Kip-up


A kip-up is an acrobatic move in which a person transitions from a supine, and less commonly, a prone position, to a standing position. It is used in activities such as breakdancing, gymnastics, martial arts, professional wrestling, and freerunning, and in action film fight sequences.
Not only does the kip-up require muscle activation and strength, but it also requires proper technique for successful completion. A practitioner must perform the preparation phase, aerial phase, and landing phase using specific accelerations, angular velocities, and joint positions of the extremities in order to land on their feet.

Execution and physics

From a supine position

The performer draws both legs anterior to the chest, rotates back onto the shoulders, and optionally places hands on the floor proximal to the ears. The performer then moves from hip and knee flexion to hip and knee extension while elevating the body away from the floor. The performer creates force against the ground by pushing off with the hands and simultaneously moving the elbows from flexion to extension.
The leg motion during the thrust involves increasing the joint angle of the hip from flexion to extension. When the thrust is completed, the rotation of the legs with respect to the trunk is terminated and, as a result, the angular momentum of the legs is transferred to the entire body. The linear momentum of the thrust carries the body into the air feet first while the angular momentum causes the airborne body to rotate. The spine moves into greater lordosis so that with sufficient thrust, back curvature, and body rotation, the performer will land on the feet.

From prone position

With body face-down, the performer creates forces against the floor with fists or palms while kicking back the legs so as to develop momentum that carries the body into the air. The performer lands with the feet in contact with the floor, and knees in flexion.

Variations

Hop back variations

Hop back variations all involve the practitioner starting in a standing position, possibly jumping in the air and rotating posterior in order to land on their shoulders/back. After maintaining the supine position the practitioner executes the standard kip up variation in order to return to their feet.
NameDescription
Standard hop back to kip-up, or continuous kip-upThe practitioner moves the knees into flexion as if sitting down on an imaginary chair. They then take flight and rotate towards the posterior. The hands are placed posterior and proximal to the back of the neck to protect the cervical spine from receiving damage. Once the body has landed on the shoulders and hands, the hips and knees move into flexion anterior to the chest and a standard kip-up is executed.
Rubber bandThe rubber band is a breakdancing move which consists of repeated kip-ups which do not go all the way to standing position. A rubber band is more like a back handspring, except it requires a movement of slower velocity when lowering the thoracic and cervical spine to the ground to kip back up.