{"id":243310,"date":"2026-08-28T01:34:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T06:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/the-physics-of-kiiking-estonias-extreme-sport-of-swinging"},"modified":"2026-08-28T01:34:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T06:34:01","slug":"the-physics-of-kiiking-estonias-extreme-sport-of-swinging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/the-physics-of-kiiking-estonias-extreme-sport-of-swinging","title":{"rendered":"The physics of kiiking, Estonia\u2019s extreme sport of swinging"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VRDSIyXkphc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>When an athlete swings upside down atop a 7-meter (23-foot) pendulum, it may seem like a feat of strength, courage or technique. A new study suggests it is something more fundamental: a striking demonstration of how intelligence emerges from the interaction of brain, body and environment.<\/p>\n<p>In a paper <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/10.1007\/s00332-026-10267-7\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in the <i>Journal of Nonlinear Science<\/i>, Harvard researchers use mathematics, physics and control theory to analyze kiiking, an extreme sport invented in Estonia in which athletes pump a giant swing until they complete a full rotation.<\/p>\n<p>At one level, the problem appears straightforward. The athlete repeatedly stands and squats to inject energy into the swing. Yet this simple action inspires a question that reaches far beyond sport, touching neuroscience, robotics, biology and human performance: How does an organism learn to exploit the dynamics of its environment to achieve a goal?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When an athlete swings upside down atop a 7-meter (23-foot) pendulum, it may seem like a feat of strength, courage or technique. A new study suggests it is something more fundamental: a striking demonstration of how intelligence emerges from the interaction of brain, body and environment. In a paper published in the Journal of Nonlinear [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2229,47,219,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biological","category-mathematics","category-neuroscience","category-physics","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243310\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}