In this Introduction to chain reaction biomechanics, I hope to convince you that we would all benefit in our daily lives, from a better understanding of how our bodies are designed to move and how that impacts training, coaching, and playing tennis.
Movement is one of the greatest treasures in life and a source of great and varied joy for most of us, whether in daily life, sports, or other pursuits.
The basis of this article is something you see and experience for yourself, it is not a wellness claim referring to a new age theory that will pass into history.
In fact, you can trace a written mention of chain reaction motion back more than 2600 years, and you can also hear it today in the first anatomy lesson most children learn. Sing along as I have included this for both amusement and to reference a visible truth first mentioned in Ezekiel 37:1-14.
Amusing, but it is an anatomical representation few of us would deny. However, beyond anatomy, a chain reaction is how we move in Function.
Function in terms of what we want to do and in terms of how the body is designed to function to achieve that function. That could not be clearer!
These are the principles of human movement drawn from established and undeniable truths from the physical, biological, and behavioural sciences.
My goal in this Vlog and the following ones, is to show you what these sciences reveal; in terms of what you can see like the biological science in that video, with arms, trunks, and legs in motion, and what you can’t see, the physical science forces of gravity, ground reaction, mass, and momentum, and also the behavioural sciences, which examine what’s going on in your mind, your goals, desires, and motivations.
These three sciences are huge areas of study but can be understood, in this context, by focussing on how the drivers of human movement from each science combine in every individual, and how that must influence the way we approach training, coaching, and playing Tennis.
By applying this principle of chain reaction which you can see, in combination with principles from the allied sciences which you can’t see but that you feel, I hope it will inspire you to want to know more, as it does me.
The first step is to credit the source material and establish some working definitions for clear communication.
Applied Functional Science is that source and my 12-year ongoing study with the Gray Institute, which informs every aspect of how I now train and coach. https://grayinstitute.com
Theirs is a more than 45-year study by eminent professionals in the movement industry led by Dr Gary Gray PT, FAFS known as the ‘Father of Function’ and Dr David Tiberio, Academy Dean, Professor Emeritus at University of Connecticut.
The Gray institutes’ body of work is fundamental to an understanding of efficient human movement in function and its research and teaching, is a seemingly endless store of value for movement professionals in every area.
I will be focussing on both the mechanism of chain reaction and the drivers of that mechanism from the physical, biological, and behavioural sciences as encapsulated in their movement science process 3DMAPS.
Chain Reaction
The human body is a complex collection of integrated segments designed for movement in any purposeful activity we do, and a chain reaction is the mechanism it uses for coordinated movement of those integrated segments. Both statements are saying the same thing but it is an undeniable truth, which you can see and feel.
Try looking behind you to your right when standing and experience the movement throughout your body, from top to toe. Add a right foot toe out to the right and experience a greater range of vision and even more when you reach the same side arm around to the right.
Does the task, to see behind you to the right, feel easier to achieve when driven not just by the eyes, but increasingly by the right foot and arm as well? It is a chain reaction in the body that achieves the task.
Biomechanics
The dictionary definitions range from; the study of how the systems and structures of biological organisms react to various forces and external stimuli, and in humans it is mostly concerned with how the skeletal and musculature systems work under different conditions, making it the study of human movement in its interaction with the environment.
The way we move
Patterns of movement in the body that are observable in almost all humans and therefore establish them as principles of human movement, in function. (Purposeful activity or task)
They are the eight foundational movements, the squat, lunge, jump, walk, pull, push, reach and lift, and the subcategories they include, for instance running, which is walking with a flight phase, throwing which is a pull push motion, hops, jops and leaps which are feet variations in jumps.
In Function.
Any purposeful human activity or task. In this case, tennis.
Functional
AFS categorises chain reaction in human movement as one of its litmus tests for functionality.
Having established this visible mechanism, we can begin to identify and measure, initially by sight, whether an individual movement displays that and any or all of the other authentic characteristics, which are contained on their movement analysis spectrum. The spectrum is a way of assessing any movement to be from non-functional all the way to functional depending on how many of the categories it satisfies.
Failing these functional tests does not mean the movement has no value, but it should start to make you wonder if it is the best way to prepare for your activity. (Function)
Ask yourself, if the activity is upright and you understand that gravity acts on the body to influence the reaction that muscles must make in that position, would it then be best to train for that activity in a prone or any other position?
How many times have you seen tennis players lying on their backs on court doing the leg crossover move. Why they do it is often described as either a stretch for the abdominals or the lower back. This exercise is lying on the ground to stretch and strengthen you for motion in an upright function which might help, but an exercise in an upright position would be likely to be more effective.
We are almost at the point of ‘Applying’ “Functional Science” to some video clips of tennis strokes and to keep you interested here’s a clip of Justine Henin’s backhand.
Admire it aesthetically, but also look for patterns of movement that look connected, more efficient and seem to flow effortlessly.
For a better grasp of AFS and the chain reaction mechanism, at this introductory stage, more understanding of their 3DMAPS process, would be helpful.
From that knowledge you will be able to see how the Gray Institute takes a hugely complex study of these sciences and distils it into a simple scheme of work that enables all of us to analyse movement and enhance performance, functionally.
The 3DMAPS process; is an adaptive, not a one size fits all system, so that while anchoring to the principles of AFS, it is looking to observe patterns of efficiency, and not exactness in individual movement, which can be analysed for success and determine how that success can be developed in individuals.
Let me conclude this first article, by stating that I have shown you, in the video of Justine, what can only be described as a chain reaction motion in Tennis.
My accompanying words, though not as immediately impactful will I hope, start to percolate, and create a real desire to know more.
In the following article, ‘Chain reaction Biomechanics 2, Tennis is a game played from the ground up’, I will begin to apply the strategies and techniques of 3DMAPS to training and coaching, with some footage of a good ex county level player. Compare these two clips of Tom and try to appreciate any difference from an aesthetic analysis of effective and efficient motion. See if you can differentiate between the drivers of these two strokes? Simply, how does the motion at the eyes, feet and hands differ?
This visual assessment is the first tool in any analysis using the 3DMAPS process.
Vaughan Ebrahim, LTA accredited Level 4 Senior Coach. Gray Institute, CAFS 2013, 3DMAPS 2017, FGS 2023.