I'm not sure if I'm thinking of the same movement you are – my instructor calls them "downs." It's like a pseudo-maya. Half maya, then stop?

Thinking of it in those terms, it's the same muscles as in the maya, then a tight squeeze to stop it sharply. Your glutes are used in the stop, as are adductors. The obliques are involved, too.

I'm sorry, I'm not as good at the anatomy as some are. I want to find out if this is the move you're talking about.

I call these "downs" or "hard downs" to distinguish them from the hip drops that are the same move as hip lifts just timed and emphasized slightly differently. :)

And...! It depends on your teacher!!!

Suhaila format and anyone who comes from that line will teach them as a single glute squeeze on the unweighted side (a squeeze on the glute that's attached to the foot that's in the air).

Others teach it as an oblique contraction, again on the unweighted side. You /think/ it's a "pushing down" on the same side as the down hip (the weighted side), but it's not. It really is a contraction of the opposite oblique -- the oblique on the unweighted side.

Does that make sense? I teach these at the same time in my classes to show my students how different these moves really are -- and it's subtle, but so very different.

i usually think of the oposite hip as coming up and into the center line, using that oblique. pulling the up hip in makes the down hip go out some, and so it looks how i'm trying to make it look. anyway, i use my oblique...... maybe the latisimus dorsi (sp?) is helping? but i don't think i use it much and would have made it sore by now if it was....
happy hips ^_^

If you're talking about a single "hip drop" it is just the contraction of the opposite glute (glute opposit of the hip you want to "drop"). For example - if you want to do a right hip drop, stand weighted on your left leg, knee slightly bent, and contractt your left glute to "drop" your right hip. No oblilques should be involved.

If you are talking about a downward hip walking movement (sometimes known as singles on the down, or downward hip, or piston hips), you squeez the opposite glute from the leg that you are weighted on. For example, step right and simultaneously squeeze left glute, step left and simultaneously squeeze right glute.