Hip "Stopping"

Why is it that so many people get that "stopping" feeling in the side split? My actual legs are pretty strong (strong enough to do the splits at least), but at a certain point (about 8-10" for me) I get the same stopping feeling. It's even higher (15") if I keep my hips straight up and down without "opening" my hips.

Should I not open my hips or what? Perhaps my joint placement is not good...

You need to tilt your pelvis. See Thomas Kurz's article here: http://fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=13

@phrak, I do tilt my pelvis, and it removes about 60-80% of the stopping sensation; however, I've seen a bunch of people able to do the side splits without tilting their pelvis. Maybe that comes with time after you get the full split or with an over split?

Patrick Smith said:

@phrak, I do tilt my pelvis, and it removes about 60-80% of the stopping sensation; however, I've seen a bunch of people able to do the side splits without tilting their pelvis. Maybe that comes with time after you get the full split or with an over split?

I think the big difference is whether or not you started split work before or after puberty. At least, that's my understanding after reading a bunch of literature.

I've been running into the same problem as you - essentially if I go too far in a standing straddle, I feel my leg bone press against my hip joint, almost like it's trying to lever itself out of the joint. It's not fun.

I've found pancake / straddle forward bends to work similar muscles, and thus have been working this instead.