Today’s podcast features Bill Hartman and Chris Wicus. Bill Hartman. Bill Hartman is a physical therapist and in-demand educator with his modern approach to human mechanics and training. Chris Wicus is a health and performance professional with 15 years of experience, a former professional ultimate frisbee player, and a 2nd-degree black belt in karate. He has coached a wide variety of athletes across 17 sports and has been mentored by many top experts in the field.
Bill and Chris host the “Reconsider” podcast together and speak on various cutting-edge approaches to human movement in a way that prompts thinking on existing processes in the field, and how to move forward with current understandings of training and biomechanics.
One key link between on-field performance and weight room training is the dynamics of propulsion through the gait cycle. Bill and Chris often use the example of cutting mechanics—going into and out of a cut—which applies to sprinting, jumping, throwing, strength training, and directional changes, highlighting human movement as a series of turns, rotations, and gait phases.
Today’s podcast dives into the dynamics of propulsion and the gait cycle, linking field performance with weight room training. Bill and Chris explore “into and out of the cut” mechanics as they apply to sprinting, jumping, throwing, strength training, and directional changes. They compare change of direction to acceleration and top-end speed while discussing propulsion’s impact on breathing, reciprocal motion, orientation, performance, and injury prevention. This was a truly illuminating episode and one that garners numerous notes and insights.
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Main Points
00:55– Propulsion Phases Influence Cut Maneuvers in Motion
8:23– Agility, Relative Motions Training, and Links Between COD and Acceleration Ability
24:28– Late Stance Propulsion for Enhanced Velocity Performance
27:35– Optimizing Performance Through Relative Motion Training
43:42– Proper Breathing in Optimal Performance Training
56:05– Enhancing Control Through Relative Motions in Split Squat
1:04:31– Pelvic Pressure Dynamics and Squatting Depth
1:15:30– Oscillatory Impulse Split Squat Training for Athletes
1:19:03– Explore Bill’s Model on UHP Platform
Quotes
(2:15) “Propulsion is moving forward through space in contact with the medium” – Bill Hartman
(9:32) “For you to move what you perceive to be straight sideways, that is actually a turn away from the ground contact” – Bill Hartman
(10:50) “Everything is a turn. And that’s why one of the dirty words would be a sagittal plane. Because when we’re talking about dynamic movement, we’re moving on helices” – Bill Hartman
(13:50) “There’s lots of time accumulated with these IR demands with like a 5 10, 5 pro agility, whatever. So that’s going to prime you. My assumption would be I would see better starts and accelerations and I would see better shorter sprint performance. But like you had even mentioned intuitively, 200m maybe wouldn’t be as good as I need to display ER, I need to be off the ground. That lives in the opposite place from like an agility drill” – Bill Hartman
(16:40) “The sharper the cut, the, the, the, the greater your capacity to have to slow down so you can actually, actually change directions. And so this is an acquisition of relative motion in internal rotation which could have a beneficial effect… if we were just doing say a flying 20, that’s a whole different story because the amount of relative movement that you would, that would be required in that circumstance is actually less” – Bill Hartman
(18:42) “Race cars used to be made out of metal, and when they crashed, they would stay in one piece, and then the driver would have to absorb all of the energy. So there was a lot of death and then a lot of serious injuries associated with race car crashes. Now the cars actually explode into a billion pieces. The more pieces that you have that are moving, the greater the energy is dissipated into all of those pieces.” – Bill Hartman
(23:45) “You’re always going to be storing and releasing the energy in the connective tissues. It’s. It’s just under in what circumstance we have to, we have to understand the conditions and then how much relative motion would be expressed” – Bill Hartman
(28:50) “We need to rule out the things that are going to limit relative motions first and foremost. Okay. High force, high velocity. Okay, so those are the two extremes. And these will be at the ends of the ends of propulsion are going to be more externally rotated represented versus IR” – Bill Hartman
(31:00) “All of our favorite injuries tend to be situations where we’re trying to apply a high force in a high velocity situation with less relative motion” – Bill Hartman
(34:00) “You take a 10 RM weight to 10 reps, the motor behavior actually is very similar. So, so you’re actually reducing relative motion as you progress through the set” – Bill Hartman
(44:50) “You can associate your ability to move air, how well you do it and the type of effort that is required to do it will help guide you in your process as to whether you’re accessing relative motions or producing higher forces” – Bill Hartman
(46:32) “If you’re dealing with some type of issue, they’re probably holding their breath when they’re doing stuff. And that’s a big tell as a coach for when you need to address the breathing with an activity is if they’re grunting a lot to do things, if they’re always sort of holding their breath and you hear this sort of like gasping kind of like type of sound as they’re moving.” – Chris Wicus
(51:00) “The nice thing about the Zottman girl is that we get the early ER representation, the early IR representation. And therefore we retain a greater degree of relative movement at the elbow. So we use these all the time. Because think about the baseball pitchers that come in and they’re lacking. They’re lacking internal rotation at the elbow, which is underappreciated” – Bill Hartman
(59:10) “In most sporting events there is a moment in time where high force is necessary and that we have tremendous benefit in using these activities because the forces match…. if I train somebody to produce higher and higher forces, but I have increased the duration element of the impulse and that is transferred into the sporting event. I just may be somebody slow.” – Bill Hartman
(1:09:20) “The concern between like the sport coach and then the physical preparation is, is that, is the coach asking you to do something that is physically against your structure?” – Bill Hartman
(1:11:15) “The mistake in most circumstances is, is to create a squeeze from the top down. So this is, this is over strength training an athlete” – Bill Hartman
(1:14:34) “We have to understand it’s like, what am I actually doing to the ability of the skeleton to change its shape? What am I doing to the ability to put air into certain spaces that allow you to access relative motions that I might need.” – Bill Hartman
About Bill Hartman
Bill Hartman is known for finding solutions for people in pain who have failed with other forms of treatment. He is an in-demand educator in his approach to restoring a pain-free lifestyle and understanding the governing principles of movement as applied to human performance. He regularly mentors physical therapy students and interns many of whom have gone on to land positions in professional sport or become successful business owners themselves.
Bill owns IFAST Physical Therapy in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Co-owns Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training with Mike Robertson, where he works with clients ranging from very young athletes to professionals. He is the author of the book, All Gain – No Pain: The over-40 Comeback Guide to Rebuilding a Fit and Pain-free Body After Pain, Injury, or Physical Therapy.
About Chris Wicus
Chris is a health and performance professional with 15 years of experience. His coaching journey began around 25 years ago as a karate instructor, where he taught people from ages 4 to 70. He holds a 2nd-degree black belt and was a nationally ranked ultimate frisbee player in college, later playing professionally. His own experiences with injuries and rehabilitation led him to pursue studies in Integrative Kinesiology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Chris has worked as a performance coach across various levels, training athletes from 17 different sports, including Olympians and professional athletes. After completing graduate studies in sport coaching, psychology, and management, he became the training and education director at a high-end facility in NYC, where he trained A-list celebrities and high-level executives.
Over the years, Chris has learned from leading experts in rehabilitation, exercise physiology, speed, agility, and strength & conditioning, dedicating thousands of hours to education and coaching to become an effective problem-solver for his clients.
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