, I would say nerdy biomechanics might talk about these wide versus narrow ISA and that can go down a deep, deep rabbit hole.
00:23:40.471 --> 00:23:59.941
But my question to you, with respect to this mechanical perspective and the objectives required, how much of this categorization that we're using is actually useful shorthand for coaches and how much is just kind of maybe oversimplifying, um, complex mechanics?
00:24:02.010 --> 00:24:10.020
Um, I, the thing is there, I don't think there's enough data for me to say if there are oversimplifying it or overcomplicating it.
00:24:10.471 --> 00:24:14.580
Because there just has not been, I mean, any research to back any of these up.
00:24:15.270 --> 00:24:15.540
Okay.
00:24:15.601 --> 00:24:24.480
Um, I actually had a lot stronger takes about whether you should use these categorizations at all, but I've sort of grown more, um, peaceful over the years.
00:24:24.901 --> 00:24:31.351
I think I, I acknowledge that it is a useful way for coaches to respect individual differences at the minimum.
00:24:31.830 --> 00:24:32.040
Yeah.
00:24:32.101 --> 00:24:38.040
It, it's a way for people to move on from treating everybody the same way, giving everybody the same prescription.
00:24:38.790 --> 00:24:48.451
It's a useful tool to help you understand, you know, different people move differently because the mechanical objectives of the task allows you to move in a variety of ways.
00:24:49.111 --> 00:24:49.290
Okay.
00:24:50.221 --> 00:25:00.480
It's actually also a general trend in a lot of research and practical settings where we are moving away from like the, the general population or what we call group level, right.
00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:06.631
Where we're treating everybody as like, you know, a everybody as one data point that moves the same way.
00:25:06.631 --> 00:25:09.211
We're going into more looking at individual trends.
00:25:10.500 --> 00:25:20.101
I do not think there's enough evidence to support the rationale, the explanations behind, you know, here's why a muscular or elastic jumper should move this way, should train that way.
00:25:20.641 --> 00:25:24.451
I don't agree with the rationale, and I just don't think they're strong enough evidence to support them.
00:25:25.260 --> 00:25:34.921
You can use it as a tool to say you move differently, but I don't necessarily think you can fully justify or treating them, treating their training completely differently.
00:25:34.921 --> 00:25:43.230
You should still examine how they respond to the training stimulus that you apply, and obviously pick the tool that's best for the job.
00:25:43.260 --> 00:25:43.471
Right.
00:25:43.530 --> 00:25:49.681
If, if a categorization of a muscular versus elastic helps you make better exercise mm-hmm.
00:25:49.921 --> 00:25:54.780
Just, uh, descriptions, sorry, prescriptions, then, you know, feel free to use it.
00:25:54.780 --> 00:25:55.621
I have nothing against it.
00:25:55.621 --> 00:26:08.010
I just don't believe in the way people explain it because it doesn't make too much sense for me, and also I don't, I don't see strong enough evidence to support those rationales, but I think that's also for the most nerdy people, replication.
00:26:08.986 --> 00:26:12.316
You can do the right thing for the wrong reasons, and that's okay.
00:26:14.445 --> 00:26:14.776
Yeah.
00:26:15.046 --> 00:26:17.895
Which, I mean, sometimes we, we fall into dumb luck.
00:26:18.915 --> 00:26:33.375
Whe when we're looking at, uh, jumps, speaking of like an individual level, so I know some of the, in your research when you're doing the, the running jumps, how much variability was there on an individual level between these jumps?
00:26:33.375 --> 00:26:41.086
So they did, you know, four or five jumps, I can't remember exactly how many you were able to calculate, but what is that, what does that look like?
00:26:41.326 --> 00:26:51.675
You know, because it's easy to look at the, the tables and the charts and to get these averages either at a population level or at an individual level, but within a specific series of jumps.
00:26:51.675 --> 00:26:54.286
Like what kind of variants are we seeing?
00:26:56.086 --> 00:27:01.096
I'm actually seeing like, because these jumps are very well practiced.
00:27:01.486 --> 00:27:01.576
Mm-hmm.
00:27:01.816 --> 00:27:06.316
So the way actually we would describe this in research is that we are researching movements that are.
00:27:06.885 --> 00:27:10.185
Well-practiced goal-oriented tasks.
00:27:10.846 --> 00:27:10.965
Okay.
00:27:11.086 --> 00:27:15.016
In that sense, people perform it in a very specific and reliable way.
00:27:15.016 --> 00:27:23.655
So within the same person across repetitions, there's actually not that much variability because they've done these kind of jumps enough times.
00:27:24.736 --> 00:27:34.306
I'm also seeing some of, I'm seeing a re, a pretty good amount of consistency across individuals in how they generate forces against the ground.
00:27:34.306 --> 00:27:44.625
Like I call it the impulse generation strategies, which is like how much low, how much force generation you distribute between your plant leg or the block leg, or you know, as I call it, my paper.
00:27:44.625 --> 00:27:47.056
Your first and the second leg in terms of what, what context?
00:27:47.056 --> 00:27:48.346
The ground first versus second.
00:27:49.635 --> 00:27:55.155
So in that sense, there's actually a quite, the sample is what we call quite homogeneous.
00:27:55.395 --> 00:27:55.486
Mm-hmm.
00:27:55.726 --> 00:28:00.465
Everybody behaving fairly similarly when they're generating vertical forces.
00:28:01.276 --> 00:28:05.806
Now when it comes to generating horizontal forces or breaking against your four momentum.
00:28:06.226 --> 00:28:14.865
We notice a a lot more participant variation and that's because there you can break more with your plant leg, you can break more with your block leg.
00:28:15.286 --> 00:28:18.435
As long as you generate enough more forces, you're fine.
00:28:19.846 --> 00:28:30.645
The reason we are seeing more homogeneity in the vertical force is because as you contact the ground with your, with your plant leg or the first leg, you're already generating a lot of vertical forces already.
00:28:31.306 --> 00:28:39.375
So it's just the nature of when you do this one, two sequence, your first leg is just gonna generate more vertical force because it's being with the ground longer.
00:28:40.246 --> 00:28:46.905
Okay, so those are like some quirks of, yes, there are individual differences, but I don't think it matters as much.
00:28:47.445 --> 00:28:52.215
It's about whether you can fulfill the task at hand, which is controlling your horizontal velocity.
00:28:52.875 --> 00:28:55.155
As long as that's done, we're good to go.
00:28:56.296 --> 00:28:56.685
Okay.
00:28:57.316 --> 00:29:02.326
Um, kind of on this note, obviously with a one leg jumper, we're not gonna have plant block leg.
00:29:02.355 --> 00:29:02.445
Mm-hmm.
00:29:02.685 --> 00:29:12.105
So can you just riff some of the differences in strategy or maybe advantages, disadvantages, when it comes to, you know, using one verse two legs?
00:29:14.115 --> 00:29:22.965
From what I'm seeing from research, I know there's been actually very, there, there's been a few papers, like two that compares one foot and two foot jumps.
00:29:23.625 --> 00:29:31.365
But generally the sense is one foot jumping is a lot more restrictive in the kind of movement strategies you could use in two foot.
00:29:31.365 --> 00:29:38.355
If you consider, you know, spending longer time versus shorter time, you have like almost four combinations, right?
00:29:38.355 --> 00:29:43.215
You can have either legs spending longer or shorter times with different movement strategies.
00:29:43.215 --> 00:29:45.796
But for one leg, one foot jumping, it's a lot more constrained.
00:29:46.605 --> 00:29:49.786
It places a lot higher of a demand on your lower limb joints.
00:29:49.875 --> 00:29:54.441
It's actually quite difficult to maintain balance as you run in with greater and greater.
00:29:55.905 --> 00:30:00.165
So it's just, it's, it is straight up a tougher way of jumping.
00:30:00.195 --> 00:30:03.435
Even though, you know, for some people they say, oh, I can never figure out two foot jumping.
00:30:03.435 --> 00:30:06.016
Well, that's because you don't practice it enough.
00:30:06.736 --> 00:30:11.026
But I think at the highest level, one foot jumping, it's just more mechanically difficult.
00:30:11.026 --> 00:30:18.826
I think there's also just less movement variability in one foot jumping, especially successful one foot jumpers compared to two foot jumpers.
00:30:18.826 --> 00:30:22.786
You see a lot more technique variation when it comes to two foot jumping.
00:30:23.415 --> 00:30:23.715
Yeah.
00:30:23.715 --> 00:30:27.586
Have you tested like performance, like outcome one verse two?
00:30:28.965 --> 00:30:37.425
It's actually very difficult to do that research because if you're really good at one foot jumping, you're going to just jump a lot more of your one compared to of two, right?
00:30:38.175 --> 00:30:38.326
Yeah.
00:30:38.355 --> 00:30:44.685
You could have someone that theoretically could hit a higher two foot jumping, but they just haven't practiced it enough at the time of data collection.
00:30:45.226 --> 00:30:49.125
So it's, it's a very difficult study to run theoretically.
00:30:50.086 --> 00:30:52.885
From a first principles perspective, I think it's.
00:30:53.655 --> 00:31:00.645
You are likely to jump higher with the absolute height of two feet just because you can distribute the forces across both legs.
00:31:01.096 --> 00:31:01.306
Mm-hmm.
00:31:01.320 --> 00:31:13.036
And then you won't get as close to the maximum tolerable, you know, tissue forces compared to one foot where you do get quite close in how much your tissues, lower limit tissues can tolerate those forces.
00:31:13.635 --> 00:31:19.395
In two, you almost, you can distribute the loads and therefore allows to generate greater forces.
00:31:19.665 --> 00:31:20.236
Theoretically.
00:31:20.236 --> 00:31:20.296
Yeah.
00:31:20.895 --> 00:31:22.155
Than you could just only have one leg.
00:31:22.155 --> 00:31:24.885
It's like the, you know, you have both legs on the ground to both generate forces.
00:31:25.125 --> 00:31:25.336
So,
00:31:26.326 --> 00:31:40.336
yeah, just kind of thinking out loud here, but it would seem to me that if I'm jumping off one leg, I'm not gonna get the same level of change in my center of mass, you know, at its at minimal, at its minimum height.
00:31:40.365 --> 00:31:45.135
Like so does that leg, is it just a more rigid strut that they're kind of.
00:31:46.036 --> 00:31:47.836
Using that momentum to some degree.
00:31:47.836 --> 00:31:53.175
I mean, it just seems like you wouldn't have the ability to, to almost like, I always think of it like going up a halfpipe, right?
00:31:53.175 --> 00:32:01.336
We've got all this momentum coming in and we wanna redirect as vertical as possible, but with one leg that is really insanely difficult to do.
00:32:01.336 --> 00:32:06.435
So it, I just feel like they're passing over with, you know, straighter joint angles.
00:32:06.435 --> 00:32:07.635
Am I, am I wrong here?
00:32:08.506 --> 00:32:16.425
No, you're actually, no, that's actually a very, very, very great point and one huge distinguishing factor between one foot and two foot and two foot.
00:32:16.756 --> 00:32:19.996
You see a lot more of, uh, the descent of your central mass.
00:32:20.506 --> 00:32:20.596
Mm-hmm.
00:32:20.596 --> 00:32:29.746
When one foot that's actually discouraged and there is like one paper done by Jesus Ena, who is like one of the OG biomechanics researchers in the HighJump space.
00:32:30.405 --> 00:32:36.046
He basically stated that you do not want too much of a vertical syndrome, mass descent after ground contact.
00:32:36.945 --> 00:32:44.506
But as you mentioned before, having this bigger vertical range of motion for your body is generally advantageous for jump heights.
00:32:45.121 --> 00:32:51.601
And high jumpers achieve that through a combination of a backward lean as well as leaning, running a curve.
00:32:52.201 --> 00:32:56.760
So it allows to, so you, you're so, you're able to lean backwards and lean into the curve.
00:32:57.211 --> 00:33:09.361
And that's one way they're getting some center mass descent as they go into the plant, but they definitely cannot afford to, you know, have too much lower limb joint flexions just because of the demands on the lower limb.
00:33:10.201 --> 00:33:10.351
Yeah.
00:33:10.381 --> 00:33:13.921
So, yeah, that's a great, you're not gonna see a basketball guy lean back like that though.
00:33:14.881 --> 00:33:15.601
Absolutely not.
00:33:15.601 --> 00:33:21.721
And also, you don't need to jump that high of one compared to like, you know, the elite world class high jumpers.
00:33:22.230 --> 00:33:27.931
I actually think the high jump rules that only allow you to jump off one foot is, I think it's dumb.
00:33:28.411 --> 00:33:29.820
I don't care about traditions.
00:33:29.881 --> 00:33:34.891
I, I think if you define the task, I want you to define the as simply as possible.
00:33:34.891 --> 00:33:37.171
I don't want you to specify anything about technique.
00:33:37.590 --> 00:33:40.681
Just define the task and let the athletes figure out what's the best.
00:33:41.250 --> 00:33:43.711
Way to fulfill the task, you know, jump over the bar.
00:33:43.740 --> 00:33:44.070
Done.
00:33:44.070 --> 00:33:44.401
That's it.
00:33:44.851 --> 00:33:45.661
As hard as possible.
00:33:45.661 --> 00:33:47.580
Don't care how you do it, just do it.
00:33:48.181 --> 00:33:48.240
I
00:33:48.240 --> 00:33:48.840
think that's great.
00:33:48.840 --> 00:33:48.901
You
00:33:48.901 --> 00:33:49.651
know, we can only dream
00:33:51.330 --> 00:33:51.721
one day.
00:33:51.750 --> 00:33:52.980
We'll ha we'll start our own event.
00:33:53.070 --> 00:33:55.951
Um, okay, other constraints.
00:33:55.951 --> 00:33:58.290
So one verse two ball in hand.
00:33:59.070 --> 00:34:00.361
How does that modify the jump?
00:34:00.361 --> 00:34:09.150
I've heard you talk before, like obviously if we're gonna, we're gonna post our eyes, somebody, we've gotta reach our apex before the rim, so we're jumping from a little bit further away.
00:34:09.150 --> 00:34:13.621
We're still gonna have some forward momentum in the jump versus just jumping up and reaching a target.
00:34:14.221 --> 00:34:20.731
But what do we know about how this is actually modifying the strategy of jumping?
00:34:22.275 --> 00:34:25.036
No, I, I actually, I, I love talking about this topic.
00:34:25.365 --> 00:34:27.766
It was so difficult to research this, actually.
00:34:27.945 --> 00:34:28.365
Oh, I'm sure.
00:34:28.365 --> 00:34:29.235
I can't even imagine.
00:34:29.356 --> 00:34:30.376
I mean, how do you control for that
00:34:30.376 --> 00:34:31.005
before?
00:34:31.126 --> 00:34:37.635
Yeah, before my, before my research, like I have like one paper, it's like the most complicated paper I've ever written.
00:34:38.235 --> 00:34:42.016
That was like the only one that compares jumping with, without a ball in a running jump setting.
00:34:42.405 --> 00:34:42.496
Mm-hmm.
00:34:42.735 --> 00:34:44.025
In like 21 people.
00:34:44.655 --> 00:34:54.106
So basically there were a huge variety of individual differences as expected, because different people have different skill levels and how they jump with and without a ball.
00:34:54.766 --> 00:35:04.425
The way I did the research was I, you know, I have them come in, obviously do all your warmups, you attach your sensors, and then just randomize the order of jumping with and without a ball.
00:35:05.115 --> 00:35:14.146
So, you know, they might have like three trials without a ball, two trials with the ball, et cetera, et cetera, until they have like at least three each with good enough data that I could analyze later on.
00:35:14.956 --> 00:35:16.456
So that's sort of how you can control it.
00:35:16.485 --> 00:35:17.655
You just randomize the order.
00:35:18.346 --> 00:35:28.815
And you sort of assume that yes, there's gonna be some crossover in the way they move, but because the tasks are different, you're just trying to observe movement differences between the tasks.
00:35:29.536 --> 00:35:32.956
There are certain statistical things you can do to control for that.
00:35:32.956 --> 00:35:38.835
You know, interdependency, we call it like depend trials where they somewhat relate to each other.
00:35:39.226 --> 00:35:39.436
Yeah.
00:35:39.436 --> 00:35:41.295
But are also different enough.
00:35:41.925 --> 00:35:49.005
So basically all the individuals perceive that jumping with a ball is a more demanding task if you're a basketball player, you know that's true.
00:35:50.416 --> 00:35:55.275
But there are some people that generates less force when they jump with a ball.
00:35:56.025 --> 00:35:56.175
Okay.
00:35:56.235 --> 00:36:01.065
There are some that modifies how they run in, which means they have more of a downward cinema as crash.
00:36:02.655 --> 00:36:07.275
There are some people that do not modify either conditions and they actually jump the same.
00:36:08.956 --> 00:36:09.795
So basically.
00:36:10.365 --> 00:36:12.405
You do not wanna, but, okay.
00:36:12.405 --> 00:36:25.425
So in terms of like all the different things that could be changed, the most common is people just generate the less or so forth it could be because their plant legs, forces lower, or the block, like forces over lower, but we don't.
00:36:25.516 --> 00:36:28.456
But beyond that, we cannot really say what the causes are.
00:36:28.936 --> 00:36:29.146
Okay.
00:36:29.146 --> 00:36:37.396
But we could say, you know, as you jump with a ball, maybe you need to put more active attention into really putting the force into the ground or driving up with your arms.
00:36:37.425 --> 00:36:37.666
Right?
00:36:37.996 --> 00:36:45.856
We might need to be more intentional in our specific practice with a ball because there's this additional cognitive demand of holding the ball.
00:36:47.010 --> 00:36:47.300
Okay.
00:36:47.655 --> 00:36:52.186
We also don't want to change our running approach too, too much, but then jumps with and without a ball.
00:36:52.186 --> 00:36:57.706
I know when people dribble with a basketball, their posture changes compared to how they would just run normally.
00:36:58.246 --> 00:37:01.096
So being more mindful of that is also important.
00:37:02.311 --> 00:37:11.251
And the conclusion of that paper is really, you know, these tasks are different enough even in these groups of skilled basketball players.
00:37:11.820 --> 00:37:19.291
So we should probably practice dunking and jumping with a ball specifically in addition to running and jumping without a ball.
00:37:20.070 --> 00:37:25.050
And if your goal is to be a great basketball player, honestly you should just practice majority with the ball, right?
00:37:25.590 --> 00:37:38.940
You can do an off lob where it also allows you to train a, a different aspect of a dunking specific skill, which is also good because it teaches you timing, teaches you how to look up and find a target, and actually is a great tool for teaching.
00:37:38.940 --> 00:37:42.811
You better touch as your hand interacts with the ball during the air.
00:37:43.291 --> 00:37:46.351
So yes, they're very different I think.
00:37:46.981 --> 00:37:47.371
Okay.
00:37:47.791 --> 00:37:53.161
Um, this to me, highlights a bigger issue when looking at jumping.
00:37:53.161 --> 00:37:55.351
So we do this on the force place as well, right?
00:37:55.351 --> 00:37:58.351
Counter movement, jump with the arms versus without.
00:37:58.351 --> 00:38:04.561
So when I have a ball in hand, obviously the contribution of my arms to the jump is going to change.
00:38:04.740 --> 00:38:14.940
Now, historically, I think what we've been told is when you do an arm swing, right, you're getting more downward velocity, which you have to overcome, buys you a little more time to push against the ground.
00:38:14.940 --> 00:38:18.240
So we can have that force, um, above body weight increase.
00:38:18.240 --> 00:38:29.610
Our propulsive net impulse is, I guess before we even talk about specific with the ball, but what is the role of the arms in jumping?
00:38:29.610 --> 00:38:34.831
Are they, is that, is that classical interpretation that I talked about still accurate?
00:38:35.130 --> 00:38:38.760
And I guess, does the ball really modify our ability to use that?
00:38:38.760 --> 00:38:42.721
Is that why potentially that, uh, vertical ground reaction force goes down?
00:38:43.380 --> 00:38:44.581
I know we're getting into the weeds here.
00:38:44.581 --> 00:38:45.030
I'm sorry.
00:38:45.121 --> 00:38:45.690
Oh, no.
00:38:45.690 --> 00:38:45.840
I
00:38:45.840 --> 00:38:46.260
love it.
00:38:46.530 --> 00:38:54.360
I've dug, I've dug in, I've literally spent like years looking into papers that come, it's actually one of strength and condition research's favorites.
00:38:54.360 --> 00:38:55.081
Comparisons.
00:38:55.650 --> 00:38:55.831
Yeah.
00:38:55.831 --> 00:39:04.530
It's the classic counter movement jump with arms Without Arms, and it's actually one of the driving forces behind like my hypothesis for the, uh, vulnerable paper.
00:39:05.161 --> 00:39:08.641
You know, obviously in vulnerable it's a suppressed arm swing, as I call it.
00:39:08.760 --> 00:39:09.001
Mm-hmm.
00:39:09.240 --> 00:39:11.041
Versus complete elimination of the arm swing.
00:39:11.701 --> 00:39:16.920
So there's this one paper in 2004 by Adrian Lees, who's from the uk.
00:39:16.920 --> 00:39:27.931
He does a lot of track and field and jumping base research, and the paper basically aims to causally, um, understand why jumping with arm swing helps you to jump higher.
00:39:28.650 --> 00:39:32.851
So there's a few rationales that were stated in that 2004 paper.
00:39:33.541 --> 00:39:41.490
Number one, as you mentioned, is the vertical range of the center mass as your arms is, you know, straight at the very bottom and overhead at the very top.
00:39:41.641 --> 00:39:49.170
It gives your whole body center mass, more vertical range motion to move through, and therefore that's what you're talking about with the time, right?
00:39:49.170 --> 00:39:53.010
You have more time to do post of impulse and that is entirely accurate.
00:39:54.300 --> 00:40:04.110
But then that paper tries to get into how the arms is trying to, the arms momentum is exerting a force onto the shoulder girdle, which accelerates your Trump upwards?
00:40:04.920 --> 00:40:05.431
I don't know.
00:40:05.431 --> 00:40:06.721
I'm not sure about that.
00:40:07.380 --> 00:40:07.590
Okay.
00:40:07.621 --> 00:40:10.561
But it, yeah, it's a very confusing aspect.
00:40:10.561 --> 00:40:19.650
And obviously if you have different papers with different groups of athletes doing the same test, you're gonna have different explanations for, you know, oh, is it the average force that's modified?
00:40:19.681 --> 00:40:22.981
Oh, is the duration of proposed impulse that's modified?
00:40:23.490 --> 00:40:29.371
Both occurred, but it seems like it's the proposed impulse generation duration, the time piece.
00:40:30.150 --> 00:40:32.101
In like three of three of the four papers.
00:40:32.161 --> 00:40:33.960
That's like the only factor that's different.
00:40:34.530 --> 00:40:34.710
Hmm.
00:40:35.161 --> 00:40:43.260
In one paper that looked at it in the volleyball players, it found that both average force and the proposed of impulse duration were changed.
00:40:43.981 --> 00:40:47.851
So, you know, then we sort, we can sort of assume, you know, both can be modified.
00:40:48.420 --> 00:41:03.630
We don't exactly know how in the lower limb joints, I think you need to probably, I don't know, measure, uh, lower limb muscle activation patterns that you have to model for the, you know, the lower limb joint forces and moments.
00:41:03.690 --> 00:41:21.360
But again, you know, this is a point where I don't think understanding the full mechanism matters as much as just understanding what is the broad biomechanical differences and, you know, how it, how it, how it impacts the way we use CM js as a testing tool.
00:41:22.920 --> 00:41:23.311
Okay.
00:41:23.311 --> 00:41:24.141
I think there's value in that.
00:41:24.146 --> 00:41:24.365
So.
00:41:25.726 --> 00:41:31.905
I guess a follow up question is, you kind of started to, to go down this, so I just wanna kind of nudge it a little bit more.
00:41:32.235 --> 00:41:36.496
Even though you said you're more a man of peace now, but um mm-hmm.
00:41:37.635 --> 00:41:49.456
Where do you see coaches kind of misapply physics in the weight room or on the court or jump training and, you know, how does this kind of impulse momentum framework keep us honest?
00:41:52.065 --> 00:41:52.396
Yeah.
00:41:52.485 --> 00:42:00.766
Well there's a few things I think people often oversimplify, which, okay, it's a paradoxical statement.
00:42:01.396 --> 00:42:05.476
'cause I think the physics, physics that govern jumping is quite simple.
00:42:05.985 --> 00:42:06.076
Mm-hmm.
00:42:06.315 --> 00:42:11.865
But people tend to oversimplify the i impulse momentum relationship, like the example I gave with time.
00:42:11.956 --> 00:42:12.255
Right?
00:42:12.706 --> 00:42:12.885
Yeah.
00:42:12.885 --> 00:42:17.326
People sometimes say, oh, you wanna maximize time, you wanna minimize time, et cetera.
00:42:17.686 --> 00:42:19.996
And then that's a seemingly paradoxical statement.
00:42:20.085 --> 00:42:21.525
It's the cost of full contact.
00:42:21.795 --> 00:42:23.835
It's missing where it's time.
00:42:24.240 --> 00:42:25.650
When you're beating gravity.
00:42:26.371 --> 00:42:26.521
Yeah.
00:42:26.521 --> 00:42:33.300
So those are really the, the full context being missing to me is when it's most being misapplied.
00:42:34.471 --> 00:42:40.021
But other than that, I think people generally actually just tend to stay away from these mechanics concepts.
00:42:40.590 --> 00:42:40.771
Mm-hmm.
00:42:41.010 --> 00:42:44.371
I know only a few groups of people that really tries to get into the impulse stuff.
00:42:45.090 --> 00:42:45.300
Yeah.
00:42:45.300 --> 00:42:49.380
Where they're saying, oh, you need to maximize the duration of breaking impulse, for example.
00:42:49.380 --> 00:42:53.010
Where, but then they do not really define what, what is breaking impulse?
00:42:53.010 --> 00:42:58.800
Are you breaking the vertical direction or breaking the horizontal direction during a two for running jump?
00:42:59.251 --> 00:43:06.780
You are doing horizontal bra throughout the entirety of the jump, but you're only doing vertical breaking during the initial sensor mass phase.
00:43:06.840 --> 00:43:07.081
Right.
00:43:07.081 --> 00:43:15.811
Really not fully understanding the concepts and fully communicating it when they are trying to make posts about it.
00:43:15.871 --> 00:43:18.900
That's to me, when, when I will make a response post,'cause I'm like.
00:43:20.266 --> 00:43:23.806
It takes an extra five seconds to lay out the full context.
00:43:24.405 --> 00:43:24.585
Right.
00:43:24.615 --> 00:43:35.175
But I think it's not really you trying to actively deceive it might be a understanding problem, which is totally okay because, you know, instead of earning money, I was spending five years doing a PhD.
00:43:35.235 --> 00:43:37.186
So sort of how it is.
00:43:38.356 --> 00:43:44.806
Well, I I think part of it too is, you know, we talked about the, the commercially available force plates, they're, they're not mm-hmm.
00:43:45.135 --> 00:43:47.445
Looking at the horizontal components.
00:43:47.505 --> 00:43:47.865
Yes.
00:43:48.135 --> 00:43:50.175
Which are huge.
00:43:50.175 --> 00:43:52.695
Especially if we're talking about an approach jump like this.
00:43:52.695 --> 00:43:54.766
We've only got the vertical vector.
00:43:56.626 --> 00:43:56.925
Yes.
00:43:56.931 --> 00:43:59.476
No, that's actually, that's a great thing.
00:43:59.476 --> 00:44:14.235
'cause when I actually, I went to a conference about a month ago where I met with my professor's professor, my grand professor, and essentially she told me this, she's like, the directions of motion, the directions of force application, that's what skill is.
00:44:15.121 --> 00:44:24.960
True skill and the movement is how the athlete's able to generate forces in specific directions at specific times relative to their body configuration.
00:44:25.411 --> 00:44:29.190
That's also something that the Alta strength coaches are talking about.
00:44:29.190 --> 00:44:41.670
It's the direction, the direction of forces really matter if you wanna understand skill movements and you lose that if you only use the uni axial force plate, or those that only measure forces in the vertical direction.
00:44:42.721 --> 00:44:52.351
So those can only tell you broad general movement strategies rather than give you any insight into Han Athlete might move in a skilled setting.
00:44:53.431 --> 00:45:00.030
Yeah, I almost see the inverse in sprinting since you mentioned Altus, where everyone's focused on the horizontal vector.
00:45:00.391 --> 00:45:11.190
And you know, we have to concede that a lot of the, the DRF calculations that we're using outside of like a 10 80, which I think of as almost like a horizontal force plate are, are estimated.
00:45:11.701 --> 00:45:24.240
And so we get so caught up on this horizontal, um, force application that we miss how essential having like a minimum necessary vertical component is in sprinting.
00:45:24.240 --> 00:45:28.860
And I know this is kind of going down a different rabbit hole, but, um, have you seen that problem?
00:45:28.860 --> 00:45:30.510
I don't know how much you're actually looking at sprinting.
00:45:32.070 --> 00:45:34.920
To me that's, uh, more of a Lance Brooks.
00:45:35.791 --> 00:45:38.190
Lance Brooks now a Bridgewater University.
00:45:38.190 --> 00:45:40.561
He does a lot more of the spring team stuff.
00:45:40.561 --> 00:45:41.371
And I have Lance on
00:45:41.496 --> 00:45:41.735
before.
00:45:41.791 --> 00:45:43.170
He did a great podcast here.
00:45:44.010 --> 00:45:44.431
Yeah.
00:45:44.490 --> 00:45:47.251
Um, you know, he shouted me out on another podcast.
00:45:47.251 --> 00:45:48.391
I'm gonna shout him out here.
00:45:49.021 --> 00:45:51.721
He not, he does a lot more with the forces, but basically.
00:45:52.141 --> 00:45:58.260
Yes, you do need enough vertical force to again, beat gravity to make sure you can stay off the ground and running.
00:45:59.070 --> 00:46:02.670
And you know, I, I'm sure he probably went into the whole breaking force debate.
00:46:02.670 --> 00:46:02.760
Mm-hmm.
00:46:03.451 --> 00:46:14.400
So, to me that's also a, a sign or really a symptom of not really understanding the action of the body versus directions of the forces breaking impulse.
00:46:14.400 --> 00:46:23.311
When we are describing it in a, in a research and physics sense, we're describing a direction breaking meaning it goes against your current direction of motion.
00:46:23.731 --> 00:46:23.820
Mm-hmm.
00:46:24.300 --> 00:46:28.380
But we are obviously, no one's gonna coach you to actively break as a action.
00:46:28.621 --> 00:46:28.860
Right.
00:46:29.581 --> 00:46:32.791
When we are sprinting, nobody's thinking, oh, I got a break, I got a break.
00:46:32.791 --> 00:46:40.740
Your body just does whatever is necessary to fulfill the task and ends up generating forces in a direction that aligns with the brake.
00:46:41.400 --> 00:46:46.891
And you needed to do that to, so, and you need to do that during the stride where you have initial contact.
00:46:46.891 --> 00:46:48.721
Your foot is slightly in front of your center mass.
00:46:49.141 --> 00:46:50.641
You're gonna generate some breaking force.
00:46:51.061 --> 00:46:52.831
And then you're gonna generate some proposal force.
00:46:53.371 --> 00:46:57.150
When you're at top speed, those impulses equal, you stay at the same speed.
00:46:57.210 --> 00:46:59.731
You don't have any net horizontal acceleration.
00:47:00.300 --> 00:47:09.541
So I kind of rambled a bit, but basically I wanted to highlight, you know, there's differences between directions and the way we define and describe directions.
00:47:09.840 --> 00:47:16.380
Breaking proposal versus the actions where, you know, action is something that a athlete and coaches think about.
00:47:16.860 --> 00:47:17.010
Mm-hmm.
00:47:17.251 --> 00:47:21.121
But, you know, directions is just what is directions relative to the movement of interest.
00:47:22.021 --> 00:47:22.260
Yeah.
00:47:22.260 --> 00:47:27.661
So on that note, I, I want to go with the topic, you know, the idea of force absorption.
00:47:27.661 --> 00:47:32.400
There are a handful of people who I think are kind of poo-pooing on this idea.
00:47:32.400 --> 00:47:35.161
Like, you can't absorb force, you can only produce force.
00:47:35.641 --> 00:47:37.440
Um, but we have these breaking components.
00:47:37.440 --> 00:47:46.260
So can you riff on that a little bit to maybe clarify the understanding that people don't, you know, aren't getting into these really rigid camps and how they're looking at things.
00:47:47.476 --> 00:47:49.155
I even, I forgot about force absorption.
00:47:49.155 --> 00:47:52.215
That should, that should probably be the answer for one of my earlier questions.
00:47:52.215 --> 00:47:55.905
But I think the field, the field, uh, swung back and forth a few ways.
00:47:56.445 --> 00:47:59.956
Um, I can see where they're coming from.
00:47:59.956 --> 00:48:01.755
I'll say this, I can see where they're coming from.
00:48:02.476 --> 00:48:05.925
Um, and technically it is, it is incorrect.
00:48:06.976 --> 00:48:23.326
But, and also I did offer, in like one of my earlier posts way back, I did offer, I think, you know, um, con regulating momentum, breaking your body's velocity, like deceleration, that could probably be a better term than force absorption.
00:48:23.331 --> 00:48:23.621
Mm-hmm.
00:48:23.985 --> 00:48:28.516
You are really absorbing your energy, absorbing and redirecting energy.
00:48:28.996 --> 00:48:31.755
You know, some people say, oh, convert to the heat, et cetera, et cetera.
00:48:32.476 --> 00:48:36.045
Um, hidden sound, really, when you land, um, you, you make a sound.
00:48:36.135 --> 00:48:39.376
So, so that's, I don't know.
00:48:39.380 --> 00:48:43.036
I, I sort of move past the point of saying, oh, there's no force absorption.
00:48:43.590 --> 00:48:44.820
I see where you're coming from.
00:48:44.820 --> 00:48:53.400
As long as you don't, you know, go ahead and teach and charge people for, you know, for a membership or a seminar and then go talking about force absorption.
00:48:53.880 --> 00:49:02.070
It's a fine concept to explain to athletes as long as you supplement with, you know, you are breaking against your current direction of travel.
00:49:02.490 --> 00:49:02.521
Yeah.
00:49:02.521 --> 00:49:03.900
You're breaking against your momentum.
00:49:03.931 --> 00:49:05.221
You are slowing down your momentum.
00:49:05.791 --> 00:49:06.001
Right.
00:49:06.451 --> 00:49:11.610
Slowing down momentum, I think is a easy enough concept for people to get behind.
00:49:12.481 --> 00:49:16.800
You wanna slow down momentum in a gentle way, absorb force softly.
00:49:16.800 --> 00:49:17.521
Mm-hmm.
00:49:17.760 --> 00:49:22.380
You wanna slow your momentum in an aggressive way, absorb force sharply.
00:49:22.951 --> 00:49:23.070
Mm-hmm.
00:49:23.311 --> 00:49:36.210
You can sort of like swap out these sort of phrases if you think it's a big enough problem when you use the phrase force absorption and obviously, you know, some, some ISTs are gonna like scoff at the idea.
00:49:36.240 --> 00:49:38.070
Right now I'm sort of more peaceful about it.
00:49:38.760 --> 00:49:41.581
Um, it's technically incorrect, but also.
00:49:42.286 --> 00:49:46.996
As long as you don't try to use it as a educational phrase, I don't care what you do with it.
00:49:47.445 --> 00:49:47.775
Yeah.
00:49:48.465 --> 00:49:51.945
Um, I have a clarifying question, just'cause I'm gonna start your villain arc now.
00:49:52.365 --> 00:50:04.936
Um, you know, we talk about the stretch shortening cycle as the storage and restitution of elastic energy, and you said maybe energy is an appropriate term while force absorption is not.
00:50:04.936 --> 00:50:12.286
So could you kind of, I know we're like really trying to sift, um, and get into nuance here, but I I'd love for you to just expand on that a little bit.
00:50:14.115 --> 00:50:14.476
Yeah.
00:50:14.925 --> 00:50:16.576
Let me, I, I'll start with the foresight.
00:50:16.576 --> 00:50:18.315
I'm a lot more comfortable with the foresight.
00:50:18.315 --> 00:50:20.715
I might have misspoken with the energy side, I don't know.
00:50:22.215 --> 00:50:31.936
But on the foresight, the reason that you cannot really have force absorption is because forces are, are a quantity that's always transmitted and never quite gets lost.
00:50:32.505 --> 00:50:32.596
Okay.
00:50:32.596 --> 00:50:39.675
For example, if a push against a surface, the force transmits from your, you know, the pushing side onto the surface itself.
00:50:40.351 --> 00:50:45.061
Even if you land, the totality of the forces are still being exerted.
00:50:45.751 --> 00:50:45.931
Yep.
00:50:45.931 --> 00:50:46.110
Right.
00:50:46.771 --> 00:50:51.121
Even if you land softly, you still need to generate enough force to control your body's momentum.
00:50:51.900 --> 00:50:59.550
That's why I think talk, when you talk about forces, you always have to tie it with momentum because your momentum dictates how much force you need to generate.
00:50:59.715 --> 00:51:00.135
Mm-hmm.
00:51:00.221 --> 00:51:08.820
If you wanna absorb force in a gentle way, where you do that is you, you, you have the same amount of vin initial momentum and you're just increasing the time.
00:51:09.090 --> 00:51:09.181
Mm-hmm.
00:51:09.420 --> 00:51:12.420
Thereby reducing the demand of force generation.
00:51:13.110 --> 00:51:13.320
Right.
00:51:13.320 --> 00:51:25.320
Force absorption is just really talking about a greater phenomena that includes fourth generation at different magnitudes and fourth, fourth generation durations at different length.
00:51:26.940 --> 00:51:27.090
Okay.
00:51:27.121 --> 00:51:28.231
Energy absorption.
00:51:28.590 --> 00:51:32.221
I know like people say, oh, energy is not neither destroyed or created.
00:51:32.221 --> 00:51:32.460
Right.
00:51:32.460 --> 00:51:35.641
In a closed system in, in most of human movements.
00:51:36.690 --> 00:51:39.300
When I say you gen, you sort of, you absorb energy.
00:51:39.300 --> 00:51:45.661
It's because you come in with a certain amount of kinetic energy and that energy just sort of goes away in the kinetic domain.
00:51:45.661 --> 00:51:48.451
You no longer have any kinetic energy left after your limb.
00:51:48.840 --> 00:51:50.340
So that energy has to go somewhere.
00:51:50.340 --> 00:51:55.081
And it generally, you know, goes into your body, it goes into your muscles and your muscles sort of takes on.
00:51:55.440 --> 00:52:01.440
But those kinetic energy by, you know, doing work against it by generating forces against your coming energy.
00:52:02.280 --> 00:52:05.581
So it might not be accurate to say it's absorbed, you know, maybe it's converted.
00:52:05.581 --> 00:52:06.690
Some of it's converted the heat.
00:52:07.201 --> 00:52:07.380
Mm-hmm.
00:52:07.440 --> 00:52:10.231
Some of it's converted to elastic energy is in your lower limb.
00:52:10.681 --> 00:52:10.800
Yeah.
00:52:10.800 --> 00:52:18.090
As you stretch your ligaments and your muscles, some of it's to the sound, you know, nobody's gonna ever do research on how much is which.
00:52:18.721 --> 00:52:18.931
Yeah.
00:52:18.960 --> 00:52:20.400
cause it's, you know, what's the point?
00:52:20.791 --> 00:52:22.440
But that's the general idea.
00:52:22.860 --> 00:52:25.291
It might not have been the most accurate, but that's the general idea.
00:52:26.431 --> 00:52:34.260
No, I think that's, I think that's a really good clarifying point just to understand, you know, what we're talking about in a coherent and consistent way.
00:52:35.581 --> 00:52:36.451
Um, man, we,
00:52:36.451 --> 00:52:38.465
we've been going almost an hour actually there's, go ahead.
00:52:38.465 --> 00:52:38.666
Sorry.
00:52:38.666 --> 00:52:39.900
There's something I do wanna add to that.
00:52:40.231 --> 00:52:40.411
Yes.
00:52:40.411 --> 00:52:49.170
That's also why you should look at things from a momentum or mechanical based perspective because it's really, you are solving the problem of handling momentum.
00:52:49.831 --> 00:52:49.920
Mm-hmm.
00:52:50.221 --> 00:52:56.101
And when you view it from that lens, you're like, okay, I have, we have these initial momentum that we wanna deal with.
00:52:56.400 --> 00:53:01.050
We wanna, we wanna solve it in terms of we have this downward speed, we don't want that anymore.
00:53:02.190 --> 00:53:07.081
With that framing, you think about, okay, so what are the requirements for us to solve the problem?
00:53:07.170 --> 00:53:10.411
And it's to generate sufficient forces over sufficient time.
00:53:11.670 --> 00:53:16.920
So that's sort of tells you, you know, that's, that's the requirement of fourth generation from the perspective of momentum.
00:53:16.920 --> 00:53:22.561
If you start with momentum, things tend to make a bit more sense because momentum is what defines the task.
00:53:23.371 --> 00:53:25.590
Yeah, no, I think that's phenomenal.
00:53:25.965 --> 00:53:34.291
And, and kind of on that note, you know, we've, I was gonna say, we've been going almost an hour and I do want to touch on baseball because you are a marlin now and you've got some research in this topic.
00:53:35.416 --> 00:53:46.126
Um, so with kind of this impulse generation, I think of, you know, the, the task of a basketball player is to overcome gravity so we can get airborne.
00:53:47.115 --> 00:53:55.606
The momentum and the force that we're trying to generate for say a pitcher is we're trying to put this into an object that is then gonna become a projectile.
00:53:55.606 --> 00:54:13.155
So, um, I guess when we're looking at, you know, the differences that require this whole body impulse generation between, you know, different legs, especially with two foot jumping, what are some of the similarities, um, in how these athletes create and redirect momentum?
00:54:15.166 --> 00:54:16.545
No, that's, that's so fun.
00:54:16.576 --> 00:54:25.996
Um, that's actually one of the things my, uh, dissertation committee asked me to add into my defense, which is a comparison of these two movements that I've done research for.
00:54:26.626 --> 00:54:33.436
So I sort of briefly describe, you know, the context of momentum of first generation requirements in these two movements, and then sort of go from there.
00:54:33.856 --> 00:54:34.005
Mm-hmm.
00:54:34.456 --> 00:54:37.456
So in bass we jumping, you mentioned beating gravity.
00:54:38.175 --> 00:54:41.025
That's just one of the requirements in a running jump.
00:54:41.025 --> 00:54:45.016
You also have to read, you have to regulate your body's initial forward velocity.
00:54:45.016 --> 00:54:45.391
So Okay.
00:54:45.706 --> 00:54:47.775
Regulate your body's forward momentum.
00:54:48.226 --> 00:54:57.525
In addition to creating vertical momentum and obviously maintain balance, like balance maintenance is always an implicit requirements in the momentum domain.
00:54:58.516 --> 00:55:07.155
In baseball pitching, what's interesting is like the task objective, if it's, if you wanna maximize ball speed is to maximize ball momentum.
00:55:07.965 --> 00:55:13.155
So you do whatever movement pattern you need that helps you maximize ball momentum.
00:55:14.146 --> 00:55:17.445
And the strategies, you know, within the constraint of the rules of baseball.
00:55:17.806 --> 00:55:22.726
'cause you obviously, you can't run around with a baseball in your hand straight, like a, like a sen gun in Azo.
00:55:23.416 --> 00:55:23.626
Yeah.
00:55:24.195 --> 00:55:31.905
The strategy within the cons, constraints of the sport is, you know, people generate initial forward momentum of the body with a back leg.
00:55:32.505 --> 00:55:37.516
They break against that momentum aggressively with the front leg and then they let their body rotate over it.
00:55:37.545 --> 00:55:38.146
Mm-hmm.
00:55:38.445 --> 00:55:41.985
So we can say it's beneficial but not required.
00:55:42.016 --> 00:55:53.985
It's beneficial for athletes to generate whole body linear momentum, turn into whole body angular momentum, and then transfer that momentum through the throwing hand into the ball.
00:55:55.786 --> 00:56:02.865
So in that sense, these are very different tasks with very different momentum regulation strategies by design.
00:56:03.646 --> 00:56:11.746
But the similarities between both is generally when you put your feet behind you, you're gonna generate forward impulse or forward force.
00:56:12.601 --> 00:56:15.900
When you put your feet in front of you, you're gonna generate backward force and backward wind.
00:56:16.981 --> 00:56:28.501
So where that's similar between a running jump and a pitch is that if you wanna generate forces to regulate or counter against your horizontal momentum, you need to make sure your limbs are in front of you.
00:56:29.490 --> 00:56:33.300
This is what happens when people talk about their, the plant angle.
00:56:33.811 --> 00:56:40.081
When it comes to talking about jump technique, you wanna make sure your legs are sufficiently in front of your body center mass.
00:56:40.590 --> 00:56:43.411
That allows you to generate a lot of backward forces.
00:56:43.860 --> 00:56:43.951
Mm-hmm.
00:56:44.431 --> 00:56:52.081
Another example of the, the consistency between your limb, positioning around your body and force generation is in change of direction.
00:56:53.371 --> 00:57:03.240
If you wanna move side to side very effectively, you wanna make sure your legs are positioned outside, far outside of your body's space, for lack of a better term.
00:57:03.721 --> 00:57:07.650
You wanna position it laterally enough that allows you to generate lateral forces.
00:57:08.235 --> 00:57:14.445
Because forces generally go through your limb as your hips, knees, and ankle exert against the ground.
00:57:15.106 --> 00:57:21.465
So by positioning your limbs in advantageous positions, you can generate the required forces easier.
00:57:22.516 --> 00:57:25.606
So those are the similarities I see from a mechanics perspective.
00:57:26.085 --> 00:57:27.346
But they are supposed to be very different
00:57:29.476 --> 00:57:30.076
supposedly.
00:57:30.496 --> 00:57:39.255
Um, so when it comes to, you know, strategy, especially in pitching, there's uh, quite a bit of variance in like tall, slender pitchers.
00:57:39.255 --> 00:57:42.916
You know, you're six foot three plus, and then some of these shorter guys.
00:57:43.275 --> 00:57:53.416
What are some of the, uh, strategic differences in the way that they're, they're trans, you know, creating this angular momentum through the ball.
00:57:55.335 --> 00:58:03.465
So there are some general things, but I do not, I don't wanna like, you know, move away from fitting everybody into one mode versus fitting everybody into two modes.
00:58:03.525 --> 00:58:04.126
'cause to me, right.
00:58:04.126 --> 00:58:04.786
You know, that's just.
00:58:04.860 --> 00:58:07.471
So that, that's slightly better, but not that much better.
00:58:07.740 --> 00:58:08.010
Yeah.
00:58:08.070 --> 00:58:15.300
Um, generally if you consider, again, it's about maximizing the ball's, linear momentum through space.
00:58:15.960 --> 00:58:21.391
Since the ball has a fixed mass, it's about maximizing the ball's, linear velocity through space.
00:58:21.990 --> 00:58:23.521
A taller, longer athlete.
00:58:24.150 --> 00:58:32.371
To achieve that greater linear velocity, you can, you don't have to rotate as fast because you have a longer lever to rotate through.
00:58:33.030 --> 00:58:44.311
So it could mean that, you know, for shorter athletes, you need to generate greater rotation of velocities and that's what's gonna help you reach higher and linear velocity for your hand and your ball.
00:58:45.061 --> 00:58:54.061
But for longer athletes, you need to, you could afford to rotate a little bit less fast, as long as you make sure the linear velocity at the very end.
00:58:54.300 --> 00:58:54.630
Okay.
00:58:54.630 --> 00:58:55.681
Your hand mm-hmm.
00:58:55.920 --> 00:59:00.990
Is high enough, but there, I think it's too early to bucket people.
00:59:01.590 --> 00:59:07.411
Because even as what we see from major league level baseball data, you're gonna have people with very different looking physiques.
00:59:07.860 --> 00:59:07.920
Yeah.
00:59:07.920 --> 00:59:14.371
Throwing all kinds of different ways, different technique variables are going to click for different athletes.
00:59:15.061 --> 00:59:18.630
And there's, it's, it's very different between individuals.
00:59:18.630 --> 00:59:25.621
Even though, you know, a coach without any better would be like, oh yeah, that's a, you know, tall and four, that's a dip and drive.
00:59:25.740 --> 00:59:31.501
But, you know, the dip and drive can rely more on the rotational components of the trunk to throw fast.
00:59:31.981 --> 00:59:37.590
But, but you, you never know until really dig into the data and really try to find those relationships.
00:59:38.431 --> 00:59:45.061
Otherwise, I think you are just sort of like, you are just reaching for something in the muddy water and seeing, seeing what could work.
00:59:45.271 --> 00:59:50.545
And you, you have, I'm gonna have lower confidence in that actually being the case.
00:59:51.735 --> 00:59:54.556
Okay, man, that was this, this was a lot.
00:59:54.556 --> 01:00:01.606
So I'm gonna hit you with a few, uh, kind of outro questions that can be pretty short, or you can expand on'em a little bit more if you want.
01:00:01.666 --> 01:00:05.025
But, um, kind of shifting gears back to basketball, man.
01:00:05.536 --> 01:00:11.865
Um, who is your favorite dunker, or what is the, uh, the dunk contest that everybody needs?
01:00:11.865 --> 01:00:12.405
A YouTube.
01:00:14.806 --> 01:00:16.666
Oh, I'm, I'm very basic with that.
01:00:16.666 --> 01:00:21.135
I, I loved, to me growing up, because I, I'm a, I'm a bit younger.
01:00:21.525 --> 01:00:21.706
Yeah.
01:00:21.706 --> 01:00:24.135
So I loved the Zach Levine.
01:00:24.315 --> 01:00:25.365
Um, Aaron Gordon.
01:00:25.425 --> 01:00:28.215
I think it's, I don't remember which year it was, 2016 or something like that.
01:00:28.246 --> 01:00:28.635
Okay.
01:00:29.356 --> 01:00:33.766
The Aaron Gordon's first dunk contest, where he did, he did the under both legs.
01:00:33.795 --> 01:00:37.456
Zach Levine, just spam behind between the legs for most of'em.
01:00:37.456 --> 01:00:38.835
I, that's, that's my favorite.
01:00:39.315 --> 01:00:39.646
Okay.
01:00:39.766 --> 01:00:45.315
Um, my favorite dunker, gosh, I, I don't really have any, I enjoy all the athletes that can dunk.
01:00:46.081 --> 01:00:51.936
Um, in like the dunk community, I do have a tendency to gravitate, gravitate towards more power dunkers.
01:00:51.940 --> 01:00:51.990
Okay.
01:00:52.681 --> 01:00:56.701
People that take longer to get off the ground, because that's just the kind of athlete I am.
01:00:57.240 --> 01:00:57.570
Okay.
01:00:58.260 --> 01:00:59.550
I love jumps by Chi.
01:01:00.090 --> 01:01:01.351
I love, uh, Calvin Dunks.
01:01:01.380 --> 01:01:03.240
Shout out to those Calvin Aron.
01:01:03.811 --> 01:01:05.070
Um, they, they take their time.
01:01:05.070 --> 01:01:10.050
They take their sweet time getting off the ground and that's, you know, that's the way I like to, uh, go in high jump.
01:01:11.161 --> 01:01:12.510
How's your, how's your dunk game?
01:01:13.831 --> 01:01:14.701
Oh, not great.
01:01:14.701 --> 01:01:15.150
Not great.
01:01:15.271 --> 01:01:25.320
Um, currently I, my buddy signed me up for more men's league that sort of goes in through the end of the year and after that, you know, I'm gonna have like some potential career changes at that point.
01:01:25.320 --> 01:01:30.331
He's also gonna do his postdoc up in Cornell, so, you know, I'm gonna play more basketball in the short run.
01:01:30.960 --> 01:01:36.451
I've been dunking a lot more outside with those, a few dunking friends at Brooklyn Bridge Park, they have a low rim at nine six.
01:01:36.451 --> 01:01:36.510
Yeah.
01:01:37.050 --> 01:01:39.960
I was chasing in the windmill on at nine, six, all summer.
01:01:40.681 --> 01:01:49.681
Um, I got really, really close a few times, but, you know, uh, with all the travel, with the Marlin's job and this basketball thing, the, the dunk dream will take a backseat for a bit.
01:01:49.681 --> 01:01:58.170
I will still do a, I'll get a few jumps in after the warmup for the game, you know, just to steal micro, micro dose, like the micro list of micro doses.
01:01:59.070 --> 01:02:07.590
But yeah, I will take a backseat in the foreseeable future, but, you know, that's okay because I'm not, I'm in no rush to, you know, chase anything's, that's another nice part.
01:02:08.041 --> 01:02:12.481
You can, you know, life happens and you just take whatever you enjoy doing the most in the moment.
01:02:13.081 --> 01:02:13.471
Yeah.
01:02:13.650 --> 01:02:13.891
Yeah.
01:02:13.891 --> 01:02:16.710
So, uh, what, what projects are in the pipeline?
01:02:16.710 --> 01:02:18.510
What are you excited for that that's coming up?
01:02:19.981 --> 01:02:33.751
Yeah, no, I actually have something to do something, some work done with the MBA dunk score, where it's something they push out in the past year that reports a bunch of different biomechanical variables relating to jumping.
01:02:33.751 --> 01:02:39.721
I wanna do a paper with that, just kind of being procrastinating with the new job at the job search after my defense.
01:02:40.621 --> 01:02:42.300
I do wanna get that pushed out.
01:02:42.300 --> 01:02:50.221
You know, I have a few collaborators that even got me some NBA combined data, so we can look at, you know, your combined testing jump versus your in-game jump.
01:02:50.670 --> 01:03:01.141
And that could be pretty cool with these kind of data, you're never gonna be limited by sample size, so you, I have like 10,000 dunks of data that we could run different correlations analysis with.
01:03:01.231 --> 01:03:02.911
So that, I'm really excited about that.
01:03:03.661 --> 01:03:04.981
But yeah, nothing too major.
01:03:04.981 --> 01:03:12.150
Um, we have a few things in the docket that will, that, you know, hopefully I'll announce like, you know, in a, in a few months, maybe the start of the new year,
01:03:12.331 --> 01:03:12.570
but yeah.
01:03:12.630 --> 01:03:12.871
Yep.
01:03:13.740 --> 01:03:15.331
Well man, you get to enjoy a little time.
01:03:15.331 --> 01:03:23.161
'cause I mean, I've done a master's defense and it was full throttle, so I can't even imagine what it was like doing a PhD and having the career change.
01:03:23.161 --> 01:03:24.780
So you probably deserve a little downtime.
01:03:26.251 --> 01:03:28.231
I actually have my food defense.
01:03:28.380 --> 01:03:33.360
It's, uh, I, you know, my, my mindset then was like, I'm only gonna do this once.
01:03:33.510 --> 01:03:34.771
I'm just gonna take my time.
01:03:34.771 --> 01:03:36.331
I was, had, I was, I was actually sick.
01:03:37.081 --> 01:03:46.621
So I had to like, take a drink of water like every five minutes, but that's all on my YouTube, so I guess, you know, I can just plug my stuff here and you know, you don't, so I'm just gonna plug it.
01:03:46.681 --> 01:03:51.751
Um, I, my Instagram, Sam likes biomechanics PhD.
01:03:52.590 --> 01:03:54.960
I did a PhD at the end after my defense.
01:03:55.110 --> 01:03:59.311
I think I, I, I thought about not doing it, but I think it's, it's a funny bit.
01:03:59.971 --> 01:04:02.340
The name just sort of gets longer as I get more things.
01:04:02.971 --> 01:04:04.291
Yeah, that would be pretty hilarious.
01:04:04.471 --> 01:04:09.570
I also have a YouTube where I put the longer form content explanations on.
01:04:09.570 --> 01:04:11.221
So that's again, same like bio mechanics.
01:04:11.820 --> 01:04:12.030
Yep.
01:04:12.331 --> 01:04:15.240
And those are the two of my most, uh, used social media.
01:04:15.960 --> 01:04:16.260
Okay.
01:04:16.260 --> 01:04:17.161
I'll make sure I link those.
01:04:17.161 --> 01:04:19.891
I did watch a good chunk of your defense, so.
01:04:19.891 --> 01:04:20.731
Mm-hmm.
01:04:20.731 --> 01:04:23.221
Um, I gotta finish it and I plan to, so I'll make sure I link that.
01:04:23.221 --> 01:04:26.940
I'll make sure I link, uh, your Instagram, which seems to be the best place to find you.
01:04:27.840 --> 01:04:28.170
Correct?
01:04:28.231 --> 01:04:28.440
Yeah.
01:04:28.590 --> 01:04:31.831
I honestly don't feel bad, like that thing one hour, 44 minutes.
01:04:31.831 --> 01:04:34.771
Like even my partner, she's not gonna watch the whole, she's not gonna watch the whole thing.
01:04:34.771 --> 01:04:36.541
So yeah, it's a whole movie.
01:04:38.266 --> 01:04:38.715
It's all right.
01:04:39.016 --> 01:04:40.275
Uh, just little bits and pieces.
01:04:40.306 --> 01:04:41.985
Well, man, um, I'm gonna let you go here.
01:04:41.985 --> 01:04:43.186
I wanna be respectful of your time.
01:04:43.186 --> 01:04:44.356
I appreciate you coming on.
01:04:44.385 --> 01:04:45.826
This was an awesome conversation.
01:04:45.826 --> 01:04:56.471
I know we, we kind of went in a lot of different directions and got in the weeds, but, uh, I think for anybody interested in jumping and just understanding, you know, all the science behind it, I thought this was, was killer, man, you really kicked ass.
01:04:56.471 --> 01:05:03.135
So appreciate your, your knowledge and insight and we'll, uh, definitely keep tabs on you so we can just kind of find what's new with your research.
01:05:03.135 --> 01:05:03.856
Thank you very much.