Establish contact
Begin with a usable foot contact, a comfortable knee bend, and a trunk you can control. A planted foot is useful when the body can organize over it.
LAW 01 / Support
The Base
THE GROUND IS PART OF THE PLAY.
Before the finish, there is a contact. The Base organizes the support that lets the rest of the action happen.
The Base accepts the load and initiates the transfer. The Anchor gives that supported action a direction.
Take it into practice ↓Load, then drive
Watch the supporting leg accept weight before the athlete pushes away. The foot pushes against the floor; the floor exerts a reaction force on the body.
Receive and recover
The next contact has a job too. Receive the movement without an uncontrolled collapse, then find a position from which another action is possible.
LEARN IT / REVERSE IT / APPLY IT
Make the relationship
your own.
- Choose a low-demand athletic stance. Hold a light ball in both hands so the hands do not distract from the support.
- Shift a small amount of weight, push into one controlled lateral step, and stop. Keep the distance within a range you can control.
- Return through the other configuration. Compare the quality of contact and recovery, not just how far you moved.
THE SCIENTIFIC CONTEXT
Understand the mechanism.
Ground reaction is established mechanics: the foot and ground exert forces on each other. The ground is not a source of free energy; muscles do work. Base and Anchor are NST coaching roles used to organize the action.
OpenStax · Newton’s third law ↗PUT THE LESSON IN SEQUENCE