In this series of columns, I’ve addressed the topic of so-called controversial exercises that many martial arts instructors have been doing for years, but those exercises may lead to student injuries. Now, I want to address, perhaps, the most controversial exercises of all, “ballistic stretches.”
Ballistic stretches can include the swinging leg-lifts to the front and side that prepare students for those front and side kicks.
There are three different types of stretching exercises that professionals should understand. They are: 1) static stretching, 2) ballistic stretching and 3) dynamic stretching. Static stretching is any slow and deliberate stretch. Sitting on the floor and slowly reaching to touch your toes is a static stretch. Typically, these stretches are held for 10 to 20 seconds at the point of furthest extension.
Ballistic stretching is a rapid bouncing or swinging movement beyond the point of full extension. Ballistic stretching exercises are renowned to be dangerous. Bounce stretching is bad, and bouncing before warming up is especially dangerous.
Another example of a ballistic stretch with which you might be familiar is to prop your leg on a support like a table or bar, at your maximum stretch, and then quickly bounce up and down to stretch the muscle even further (Fig. 1).
“Ballistic stretching is a rapid bouncing or swinging movement beyond the point of full extension.”
That kind of exercise is the classic, dangerous ballistic stretch-and can result in injury. Does that mean that all swinging type motions, such as leg swings, are bad?
To answer that question, I must introduce another term at this point, dynamic stretching. Dynamic stretching is a broad, continuous movement to an “easy point of extension,” but doesn’t go beyond the maximum for the joint (and this varies for each person). Note that this definition does not indicate uncontrolled, rapid bouncing movements.
That’s the difference. If you swing your leg up as fast and as high as you can, then that motion is considered a ballistic stretch. If you fail to warm up adequately-for several minutes, not seconds -you compound the probability of injury.
Don’t bow in your class, do ten jumping jacks, and then instruct students to start leg swings as high as they can. If you warm up first, and then work your way into a few slow and controlled leg swings, then you are doing dynamic stretching and that is an acceptable and even valuable exercise, according to experts.
How high can you swing your leg to be safe? Obviously, that varies with the individual. You definitely must lift the leg high enough for a stretch. That’s called “overload”; and it is a necessary element of a stretch to promote flexibility. There is, however, a difference between the discomfort of overload and pain. If it hurts, then you’ve gone too far.
That’s one reason that fast, bouncing motions are dangerous. Once you feel the searing pain, it’s too late. You’ve just pulled a muscle; but, by gradually working into a stretch, you can control the amount of load you are putting on the muscle and tendons.
For example, do a few leg swings only as high as your waist to start (Fig. 2). Then, do a few as high as your shoulders (Fig. 3). If you’re still not past your normal range of motion, then do a few over your head (Fig. 4).
As an instructor, you should remind your students that not everyone would have the same range of flexibility. A nine-year-old will probably be able to swing her leg higher than a 49-year-old, a Brown Belt higher than a White Belt, etc. Do not allow a middle-aged, out-of-shape, beginner think he has to swing his leg over his head like his instructor. The middle-aged man will try to swing his leg high and hard and that’s an uncontrolled movement that just might hurt him.
Keith D. Yates, M.A., is a veteran martial arts teacher who earned his first Black Belt in 1968. He served for several years on the Physical Education faculty at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he introduced the first martial arts program for credit in a southwestern university in 1971.
Figure 1
Bounce or ballistic stretching is the most dangerous type of stretching for a student.
Figure 2
Leg swings should only be executed when the student is completely warmed-up. Start with low, waist high swings.
Figure 3
Raise the level of the swing to the shoulders.
Figure 4
Then, if comfortable, swing the leg throughout your entire range of motion.
