Hip Rotation

[Neill S. Occhiogrosso]

Hip extension is probably the most core movement to CrossFit training. It seems to me that hip rotation may be as important in many sports. Boxing, baseball, hockey, golf and tennis are completely dependent on hip rotation. They demand power, speed and coordination in this movement.

Is it possible to train this motion? How does CrossFit do so? Does anybody supplement their training to address this?

[Eugene R. Allen]

Proper hip rotation is a critical movement in swimming and one that I drill specifically every time I train. In the pool I have a device I wear on my my hips that are like little wings. As I take my swim stoke I have to rotate my hip out of the way or my arm will hit the wing. It also provides resistance in the water and strengthens my hip rotation. I know of no such device for land based movements.

You would be hard pressed to find an activity where power is generated and where the hips are not somehow involved. Do a Thai kick with no hip and your kick stinks. Swing a bat, a golf club or a tennis racket and leave your hips in your locker and you got nothin. The development of the hip movement you seek is hard to replicate in a condition other than your sport or activity. If you want your hip rotation for your baseball swing to be better, I submit that the best thing to do is practice your baseball swing. Seems simplistic and may not be the what you wanted to hear, but I am of the opinion that you improve what you do by doing what you want to improve and focusing on, in this case, the hips as you do it. No magic pill, just focused practice.

[David Wood]

Pavel's "Full Contact Twists" are another outstanding hip rotation training move.

http://www.dragondoor.com/cgi-bin/ar...&articleid=294

[Coach]

One of my favorite authorities on rotation had this to say on one of my favorite fitness websites: http://www.crossfit.com/cgi-bin/disc...9947#POST49947

Neill,
All the suggestions made are great! I have my own view on this subject. First I believe you should be able to show the ability to perform good hip rotation before doing too much loading. I often find tight hip flexors, external rotators, and low back issues cause severe loss of good hip rotation. The compensation patterns that can stem from such issues may lead to not achieving the desired performance or worse an injury to the related area.

A combination of PNF work, soft-tissue, and mobility drills can often help any of these issues out a lot. Then many of the drills mentioned are going to be the icing on the cake.