Findings

Why does it happen?

In male bodies external hip rotation is usually an under-trained capacity for morphological reasons and reasons of everyday use. The head of the femur needs strong and flexible rotator muscles around it — glutes, deep external rotators, adductors — and a pelvis capable of staying neutral while the femur rotates. When those muscles are not integrated into the gesture, the knee and ankle try to cover the missing range, and the apparent rotation ends up being a turn of the foot, not of the hip.

How was it detected?

During the initial assessment, Carolina Miranda asked the practitioner to isolate the rotation of the foot with a resistance band blocking the knee, and observed that the movement was arising from the hip before it did from the ankle. Later, with Pablo López in the eagle stance without skates, the coach pointed out that the joint aperture was there but the strength to hold it was not coming solely from the ankle — it was also coming from the hip. Both exercises confirmed that the limitation lay in the active availability of the hip, not in the passive range.

Implications

Without active hip mobility it is not possible to hold the angle of the eagle long enough to travel on skates. The training plan had to place a full month of work without skates first, centered on hip rotations, flexions and extensions with resistance band and ankle weights, before attempting the gesture on wheels again. It also required redefining what mobility means: it is not enough to reach the position — you have to produce it and hold it from the correct muscle.

Why does it happen?

Ankle abduction and adduction are movements rarely trained outside of skating. In Pablo López, the deep foot musculature is not yet accustomed to moving independently of the knee; any attempt to rotate the foot also recruits the femur or the tibia, producing a global turn of the leg instead of a local turn of the foot. Added to this is the weakness of the outer part of the foot, which is what pulls the heel to lift it from the floor as the rotation is pronounced.

How was it detected?

Carolina Miranda ran the test with a resistance band holding the outer part of the foot: she asked for the foot to move only outward and inward, blocking the knee. The coach observed that the movement contaminated the knee and the hip as soon as the instruction was released. When testing with the other foot, she verbalized the correction: only the ankle — the knee doesn't move a hair. The same test was repeated with full circles of the foot, confirming the pattern.

Implications

The initial routine includes a specific block of foot strength (dorsi and plantar flexion, adduction and abduction) to re-educate the ankle musculature. The goal is not just to gain passive range, but for the foot to learn to act autonomously with respect to the knee. Without this foundation, ankle abduction inside the skate boot — a central cue in Routine 3 — becomes impossible to execute cleanly.

Why does it happen?

Anterior pelvic tilt appears as a consequence of underactivated deep abdominal musculature and an unconscious attempt to gain hip opening by letting the pelvis fall forward. It is a neuromuscular shortcut: the body confuses joint aperture with pelvic tilt. Without an active transverse abdominis and pelvic floor, the pelvis cannot find the neutral point from which the femur can rotate cleanly.

How was it detected?

Carolina Miranda explained the anatomical reference to Pablo López — the iliac crests as the small bones of the pelvis — and asked him to touch the outside of the hip to feel the activation of the glute during the rotation. Observing the eagle stance from the side, the coach identified that the pelvis was drifting slightly and verbalized the correction: neutral pelvis, it doesn't go back and forth — it is the head of the femur that rotates. The same observation appears explicitly in the written analysis after the session, describing the hip falling behind the line of the torso and knees.

Implications

Pelvic placement becomes a prerequisite for almost all the other findings. Exercises like the open compás are built to seek the pelvis in posterior tilt and the heels as far forward as possible; the ranitas work conscious anterior and posterior tilt; the back and abdomen block reinforces the abdominal girdle. Without correcting the anterior tilt, external rotation cannot consolidate.

Why does it happen?

When the hip sits in anterior tilt and the knees cannot flex over the line of the feet, the torso becomes the only segment able to readjust the balance. Forward flexion is the body's most available response to keep the vertical, and it appears automatically. The problem is not in the torso but in the muscular strength and joint freedom of the hip; the torso is only covering what is missing further down.

How was it detected?

When she asked for the eagle stance from the side to record it, Carolina Miranda observed how the torso was going forward and verbalized it in the moment. The coach also picked up Pablo López's own comment at the start of the session, where he described having seen that other skaters carry the chest forward and that he is trying to stay vertical. The later analysis consolidated the observation, describing the torso compensating forward and into flexion in order to hold the stance.

Implications

Correcting torso compensation is not done by working the torso, but by restoring the freedom of the hip and the stability of the knee. Even so, Routine 1 incorporates a specific block of back and abdomen strength to build a stabilizing center capable of keeping the torso aligned with the pelvis. In Routine 3 this cue is reinforced: open the torso but without letting torsion appear, keeping the torso aligned with the pelvis.

Why does it happen?

Endurance in the eagle stance does not depend only on the absolute strength of the rotator muscles; it depends on strength along the parameter of time. In the later analysis, Carolina Miranda identifies this capacity as a primary area of opportunity for the program: sustained strength has to be increased, and it has to be done with external load to simulate the weight of the skates. Without that preparation, any correct gesture executed without skates degrades the moment the boots are added.

How was it detected?

During the initial assessment the coach observed that Pablo López could reach the position but could not hold it freely without generating compensatory tension. Working through the rotation with the resistance band, Miranda gave a pedagogical explanation of the goal: build strength so that there is endurance in that stance, so that in the end it becomes comfortable and doesn't feel like the maximum effort of the rotation. Endurance was framed from the first minute as a training parameter, not a lateral consequence of strength.

Implications

The training program was structured around progressive weeks with repeated sets, four to ten second holds per repetition and use of ankle weights and resistance bands to add external load. Routine 1 demands reaching the postures in five seconds — no less — and holding them for four seconds: it is not seeking explosive strength but strength over time. This logic is preserved across the project's three routines.

Why does it happen?

Proprioception is built through conscious repetition. Antagonist movements — external and internal rotation trained in the same block — generate the internal control needed to know if a rotation has gone too far and to come back. Without deliberate work on this capacity, the body learns the shape of the gesture but does not acquire the information it needs to modulate it in real time.

How was it detected?

At the end of the assessment Carolina Miranda dedicated a specific stretch to explaining why the program had to include a lot of proprioception work: it is about the practitioner feeling that the glute is activating, feeling where the weight is placed, knowing what the body is doing rather than merely reproducing the gesture from the outside. The coach stated it as a pedagogical principle: to be able to control the movement, you need to feel the movement.

Implications

All the routines in the project incorporate explicit proprioceptive cues: touching the glute during the rotation, pronouncing the abduction of the front foot, seeking the sensation of the stabilizing center, activating adductors and then antagonists in the same set. Routine 3, in its gesture-exploration phase, proposes thirteen explorations aimed precisely at letting the body integrate the sensations and notice which ones work to flow in the position.

Why does it happen?

The eagle stance is executed on a narrow base and while in motion; the center of mass constantly changes position relative to the points of support. If the body does not have a clear reading of where its weight is, the corrective force arrives late and is paid for with torso and arms. In the assessment it becomes clear that Pablo López's balance is good in static, but the line of gravity is not yet incorporated as a dynamic training parameter.

How was it detected?

Carolina Miranda explicitly asked whether the practitioner had a grasp of center of mass and center of gravity, and from that answer she asked for slight weight shifts inside the eagle stance to observe how the legs stabilized it and what the center of the body was doing. The coach closed the assessment by announcing that the program would include a specific section on the line of gravity and the center of gravity, together with the search for balance first off skates.

Implications

The work on center of gravity is not addressed through a single exercise but as a transversal layer across the routines. The block of weight shifts with torsion in Routine 1 targets it by changing the base and the placement of the body. Routine 2 takes it onto skates close to the goal post, where the practitioner can shift the weight toward the dominant leg while keeping the skate on the floor. Routine 3 places it at the center with the active ranita and the thirteen gesture explorations.

Why does it happen?

When endurance and proprioception are not yet consolidated, the body prefers to spread the weight between two supports so as not to lose the vertical. But the Mohawk requires several moments of passing the weight fully onto the back leg, or giving it to the front leg so that leg can indicate the direction. That active decision on weight is only possible once the rest of the stance no longer depends on maintaining the double base.

How was it detected?

In the on-skates portion of the assessment, Carolina Miranda asked Pablo López to give weight to the front leg and shift slightly onto it to test the movement. The coach also dedicated a block to sustained weight shifts in the eagle stance without skates, looking to see how the legs stabilized the position and what the center was doing. In the later analysis the question appears explicitly: whether it is also a matter of weight change from two legs to one that can help hold the stance — something to explore in the following months.

Implications

Routine 3 formalizes this work in its on-skates gesture-exploration phase: among the thirteen explorations proposed appear distributing the weight between both legs, shifting it fully to the back leg, and playing with the abduction of the front foot to indicate the direction. Weight transfer stops being an accident of the gesture and becomes a variable the skater learns to manipulate with intention.