Brychanus
* Ace Member *
Yeah, fish around in those prior/natural motions.
To your question:
I'm a dirty agnostic/filthy moderate. I think people will do whatever they want & time will tell. I'll give my current to your question because it's not just speculation IMO.
I personally think that there is a probably continuum of these concepts at work. Basically I would just recommend avoiding (and evidence favors me) any version of jamming, and for developing people always caution that some moves really do exceed most folks' athletic ability.
I think it's really not -or shouldn't be- controversial that the "best" move in terms of power and safety is a form of redirecting momentum just like every other sport that uses lateral movement and momentum. Gurthie and Wiggins are not jamming, but are both significantly more athletic in the "right" ways than almost everyone else. You see their momentum toward the target completely stop. The redirection I am talking about is the fact that the hip never really stops moving as they transfer power up the chain. They are both likely taking (briefly) somewhat over 1000lbs of force into that plant leg as they pull off the maneuver, which is one reason why someone like Sidewinder has a very 'slow and steady' philosophy for adult learners. I can assure you that you can destroy your knee and hip doing it wrong either acutely or chronically.
Anecdotally, someone as top heavy, tall, less mobile, and short limbed as me it's probably not surprising that I get more power more easily and consistently with less injuries staying taller on flat ground no matter what else is going on. I can get more out of my body mass rotating (again, as a function of the right move, not the goal) more rapidly and more easily once I plant with less effort. My shoulders are also unusually wide so it's easier to find ways to get the full leverage out of them. I have always developed faster taking cues from people with bodies more like mine (esp. Jenkins, Sidewinder, Tattar, Gurthie).
It became easier to take more horizontal moves once I put significant offseason work into my weak legs because they would literally buckle against my significant upper body mass. But I still prefer to stay more tall and it hurts me less in general when I work on adding power. I don't think it's a coincidence that I develop faster using SW's cues than anyone else's because other than his higher "ape index" and my taller height and weaker legs, our bodies have a lot of similarities. A disadvantage to form working tall in that case may be that your posture might be more crowded for space to move, which is what I spend a lot of time on now.
In contrast, I'm now fairly convinced that the beanpoles can take a lot of horizontal momentum and get more horizontal extension and raw whipping force moving quicker with relatively less body mass. They get more leverage out of longer legs. They have less mass to move, so it's easier to be quick and have strong enough legs to deal with peak forces with less tax on their joints. They have less problems finding clearance for their "swull" exiting the reachback. I would also point out that if you account for the body type, they're really not striding as long into the plant as it first appears in general relative to their own body. If you've got short legs and ever walked next to someone with much longer legs than you, you know exactly what I mean. Some people like McBeth are an extreme and where he has both very long legs for his height and developed a very long plant stride when he started to maximize his form for horizontal power and control.
I should also mention that when I have a tee or lie on a decline, I have clearly gained advantages moving more horizontally and aggressively along the tee. It helped me understand what it should feel like even when moving on flat ground no matter how the form looks. It tends to take the plant leg out farther from my center to stop/redirect momentum. But I usually just think of that as a natural consequence of the slope and not falling down like a skiier slaloming. It's also kind of what pros are doing moving with postures that look like they are going "downhill" on flat ground or even on inclines. This clip of Eagle is my favorite example. When I have found ways to stray from this concept Sidewinder has always nudged me back, and it almost always works better.
I also received input from Chris Taylor and experimented with some of the horizontal and "pull" concepts which did influence me but I already wrote too much.
/pause Brychanusing
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