Centre Of Gravity

Many moons ago I went to doctors suffering from aches in back and hips and he said that it could be the old arthritus "try these pills". Anyway my sister ( who worked for football clubs - physio kind of stuff) said it is more likely to be with my alignment...

Not thought anymore about it but I have been on the new wii fitness board and doing the body mass index tests it showed my centre of gravity to be over to the right - presumably this is the alignment problem my sister  mentioned.

Now, when I swing I never feel as if the coil is there and wondered if this COG may be relevant to that so I addressed the ball and made a lateral correction at address and this felt that the weight distribution was much better - but I have yet to hit a ball doing this.

Anybody else have a COG problem - is it common - are we born like this or does our lifestyle develop it

Only the cog's in my brain.

Mention something technical and you just know I'm going to start, don't you.

The first observation is that nobody's C of G is in the middle of their body simply because we aren't symmetrical - we haven't got two of each organ for a start.  There are also variations in muscle and bone density between the two sides (depending on right or left handedness) and the occasional mechanical variation - my left scapula is about 20mm shorter than the right due to a bike accident.  This, and posture variations lead to what Robbies' sister correctly diagnosed as an alignment problem - in my case with the shoulder and knee problems I have tend to mean that I favour my right leg.

However, things all go to pot when you consider what happens when you start swinging a weight around on a stick, your C of G necessarily has to change to compensate.  Luckily, your brain is able to do this almost instantaneously during each part of the swing - as it does when you do anything else (if you think about it, your C of G will change constantly doing something as simple as walking and breathing at the same time).  Some people are able to process these changes better than others, top professional sportsman are better at spacial awareness than us mere mortals.

So in answer to Robbies post, yes you may have a wonky C of G and it may be in part due to alignment.  But does it matter?  No, not really, it's just another instance of using cod-science to justify marketing.   

Quite right David - but not, as I said, two of each organ.  Unless you're Doctor Who.  However, an easy mistake to make, it does look like some people have two stomachs...

Cheers Tim,

Thats a very well written explanation thanks...

Hey David - after she who must be obeyed has dipped into my wallet I could balance it on my head and not feel it there...

You,re centre of gravity, Rob, is round you,re waist mate 

Walking and breathing easy. Now you're just showing off.

You mean my six pack Tony...

That's because I am shy and feel intimidated by big sticks....

Plus its the one I had on during the famous Northern win.......