Working on the Kinetic Chain Gang

When I was growing up we lived next to the Sothern Pacific railroad tracks (Still trying to figure out if we were on the right or wrong side of the tracks) and I remember being fascinated when the chain gangs came to repair the rails and replace sections of track. There were no machines. Everything was done by manual labor. But it was like watching a well oiled machine. Hardly a word was spoken but four men would get on either side of a rail and carefully lift it into place. Then they paired off into two man teams to drive the spikes to hold the rails in place. That was what was most fascinating. One man would strike the spike on one side of the rail and in complete sync the partner would drive the spike on the other side. They rhythmically alternated until the both spikes were driven in. It was like watching a dance.

As coaches, trainer and therapists we all work on chain gangs, kinetic chain gangs, the human body. Our jobs are to synchronize and orchestrate motion so it is like a beautiful dance. The body works like those chain gangs I used to watch when I was a kid. The pieces work together, in harmony and synchrony. When we mess it up is when we separate out parts and focus on those parts instead seeing how the parts integrate into the whole kinetic chain gang. Every member of the kinetic chain gang has to carry their weight to get the track into place to carry the weight of the train. In the body’s case the weight is not a train it is gravity. We do not need very many tools but we must understand leverage and angles and force production and reduction to get all the members of the kinetic chain gain to work together most efficiently.