We teach the value of looking down with a very simple demonstration that we always include at our seminars in the very first phase of learning the movement. After placing the trainee in the bottom of the squat and getting the feet, knees, and back angle correct, I block the hips by placing my hand on the sacrum and telling the athlete to "drive up against my hand." This demonstrates the power of the posterior chain when it engages to drive hips up. I then tell the athlete to do the same thing again looking down at a point three feet away on the platform, and then to do the same thing while looking up, blocking the hips with my hand in both cases. Without exception, I am always told that the preference is for looking down. This is because looking down better facilitates the use of the hips than looking up, and the difference in power production is immediately evident to anybody that has done my little demonstration. When you look up, the action of assuming the looking-up position pulls the knees forward a little, closing up the knee angle and therefore slacking the hamstrings from the distal end. If the hamstrings shorten distally, they are less able to extend the hips proximally because the tension developed against their proximal attachments on the pelvis is diminished. You can demonstrate this to yourself by standing normally, looking straight forward, and then looking up at the ceiling, paying attention to what naturally happens to your knees when you do this. So, in addition to providing a useful position reference against the floor, looking down makes hip drive dramatically more effective when you squat. I am much less concerned with "butt wink" than some people, having realized long ago that some small amount of lumbar movement is inevitable, and not a concern unless it is quite egregious. And that, my now surprised-that-I-haven't-been-a-smartass friend, is the deal.
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