Old Forum Do feel like you are bouncing your swings off of your belly?

[Jeff]

For the longest time when I did my swings, I never quite made contact between my arm and my body. I had instructors watch my swings and say they looked good.  There was apparently not enough space between my arm and my body that it was perceptible.  But, I always felt a bit of strain in my lower back.  I recently began keeping my upper body more upright, which allows my arm to make contact with my body to the point that it feels like my body is a springboard that my arm bounces off of.  I don't feel the strain in my lower back.  I feel more power in my swings, yet they take much less effort.  In fact, swings now seem very easy compared to before.

How many of you feel something similar when you swing?

 

[Steve W.]

I don't think of it as bouncing my arm off my body. However, I do want my arm to solidly connected to my body when force is transferred from the bell to the hips on the downswing, and from the hips to the bell on the upswing.

I want to delay folding at the hips until the arm makes contact withe the body (I've seen Dan John use the cue "play chicken with the bell"). I never want to start hinging in anticipation of the bell before my arm is connected to my body. Then I want the bell to drive my hips back.

But I want the timing and force transfer to be as smooth as possible. "Bouncing" off the belly implies to me an overcorrection in the other direction, delaying the hinge TOO long until the arms HIT the body.

Also, I don't want to drive the hips forward too soon out of the hole. I want to let the bell (and my hips) complete its full backward movement before driving my hips forward. If you try to drive the hips forward too soon, while the bell is still moving backward, the transition will be much less smooth, and there will unnecessary extra strain on the grip, and possibly the shoulder. The word "bouncing" suggests that this kind an abrupt transition might be happening, and that is something I want to avoid. If you feel a strong tug on your grip when you reverse the bell, this is probably happening.

I generally don't pay any attention to the angle of my torso, but let it be a proportional counterbalancing of my hip movement. Trying to keep a more upright torso may lead to abruptly and forcibly trying to resist the movement of the bell, instead of smoothly absorbing it.

All in all, it sounds like you have discovered the importance of connecting your arm to your body, but the term "bouncing" suggests that you might need to further refine your timing to smooth out the force transfer. A video might clarify whether this is true.

 

[Jeff]

It is a slow bounce.  I absorb the force of the downward swing of my arm into my body.  I have to keep a big chest in order to maximize this.  If I let my chest collapse, then my body won't be there to support my arm.  I feel the arm being pressed into my body.  I feel very connected to the bell, and can feel when to reverse the motion when the backwards swing loses momentum.  It is very easy to find the rhythm.

It is a totally different feeling when swinging double kettlebells.  When swinging doubles, the motion is more vertical, and I don't feel the same force of my arms against my body.  When you watch the YouTube video of Mark Toomey, you can see that he doesn't make solid contact with his arms against his body when performing double swings, at least not in the same way.