Hello , welcome to my friends to your free and detailed guide to the joints of your tori.

First of all, we'll start from Bottom to top, (Pictures included)

Feet/Ankles

In my personal opinion, these aren't that important unless you pair these joints with other leg parts, such as when you contract knees (which I will show later). Also, changing these can help your kicks land better onto a foe.

Blue/Uke (On the left) is contracting his feet. This points the feet upwards, raising them which will allow you to lean forward.
Red/Tori (On the right) is extending his feet. This pushes the feet downwards, mostly used when going to jump forward with your knees, or landing in an arched positon.

Knees
The knees are definitely one of the handy joints, so to say. They allow you to do many things from kicks, mostly landing properly without disqualifying.

Blue/Uke (On the left) Here uke is extending his knees. This pretty much does as it states, keeping the legs straight but very sensitive. I have found that a kick to knee knocking it inwards tends to result in a break when extended.
Red/Tori (On the right) As I stated earlier, extending your ankles allows you to vault forward with your knees shown - What contract knees will do is pound your feet to your thigh area, allowing you to clamp people sometimes and cut them in half, or able to get into massive jumps when landing with your knees near to the ground and feet near your bum then extending. When contracted and then extended, a kick has tremendous power.

Hips
Possibly my favorite joint, for the fact they have saved me so many times in risky areas. If not that, these are the keys to the majority of kicks (And my loveable nukems )


Blue/Uke (On the left) Here uke is extending his hips. Also, if you didnt notice, his feet are extended, like the knees if you extend the feet and hips they tend to vault you forward allowing jumps of sorts. This will also allow you to land in arched positions keeping DQ parts of the ground.
Red/Tori (On the right) is contracting his hips, pushing his hips closer to his chest area allowing him to later either extend his hips doing flips and vaulting him into the air, or simply keep tilting his upper body downwards. From an extended backwards leg, if you contract it will swing it forward resulting in a kick.

Extra : A bonus about the hips, when one is contracted and the other is extended, they go further their way than when both are going the same way, unless you have extended hips + extended abs.

Glutes
These are definitely confusing joints, When I started toribash I had no idea what they were in general! Now they are my friends <3, These are good for dodging, saving, and getting side kicks on people.

Blue/Uke (On the left) is contracting his glutes. This forces your legs inwards into each other, this can be essential in jousting.
Red/Tori (On the right) is extending his glutes. This forces your legs outwards into that split position, a good way to dodge, land, and scissor kick people.

Abs
The abs do little functions which affect you in a big way, arching your player downwards, and upwards. If you're going for an upward kick, extending would make it go higher and faster, same with a downwards kick but with contraction.

Blue/Uke (On the left) is extending his abs. This arches your player backwards. When extending your hips this allows them to go further back as well.
Red/Tori (On the right) is contracting his abs. This allows your player to go more "compact", closing him to his legs and making him harder to hit. Good for dodging.

Lumbars
The lumbar simply tilts your player left or right, quite a simple function that affects how you swing in from things.

Blue/Uke (On the left) is bending his lumbar left. Thusly, he swings left, tilting his right hand higher and his left hand lower. This is essential for most grabs, and most side kicks.
Red/Tori (On the right) is bending his lumbar right. Thusly, he swings right, tilting his left hand higher and his right hand lower. This is essential for most grabs, and most side kicks.

Chest
The chest rotates your Tori left and right, similar to the lumbar but by spinning.

Blue/Uke (on the left) is rotating his chest right, Thus his top half spins right.
Red/Tori (On the right) is rotating his chest left, Thus his top half spins left.

Note: Spinning your chest to the right moves your LEFT hand closer to the opponent. You never want to accidentally spin the wrong way.

Pec's
Your pecs are the keys to punching and landing on your back, they allow you to land in the arched back position and keep DQ areas off the ground.

Blue/Uke (On the left) is contracting his pecs. This swings his arms inwards for a punch or grab.
Red/Tori (On the right) is extending his pecs. This swings them outwards so he can land backwards.

Shoulders
Shoulders allow you to position your arms up and down.

Blue/Uke (On the left) is lowering his shoulders. It pretty much does what it says
Red/Tori (On the right) is raising his shoulders. It pretty much also does what it says

Elbows
Elbows are the keys to what I call "hugging" and to staying up + recovering from falling positions.

Blue/Uke (On the left) is extending his elbow. This keeps it straight, like the knees if this was kept still and punched backwards it would easily shatter.
Red/Tori (On the right) is contracting his elbow. This closes it in closer to his shoulder, allowing you to pull people in.

Note: Elbows, like knees, are fast and powerful. If you're grabbing someone, contract your elbow a little before you make contact and you will do MUCH more damage (but if done too soon, you could just miss and hit yourself, so timing is key)

Hands+Wrists
The hands are keys to grabbing people, whereas the wrists can do many things, such as in a grab allowing you to properly extend a elbow, or helping pull people in with a contraction.

Blue/Uke (On the left) is extending his hand. This moves it behind his forearm a bit, allowing for a longer range attack. He also has it on grab, so if it makes contact with a part (Of either player) it will result in gripping and holding on.
Red/Tori (On the right) is contracting his hand. This pulls it inwards and allows for a powerful contraction of elbows into the chest (Aka the hug ) And pulling other's hands off in a grip war :O!!.

Neck
The neck is a good thing to use in headbutts (Duh?).

Blue/Uke (On the left) is contracting his neck. This closes it in to his chest. I find if you do this when going in for a headbutt, It reduces the chance of YOUR decap, and increases theirs. Also in nukems it tends to give a bit of a "power surge", allowing for a better/faster kick.
Red/Tori (On the right) is extending his neck. This pushes it outwards and further up. It can help to move your upper body backwards slightly, which is good for the beginning of any upwards kick. It also can move your head just barely out of the way of a grab, punch, or kick... but I wouldn't depend on it.

Well, that's my detailed guide <3, Hope it helps you out

Edit: Fixed more spelling things. Good job though.

Awesome, you got them all. This is definitely worth karma... must of taken a while.

The ankles are good for making your kicks hit more nicely...
Contracting Glutes is essential in some really good jousting moves...
Contracting Abs will give your kicks more of a, erm, kick...
The neck I've found isn't too useful, but it is a nice modifier if you need a slightly higher/lower punch...

P.S. I'm a master of headbutts... too bad I get headaches easily...

Thanks Took me about 2 hours.

Im guessing the people that know the answers to the two questions i put in there wont actually properly read it ,

But i need a better use for the contraction of the glute and the neck, And what the benefits of them are, and if you have any suggestions just post them in this topic .

EDIT: I added that sumo thanks Can delete the under post if you want now =D.

Nice, I can tell this took effort and time. Karma power

pretty kool, this will help noobs with how to play ...... good job

Nice. I like. Very helpful.

I just found another use for the neck... in nukems and such, it gives a bit of power extended...

I added to a couple of the sections, you had extend/contract neck mixed up, I added in a use for extending neck, and fixed every spelling/grammar error in there.

Sorry, lol... I just couldn't help myself ;)


Edit: Stop quoting entire tutorials. :P

It's an awesome guide to help out newer players.
The 'paint' made circles, make it look a little rushed.

But that is my only critiscm, nice work.

Breakfast :P, Go on your toribash and do extend and contract ;), I didnt get them mixed up. In my toribash anyway thats what theyve done since 1.98, Extend is contracting - Weird =/.