'Splitting Like a Girl'

It has been a dismal day in the eastern half of the country. So in the spirit of bracing activities to make the most of cold weather, here is a report on the right way to split firewood, especially if you're female. Background:

As previously mentioned, the Atlantic article I most enjoyed reporting and writing was "Throwing Like a Girl." In part that was because the "reporting" included a week at Vic Braden's tennis camp in California and an interview with the actor John Goodman. But the story also helped me understand a lifelong familiar phenomenon in a completely different way.

The phenomenon was the dynamics of throwing a ball, or the related motions of serving with a tennis racket or swinging a golf club. The concept that cleared things up for me was the "kinetic chain." I explain the "chain" in the article -- it's the transfer of momentum, and continual increase in speed, as motion shifts from large-mass parts of your body, like your legs and torso, to your arm and hand and ultimately the ball. From this great site, here's Randy Johnson transferring a whole lot of momentum along the chain. [These are GIF animations that might not come through properly in RSS feeds; if there's a problem, follow this link to our site.]

Reader JS, in Vermont, reports how understanding the kinetic chain has equipped her for new happiness as a log-splitter. In a note titled "Splitting Like a Girl," she reports: