Human skeleton.

The axial skeleton consists of the skull, ribcage, and vertebral column. These bones are mainly irregular (vertebrae) or flat (skull, ribcage) in structure. The axial skeleton gives your body stability and helps generate some of its movements. You couldn't assume your typical posture or maintain body position without your axial skeleton. Some of the movements your axial skeleton helps to generate include the golf swing, tennis serve, fastball pitch in baseball, and fast bowl in cricket.

View videos of a tennis player serving or a golfer swinging a club. Use the Play button to start the video. You can also examine the video a frame at a time with the Step Forward and Step Back buttons.