Contribution of Trunk and Pelvis Rotation to Punching in Boxing

Sports involving throwing, striking and kicking activities, such as tennis, squash, baseball, football, among others, demand the production of maximum speed at the end of the distal segment in a kinematic chain. Research done on the biomechanics of these various, yet somehow similar sporting techniques, suggests that athletes generate large hand and foot speeds as a result of a proximal-to-distal sequencing motion. In other words, motion initiates in the larger, heavier proximal body segments and, as the energy increases, proceeds outward to the smaller, lighter distal segments (1). The way in which these mechanics are associated with distal end maximal speeds can be explained by Bunn’s “summation of speed principle” (3). As the name suggests, this principal states that each succeeding segment initiates motion at the time of maximum speed of its proximal segment, generating higher distal endpoint speeds than the latter.