August 3, 2020

Lesson Wrap-Up: Accidental Counterbalance

It's interesting how one biomechanics breakthrough can lead to another. Now that I have a more developed sense of what's going on with my hips, we can "take it up the stack" and start to develop some awareness of my torso and shoulders.

Slobbers season is in, uh, full swing.

In my lesson last Thursday, my trainer helped me discover that I've been unintentionally counterbalancing my hips with my upper torso and shoulders. It feels as if my torso is made up of three stacked blocks, and before, I would have told you that all three blocks shifted to the inside when I weighted the inside seatbone, but after Thursday's lesson, I'm aware that the bottom and top blocks would slide to the inside, but the middle block would slide in the opposite direction as an inadvertent counterbalance, giving Connor conflicting signals when I asked for lateral work and, in particular, left bend.

This is, um, not a new problem. - KPG Clinic, May 2018. PC: Leah


After discovering this in a great lesson on Thursday, I played with it on my own last weekend, and it's amazing what a difference it made. I could feel him relax into things that are normally full of tension for both of us, like 10m left circles and SI left. Amazing what happens when your aids are clear.


I played with this while backlit in front of the Pivo on Sunday, knowing the video would show it clearly. In this GIF, I move all three blocks to me and Connor's right, and you can see it immediately influences where he places the right fore.



In this GIF, you see me move all three blocks left. I'm over-exaggerating my "middle block" while I play with this feeling. This feels EXTREMELY awkward to me!

4 comments:

  1. I really love reading these biomechanics breakthroughs you have!

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  2. Enjoying these posts about your biomechanics breakthroughs. Those gifs are awesome!

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    Replies
    1. I'm glad, and thank you! The Pivo is definitely making it easier to whip these GIFs out right from my phone.

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