I recently learned that ballet dancers are often taught to tuck their pelvis when spinning to spin better on a straight axis. While I gather that this is perhaps more directed towards multiple spins, my thought is: can it be applied to spinning techniques in martial arts? I haven't really tested it properly, but I'm going to try running through some capoeira spinning crescents just to see if the principle applies, as I never use those, then some more taekwondo-ish spinning hooks or what, then the techniques I actually regularly use to good effect, spinning elbows and forearms. Then, seeing how a tucked, tilted or neutral pelvis affects throws and grappling - for example, a tucked pelvis I'm thinking will be better for holding some pins (as one tucks their pelvis for a proper crunch), but a tilted pelvis would obvously be better for bridging, as one tilts their pelvis to get full curvature of the back in similar backbends in yoga. I know that all sounds way overboard, but I guess I get excited when somebody points out something that had otherwise been going right by my kinesthetic sense.

Word of the Day: bellwether - one that serves as a leader or as a leading indicator of future trends (interestingly from Middle English, being the lead ram [technically, a castrated ram] with the bell around its neck)

Phrase of the Day: cheeky monkey!

Other Word of the Day: koine - a regional dialect or language that becomes the standard language over a wider area, losing its most extreme local features (I just thought it was an elegant word for what it defines)