Throw and Kick

Throw went first, and slowed his throw down so the sequence showed. "Watch. If I throw with just my arm—" he flicked a limp arm, and the ball plopped a few feet away "—that's all the little arm muscles can do. Now watch the whole thing." He stepped toward the target, then his hips rotated open, then his shoulder came round, then his arm whipped last, and then the release — and the ball rocketed away. "Feel the order? Step, rotate, release — bottom to top. The power starts in my planted foot, climbs through my hips, up my trunk, out to the shoulder, and the arm is the last link, not the first. There's a name for it — the kinetic chain: each big part fires in turn and hands its speed up to the next, so the little arm rides on top of everything below it. Throw with the arm alone, you throw with a twig. Throw with the chain, you throw with your whole body."

Then Kick stepped in, and slowed her kick the same way. "Now watch mine — and watch how it's the same sequence." She stepped with her plant foot, her hips rotated, her thigh swung, and her lower leg whipped through last, and then contact — and the ball flew. "Step, rotate, release — foot instead of hand, but the exact same order, the exact same chain. Power up from the planted foot, through the hips, down the leg, and the shin snaps last." She grinned at Throw. "For years we thought we were doing opposite things. We were doing the identical thing, just sending it out a different limb. Your chain ends at a hand; mine ends at a foot. Everything below the last link is the same."

An athlete who'd been struggling with both said the thing they'd been waiting for: "So if I learn the sequence for one, I've basically learned it for the other — step, rotate, then let the limb go last."

"That's the whole of it," said Throw.

"The power's summed up the chain, ground to limb, whichever limb it is," said Kick. "It's why the same order shows up everywhere you send something: a pitcher's throw, a soccer strike, a tennis serve, a boxer's cross, a volleyball spike. Every one is step, rotate, release — big parts first, the last link last. Learn to feel the sequence, and you can send anything: a ball, a punch, a serve. The limb is just the tip. The whole body is the whip."