Why is your first step delayed? And do you understand why top athletes can move so quickly? If you don't understand this, you won't get much faster just by blindly training to increase your strength or training your footwork.

I would like to explain why your first step is delayed and how you can speed it up as easily and scientifically as possible.

Fastest first step. Understanding the "Batsuju" Step. What is the "Batsuju" Step? Examples of use by top athletes:

What does it mean to move? What is "Batsuju", where you step in the exact opposite direction to where you want to go?

Characteristics of slow people. Various "Batsuju" steps. The greatness of Naoya Inoue's steps.

Messi's core strength. Let's get straight to the summary. Let's start with the conclusion. There are two main things you need to do to make your first step the fastest.

The first one is "Batsuju." "Batsuju" is an image of the body relaxing its supporting leg and falling.

Sometimes I do "Batsuju" with both legs, and sometimes I do "Batsuju" with one leg.

The second thing is to land your foot in the exact opposite direction of where you want to go.

If you want to go to the right, put your foot on the left; if you want to go to the front left, put your foot on the back right; and

if you want to go back, put your foot forward. Now, with these two things in mind, let's take a look at the actual movements of top-class players.

First of all, soccer. Lionel Messi's dribbling switch. He lands on his right foot here, but

he quickly "Batsuju"s his right foot and he's landing on his right foot again.

At this moment, he's not kicking the ground. Instead, can you see that he is doing "Batsuju" as if he is relaxing his right leg?

And because he wants to go to the left, he lands with his right foot planted wide to the right.

This means walking from "Batsuju" in the exact opposite direction to where you want to go.

Next up is basketball player Marcus Smart's defense. First, he follows in this direction so that he doesn't let you pass.

However, as soon as he gets on his left foot, he knows that his opponent will pass the ball under his thigh and head in the opposite direction.

At that moment, he performs a "Batsuju" with his left foot. Once again, he lands with his left foot diagonally to the left, causing him to suddenly launch diagonally backward to the right.

His movements, where he performs a "Batsuju" with his left foot and then lands on his left foot again, are so fast that you can't tell it's normal playback.

This is also a movement from "Batsuju" where you land your feet in the exact opposite direction to where you want to go.

Next up is tennis player Novak Djokovic. In response to the opponent's shot, he quickly performs a "Batsuju" with his left foot.

Then, by landing on his left foot backward, he launches forward. I'm sure he was planning on heading to this area the moment he landed with his right foot.

However, he determined that the ball would fall closer to him than he initially predicted. He then landed back on his left foot in order to quickly move forward.

As expected, this is also the footwork of "Batsuju," landing with your feet in the exact opposite direction to where you want to go.

If he didn't use the "Batsuju" step here, he would be running in a curve like this and he would be slightly behind.

I think it's probably still in time. However, I believe that the level of a player changes depending on whether or not he or she can pinpoint these slight differences.

Next is Hwang Zhen-dong. It's only a slight movement, but he lands on his left foot again and moves forward.

In table tennis rallies, where every moment counts, I think even his slight movements have great meaning.

Next is volleyball. This is Jakub Kochanowski from Poland. He watches where the ball will be hit from, and at this moment when he has determined the direction of the setting, he performs a "Batsuju".

He then quickly steps to the right, landing his left foot outward. This also positions my feet in the exact opposite direction of where I want to go from the "Batsuju" position.

Next is boxer Naoya Inoue. In this scene where he got knocked down, you can see that he uses the "Batsuju" step and lands slightly backward on his right foot.

This move allows him to jump off and land his body blows even from quite a distance. By stepping in the exact opposite direction of where he wants to go, from the "Batsuju" position, he makes up the difference in an instant.

The examples I have just given are just a few. The "Batsuju" step is a movement frequently used

in various other sports competitions to initiate a move or turn around. It's something athletes do unconsciously, so it's not a particularly unusual movement.

However, I have rarely seen anything that verbalizes this movement and explains it theoretically. Common examples include explanations of footwork and steps with various names.

I think it's good to do a variety of footwork training like this, but I think it's hard to understand what to use and how to use it, as well as the fundamental principles of the steps, because it's broken down too much.

I wanted to simplify the theory of the fundamentals of footwork. That's why I came up with a footwork theory called the "Batsuju" step.

This name was chosen by me for convenience, as it would be easier to explain to players if it had a name.

There are various ways to execute the "Batsuju" step, but the basic part is simple.

As I explained many times before, the moment you decide on the direction you want to go, perform a "Batsuju" step and go directly in the opposite direction.

I think this "Batsuju" step is the fastest in situations where you don't know which direction to start from, in a 360-degree range, or when you need to quickly turn around.

I would like you to understand how to use your body and learn footwork that allows you to move quickly.

The concept is different from the "Batsuju" step when initiating movement in a situation where the direction of movement is predetermined, such as in a sprint in track and field.

I will explain the science of how to start and run sprints another time. This time, please watch with the premise that it is a skill for quickly initiating movement in a 360-degree situation where you don't know which direction to start.

Before explaining the "Batsuju" step in detail, let me briefly explain what "move" means.

"Move" means "move the center of gravity." Therefore, to move your body quickly, you must quickly shift your center of gravity.

To achieve this, it's important to know how to transmit force toward the center of gravity in the desired direction.

I will use sticks to explain this so you can easily visualize it. This side of this stick is the head.

Imagine that this stick is your foot. For example, let's say you want to move this stick in this direction.

However, even if you transmit force in this direction to the bottom of the stick, you won't be able to move the stick properly.

This is because the center of gravity of this stick is around here, and the force cannot be transmitted toward the center of gravity.

Next, let's try it with the stick tilted like this. Then, I was able to move the stick smoothly.

You can also tilt the rod to make it move faster.  In this way, to transmit force to the feet and move the center of gravity, it is necessary to tilt the angle between the center of gravity and the supporting foot.

And the greater the angle, the faster you can advance. However, if you tilt it too far, the stick will fall over unless you push it at a fairly fast speed.

In other words, the greater the inclination, the harder and faster you need to push. Conversely, this means that if you can't push forcefully and quickly, you won't be able to tilt it far.

Furthermore, if the inclination is small, it is impossible to move quickly no matter how strong and fast you move your legs.

If you increase the speed of your feet too much relative to the inclination, your body will rise up and your feet will overtake your center of gravity, making it difficult to properly transmit the force from your feet.

The same is true when people run. When a person runs, they kick the ground, and the reaction from kicking the ground results in a situation similar to this stick experiment.

In other words, no matter how powerful and fast a person can move their feet, without this inclination, they will not be able to start quickly.

With that in mind, let me explain the "Batsuju" step, which involves stepping in the exact opposite direction of where you want to go.

This straight line connects your center of gravity and the position of your feet. If your feet are to the right of your center of gravity, your body will fall to the left.

Similarly, if you put your foot on the left, you'll fall to the right; if you put your foot forward, you'll fall backward.

The body is always trying to fall straight down due to gravity. By supporting it from one direction with your feet, you change the direction of your center of gravity.

So, your body will fall in the opposite direction of where your feet are.

For example, with both legs supporting your body in this position, the energy to push the punching bag is zero.

But when you raise your legs like this, you create energy to push the punching bag, even though you aren't actively pushing it.

Since it only uses gravity, it's an energy source requiring no unnecessary muscle strength. The force pushing the punching bag changes depending on the position of your center of gravity and your supporting foot.

In this way, you can push the sandbag with greater force if the tilt is larger.

In other words, to move quickly, land in the opposite direction of where you want to go and quickly tilt the line connecting your center of gravity and your supporting foot.

And "Batsuju" makes this movement possible.  "Batsuju" is a movement that relaxes the supporting legs and releases weight from the ground.

Since it's not a jump, the movement is a fall without going up. For me, "Batsuju" isn't a movement learned from modern sports science.

This movement is learned from Japanese samurai movements, kobudo and battojutsu.

This is how people moved back in the day, when life was literally on the line, where a moment's delay could cost you your life.

This efficient use of the body makes a lot of sense and is an interesting movement that rivals the latest in sports science.

One of the movements in ancient martial arts is "Batsuju." I think "Batsuju" is easiest to understand when applied to modern sports.

There are mainly four advantages of "Batsuju."  These are: freely moving your legs, moving your whole body quickly, taking advantage of gravity, and taking advantage of the characteristics of your muscles and tendons.

First, when you perform "Batsuju," your feet will momentarily leave the ground, and you will feel as if you are floating in the air.

In reality, you're not floating; you're falling, but at that moment you can move your feet in the direction opposite to where you want to go.

As a result, the moment you land, you can create a tilt in the line between your center of gravity and your feet, allowing you to take off quickly.

Secondly, while performing "Batsuju" and falling, your body will become lighter, and you will be able to move your whole body more quickly.

While falling, it's like being in a state of weightlessness. For example, let's say you're in an elevator carrying heavy baggage.

If the elevator were to fall, you wouldn't feel the weight of your body or the baggage, and you would easily be able to throw your luggage upwards.

Due to this phenomenon, when you unload your arms and legs, you momentarily feel lighter, allowing you to move in any direction more quickly than when standing.

You can experience this by holding something heavy. This is a 10kg medicine ball.

It's quite heavy, so even if I try to lift it up as fast as I can while standing like this with my arms outstretched, I can only go so fast.

Next, let's do "Batsuju" and raise the body while lowering it. I was able to lift it much faster than before.

If you can time it with "Batsuju," you can lift it very easily. If you have dumbbells or medicine balls at home, I encourage you to try it and see the difference for yourself.

The third advantage is that you can use the acceleration caused by falling. When you do "Batsuju," your body will fall due to gravity.

It uses that kinetic energy to move. We can illustrate this by moving a ball. Let the ball start here and go to this goal.

A is a flat road, B is a slope, and C is a curved road. First, to move the ball toward the goal using A, you need energy to push the ball.

On the other hand, B and C can direct the ball toward the goal without pushing it.  C's ball makes efficient use of gravity, falling and accelerating, reaching the goal faster than B's.

Based on that, let's focus on the movement of the center of gravity when moving the body.

When you move from a hunched position, your center of gravity shifts using the strength of your legs.

This is similar to A. However, in the "Batsuju" step, the center of gravity moves like this.

By using gravity and supporting the falling center of gravity with your feet, you can move efficiently, like C in the earlier experiment.

The efficiency of moving using only muscle strength versus using gravity is completely different.  The fourth advantage is utilizing the characteristics of muscles and tendons.

Muscles exert stronger force by applying force to withstand an external force, rather than through shortening contractions (applying force while shortening the muscle).

I call this "holding power." Holding power is easily understood by experimenting with grip strength. Grip strength is caused by forearm muscle contraction, pulling the finger tendons to create a grip.

You're applying force while shortening your muscles; this is a shortening contraction.  However, even with the same grip force, holding force is the ability to apply force to withstand external force while holding the hand in this shape.

【抜重ステップ最新版】一歩目を最速にする方法とは！？一流選手が使っているステップを科学的に解説！

【抜重ステップ最新版】一歩目を最速にする方法とは！？一流選手が使っているステップを科学的に解説！