The Nunchuck Analogy

For those of you that choose to do a “straight leg” technique one of the biggest questions is… How do I get a straight leg technique clearly communicated to my students without creating tension? The first step is to get rid of the idea that they need to keep their leg straight. I know that seems silly, but it is what I have found to be true. Instead of talking about straight, talk about length and extension. When students think about keeping their leg “straight”, they think about their knee joint which leads to tension, fatigue, bouncing, and ultimately a break down in technique.

Ok… so how do nunchucks relate to this concept? For those of you who aren’t fans of Bruce Lee or Michelangelo, nunchucks are two sticks connect with a chain. Now, imagine you have nunchucks and you want to make them swing like a pendulum (I know, why would I want to do this?!) but roll with me.

The end of one stick is your hip joint, the chain is your knee joint, and the end of the other stick is your ankle joint.

Option 1 - You grab the top of one of the of the sticks and swing the other back and forth. When doing this, you wouldn’t have any control and it wouldn’t stay straight. The bottom stick would swing around out of control. Imagine this is the same thing as thinking about only moving from your hip joint. It isn’t enough info to create a technique and to create a straight line.

Option 2 - You grab the chain and move back and forth. The amount of energy required to move the nunchucks in this way would require a lot of tension in your hands and would be hard to control. Same thing with keeping your leg straight by focusing on the knee joint.

Option 3 - You grab the top of one stick and the bottom of the other and stretch the chain. The nunchuck is straight and there isn’t any tension in your hands. This is the same thing as creating length by stretching up thru your center and creating as much distance as you can from the hip joint to the ankle joint. You keep the knee “straight” without focusing on the knee joint at all. The knee is just along for the ride because of the stretch between the ankle and the hip.

So what’s the takeaway? I believe that using words like long legs instead of straight legs give the desired look. I’ve gone to the point of making “straight” as it relates to marching technique a bad word.  I’ve found that talking about “straight” legs naturally pushes students towards knee and quad tension.  Create length, separation, and even smooth rotation… and you are on your way to create a strong, long leg technique. This is just one of many concepts to the process but it’s a good place to start!

Don’t make the nunchuck straight, make it is as long as possible.

For more info on techniques and exercises, email me at andrewebertdesign@gmail.com