Kickboxing is the hottest trend sweeping the nation's fitness centers. According to the American Council on Exercise, it provides a workout sufficient to improve and maintain cardiovascular fitness. Kickboxing involves many quick movements of the arms and legs at similar and different times. The body must rapidly adjust to the differences in posture to maintain a state of balance. In our movement analysis, we will look at the different positions of the body when a person does a front kick as opposed to a back kick. During a front kick, a person stands up straight for the duration of the movement. However, during a back kick, a person begins in the upright position, but must lean forward in order to effectively perform the movement. The center of mass shifts and the muscles and joints must compensate. If the body does not adjust to the change in its center of mass, a person could be seriously injured. Balance is an adaptable motor skill (Horak et al. 1997). To measure balance, we will look specifically at how the trunk segment moves to compensate for the changes in the hip joint angle.
The purpose of our project is to determine the differences between the postural responses to a front kick and a back kick. By looking at the trunk region during both kicks, we will see how the trunk moves in order to compensate for the difference in joint movements. Our hypothesis is that we will see greater trunk movement during the back kick. During the front kick, we expect the trunk angle to remain fairly stable. We chose to use the greater trochanter, the acromion process, the lateral epicondyle, and the lateral malleolus as body markers to help us analyze the body's compensatory responses.