Using a hip roll to protect your groin

In a normal stance you can see how the testicles hang below the height of the thighs
But by hip tucking, they are lifted to safety away from rising kicks

In some martial arts, particularly Shotokan, they are big advocates of a type of posture called a hip roll. The hip roll is achieved by tensing your butt muscles and lifting your groin up. It’s most prominently seen in hour glass stance, where, even in GKR, it is quite widely practiced.

The hip roll has the effect of straightening the second lowest curve of the spine (the lumbar curve), which some people argue, gives strength to the posture. I would argue that far from adding strength, it actually weakens it and sacrifices resilience. A curve is a far stronger structure than a straight line because the load is dissipated across a wider area. A Shotokan karateka called Phil Redmond even went so far as to argue that extended hip tucking is bad for you as it gradually straightens one of the two lesser curves in the spine. As all of the spine’s curves combine to provide suspension, I tend to agree with his general principle. Ironically though, speaking as someone with a herniated disc in my spine (what they used to call a slipped disc), I find that tucking actually alleviates pain after prolonged periods on my feet. Go figure!

Anyway, hip rolling, or tail tucking as it’s sometimes called, does achieve several useful effects. It brings the flesh of the buttocks together and this in turn serves a very useful purpose – especially in close range to an opponent. It protects the testicles. First off, the action lifts the groin; and secondly, the closed thighs provide a barrier that limits rising kicks from reaching their destination. Thrusting kicks, and kicks that rise up to the front, are still a danger however.

Another valuable result of hip tucking, is that it strengthens the muscles in the lower back and the abdomen, both of which are key to punching.