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Hi, David Weck, and I want to talk to you about a concept called the Coiling Core. There are two primary forms of core strength that we want to develop. One is the Bracing Core, two is the Coiling Core.
Now, the Bracing Core, that's what we think of when we think of conventional core strength. Spine in neutral. Trunk pressurized. It allows you to lift very heavy objects safely and effectively. It's primary application is the weight room (deadlifts, squats, etc.), where you really want to brace through the core and build that fundamental strength. It will help everything else that you do.
The Coiling Core is all about rotation [Rotational Movement Training]. And it's application is to everything else (athletics, daily life movement). You're not bracing your core to move athletically. You're not bracing your core to move in daily life. You are getting the power from rotation.
Now, two principle underlying factors in WeckMethod training that we want to strengthen are one, Tensional Balance, and two, Rotational Power. Tensional Balance when we're building the root of our strength, training the Bracing Core, we do a very specific setup where we turn the feet out. We load the ground through the 4th and 5th metatarsals. So we're not weighting through the heels. And then we do a matching spine and shin angle to create this Tensional Balance. Not loading through the heels allows our body to subtly adjust for any imbalances. Everybody has imbalances that creates the optimal suspension of the skeleton within the body to create the optimal transmission and distribution of force. We can apply that force most productively to and from the ground, and most productively to any object you happen to be manipulating. So, that's our Bracing Core approach, two feet, to create that Tensional Balance using the Bracing Core. That's sort of the maximum strength that you're going to develop.
On the other side of it, we need the Rotational Power. And this is where we train the Coiling Core. And it's based on a technique called the Head Over Foot Technique. In order for you to be balanced on one foot, neutral spine, the head has to be directly over the foot. Test it out right now by standing normal, don't move the head, don't move the spine, lift one foot, can't sustain it at all. It's not balanced. Which means, if you're landing on the ground, and at that maximum impact, you're not aligned, you have a fundamental imbalance. So, you can't be Tensional Balanced because there is a compensatory adjustment within your body to hit that ground. You're not getting the maximum "to and from" force that's productive. Can't maximize the force to, and can't capture the force from when you're not balanced. So, the Head Over Foot Technique is what we use to get locomotion. And locomotion being the fundamental function that we're going to build everything else on. And the way that we get from one foot to the other, is we use the Coiling Core. So it involves this concept that the frontal plane is first [Balance Training].
Side bending is the key. The concept is called the Spinal Engine. The spine is curved, which means that side bending creates rotation. And it's just mechanical. It's your anatomy, that's just the way it functions [Body Mechanics]. Curvature in the spine means that this side bending creates this counter rotation. So, the lats become sort of our cuing target for how we're going to coil the core. And it's the side bending action, frontal plane first, that priority, that puts it all into play. And so, what I want to talk about in this video is developing the Coiling Core and why if you develop the Coiling Core, you do it properly, you have the very foundation, the center of Rotational Power.
So, if you're just doing, let's say med ball tosses, you know, taking a med ball, tossing it as hard as you can to the side, or taking a cable, rotating with it, unless you're specifically aiming your efforts to enhance that Coiling Core, you're not developing the true root and the foundation for Rotational Power. And so, any given drill that you're doing is not being optimized because you're not building on the most solid foundation.
Now, when you understand the principles of training the Coiling Core, you're fortifying that. The balance, the strength, the coordination of it is going to make you perform any drill better. You'll throw a med ball more effectively, faster, more powerful when you develop the Coiling Core. You will play any sport you do. Straight ahead, multi-direction, throwing, hitting, punching, etc. is enhanced by this Rotational Power harnessing Spinal Engine. Concept is strengthening the Coiling Core. I want to be clear that we want the Bracing Core as strong as it can be. But the Coiling Core, this is the one that's not as commonly descriptive. So, this is the big opportunity for you to enhance your game big time, elevate your ability to move with strength and power, harness all that strength we've built through the Bracing Core into application.
So, here it is. With the Coiling Core, you want to really understand that it is this side bending that's going to create the core. And that means that there's this counter rotation. And the more that you can take this shoulder down and back, and this hip up and forward, using this point as the central access, the more powerful and balanced you're going to be able to rotate. You'll be able to rotate with full loading and expression through the ground to harness all that you have to rotate better.
That's the central access. What I want to do when I'm training the Coiling Core is I don't want to open. I don't want to open that. I want to keep that steady with this down and back shoulder (I'm going to give you the cuing to do it), and this this up and forward intention through the hip. And so it's this side bending coil. And we're never bending beyond the base. The Head Over Foot is the technique, and the Head Over Foot concept is consistent through the training.
So, if let's say somebody is taking a cable (a cable machine), and you're going from low to high and you rotate. Conventional is, you sort of come here, right, and then you come up, and you rotate and pivot. You're here, and you're here. Now, what you're really doing is you're applying a Bracing Core concept with this pivot, where the spine itself really isn't rotating. So, if I'm standing like this, and I pivot the back foot, you'll notice the spine itself isn't really doing a lot of rotation. So, we're missing the opportunity to really fortify the Coiling Core.
So rather than take that here and come up like this, what we'll do, we'll fortify this here. So, now I've got a drive that's going up, and I'm coiled here. And if you do this correctly, you'll feel this incredible loading force through the ground. Which means that I can project with much more force, and much more power with the rotation. And the idea again here is that we get at the heart of it, we train the foundation, and now, even when you do your regular, you can now apply that principle. So, if my foot is there, and apply that principle, I'm still much more powerful then if I haven't done that fundamental training.
So, what we want to do, we want to coil around that axis point, down and back, up and forward, and we use two cues to do this. One is elbow into the back pocket. To really get the most out of it, we even supinate the hands so that we wind up the lats. Pronating makes the lats long, supinating makes it coiled up. We drive the elbow down to the back pocket through the center, and our intention is to drive this hip up and forward keeping the central axis.
The other cue that we use is take the scapula (the bottom tip of that triangle, the shoulder blade), and we want to drive that into the back pocket. And so the tighter we can do that to the scapula, the more freedom we're going to create here for application (throwing, hitting, punching, etc.).
So, we're going to use that principle to ingrain the skill, ingrain the skill. Multiple modalities that I'll teach you in other videos. We use the BOSU Elite, we use the RMT Club. We want to really develop. We spend a lot of our training efforts on building this balance training coordination.
So, this is a simple drill that you can do to begin harnessing this and developing this. It's like you're tapping into this untapped resource you haven't done before. So, when I'm here, what I'm going to do is I'm going to step back, have my head over my foot, and I want to coil as much as I possibly can. Which means that when I'm coming down, this is driving up. Notice how my spine and shin angle are consistent. The weight is through the ball of my foot, it's not through the heel. So I'm here, and I'm coiling as much as I can. That spots not moving, not opening, I'm here getting the down portion. That's harnessing the side bending portion. And I come here and I really really contract. I take my time to do it, and then I come up. I just want to feel that integrated power of everything coming up with the uncoil. And then you simply set it up on the other side [Non-Dominant Side Training]. I'm in here. I'm coiled as much as I possibly can, and boom, I take it out. And what you don't want to do is you don't want to just go back and forth until you're good at it. So, it's training, it's not just "exercising." There's no sense if you're training for athletics, there's sense in doing something that's going to spend a lot of time and energy if it's not making you fundamentally better. You really want to train the skill, that's then going to apply to any rotation you do. And once you have the Coiling Core, now, any movement that you do, you're going to be able to harness the totality of it. This is this are sort of the root and center. They don't need to change to coil. This will make you a faster runner, a better hitter, thrower, puncher, jumper, all things athletic.
So, at WeckMethod, that's what we're teaching you. Optimizing Tensional Balance, whether it's the Bracing Core or the Coiling Core, and you do this as a foundation. And what it's going to do is it's going to help you do everything you do better. And we're really getting at the root of it, the foundation of it, so we're not building skills upon something that isn't the center of it. The true harnessing of power.
So, review real quick. It's simple. Take your center, keep your center more in the center. Don't bring the center over here. Head is over the foot and really try to drive this hip up and drive that shoulder down. You'll want to stretch real big before you do this like this, open it up, head over foot, project this out here, and then the other side. You always think down and back, up and forward. Because when you're doing this with great intensity, you'll get cramps, ok. And the effect immediately after you do this is this sensation that you have instant carry over. You feel this boom, like there's this connection now. It's extension and in-flexion that are magnified to get that Coiling Core. And the locomotion, the head over the foot, gives us that instant of perfect balance with the coil that comes up through the neutral. You get the other side. And all of the elites (sprinters, distance, etc.), do it. That's what they do. So what you want to do is you want to fortify the true intention. And the common mistake, this mistake is rampart, is to associate the Bracing Core with the athletic movement. Don't want to keep your shoulders level, don't want to keep the head in the center, and really brace to run, that's not fast. That's not powerful. You don't see the elites doing that. So, if you're not doing it, you'll experience exponential boom. You'll ration up and be better that much faster. If you're clunky, you're strong, but you're not as into athletic as you want to be, it's the fast road. You start to moving with that athletic brace. And if you're already doing it, you're just going to get better and better at it. Every millimeter matters.
Alright, last thing, just going to review it one more time. It's here, coil that sucker, elbow in the back pocket, scapula in the back pocket, and really really drive that up so that boom. And just, boom. As opposed to, where you're not coiling as tight. Very very simple. And then the better you get at it, the more it's muscle memory, the more you have that unconscious confidence. You're stronger. You're more powerful, the better you perform in everything.
The Coiling Core, WeckMethod. Thanks.
