Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Troublesome Tuesday - Range of Motion


Today on Troublesome Tuesday, yours truly will cover Range of Motion. Stormtroopers have never been known to be the most agile of the galaxy's workforce. The protective armor of a Stormtrooper can be very restricting. It's no wonder a scared Han Solo can easily outrun a battalion of us standing in the Death Star.

To give you an idea of the restriction of the armor, I challenge you to stand up right now and see how far back you can bend your leg at the knee. Can you get your foot the whole way back so your heel is touching the small of your back? Well even if you can't I guarantee you've far surpassed the range of a Stormtrooper. At best, most Stormtroopers can barely bend their leg back 45 degrees before the shin armor and the thigh armor touch behind the knee thus preventing further movement.

By the above restrictions, I pose a question to you... What is a Stormtrooper's worst enemy? If you said Jedi, Ewok, Rebel, or the Boss' Force Choke... you'd be very wrong. The correct answer is STAIRS!!! Requiring usually more range of motion than our legs in armor will allow, it takes full body movement sometimes to take down stairs. Often shifting weight and repositioning the back to get a foot up one step. Now this is not the same for everyone, some stormtroopers have an easier time than most. I personally can annihalate stairs like a stairmaster. But it took practice and technique that could have better been put towards increasing my "precise aim".

The same range of motion is restrictive in the arms and torso. The wait the ab armor restricts a greater range of spine movement, bending over to pick an object off the ground is practically impossible (but has been done). Shoulder and Chest Armor often prevents the arms from reaching too high up or too far to one side. Asking a stormtrooper to itch his left shoulder with his right hand is like asking a Gungan to be less annoying.

In closing, the restricted movements of a Stormtrooper is definitely due to the armor. Someone moving very slowly in armor could be an Olympic gold medalist in track. Every trooper has their different speeds, but none are any where near as agile or fast as they are in normal civilian clothes.

Hope you've enjoyed this installment of Troublesome Tuesday. Plenty more to come because as Stormtroopers... we definitely have our fair share of Troublesome quirks to deal with.

1 comment:

  1. I can't wait to deal with all these troublesome events that happen in stormtrooper armor... I want to be done my armor now!

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