Hey wanted to just wanted to say howdy as I haven't made a blogpost in ages. Now for those of you who don't know I got the above quote from Sensei Mo in the Kung Fu vs Karate. Anyway it's an interesting point and I really like the analogy and even though it was a karate instructor that said it I believe that it applies to almost most martial arts. Now we are going to examine in detail what every component of this simple equation means and why studying may help you become a better martial artist.
Power
What is power. Is power the way you throw your strike. Is power found in a reverse punch because of the rotation of the fist and the shift of the hips or is it found in a boxers punch or is it found in a wing chun straight line punch because the punch( pretty much same idea as they throw it in the ishinryu style of karate except i think they include hip rotation). Me personally I don't think so. The reason being is because I have seen hard punches from all those different style but not only that because well if you know anything about physics you would know that Force = Mass * Acceleration.
What does the above equation have to do with anything well it's very simple. The amount of force you punches will generate will be dependant on how much of your mass you are swinging in to the punch and the speed at which your weight is moving and the weight of your arms is going to be much smaller than the mass of your upper body(via hip rotation) or the mass of your entire body (such as in the wing chun punch when you move forward into the punch and the idea is to shift your centre of mass through the target) so how you throw the punch with your arm isn't really that important what more important is that your coordinate the power from your hips or your legs with your arms acting as the final link in the chain for transmitting the force generated by your body into the target and as long as you are doing this you should be hitting with power (this coordination is what I call technique and even though most styles have their own way of punching there are similarities between a lot of them because we also have the same physiology but I will go into that later)
Now where does this power come from well it's simple your muscles. So how do you get power? Well referring back to the original equation Force = Mass X Acceleration you either increase your mass or you increase your acceleration (which is the speed at which you punch or kick in simple terms). Now you can increase your mass but even better is to increase your Acceleration. The reason for this is two fold. If you increase your acceleration not only will you punch faster (making it harder to dodge and easier to get the drop on someone when you have to defend yourself) but you will also hit harder.
So how do you increase the acceleration of your punch? Well their are numerous ways that you can do that. One suggested way is to put your muscle under maximum stress using either weight lifting or body weight exercices as If you increase your max strength you increase your bodies explosive power. This theory is presented in the book The Naked Warrior by Pavel Tsatsouline. Another theory and one that I most agree with is to focus on increasing your bodies explosive power. This idea is different from conventional weight lifting because as opposed to moving the heaviest weight that you can lift slowly and with proper form the idea here is to move a light weight (IE your fist) as fast as possible.
Exercises that are recommended for increase explosive power are: Explosive push ups, Squats, ,Uppercuts with dumbells(If you throw uppercuts),Cable Punches. By adding resistance to any motions that you would normally do you will increase your accelearation as your muscles will adapt to moving weight to moving a heavier weight at a fast speed so when your body is moving a much lighter weight (your fist) it will move faster. If you need to read some books then
Fighting Power: How To Develop Explosive Punches, Kicks, Blocks, And Grappling by Loren W. Christensen is a good one as it offers and insight into the way different styles generate power and some exercises that you may want to incorporate into your training regime such as the important of wrist strengthening exercises as your ability to hit with power is limited by the weakest point in the chain and considering most people don't train their wrists this can not only limit your ability to throw powerful punches but also result in injury if you attempt to punch someone at full force without gloves.
Technique
Technique is not something that I will go into to much detail with as depending on the style you do there technique might be different but when it comes to throwing straight punches whether you throw them reverse punch style (from the hip), or boxing punch style (from the shoulder) or whether you through it with a vertical fist(shorinji kempo, ishinryu) there are some main points to remember.
1. Keep the elbow of the punching arm tucked into to your side. This is common to almost all styles and then reason for this is simple. The majority of your power comes from your centre of mass (your body) so the closer the elbow it to your body the more strength there is (that's why certain wrist locks bring your elbow away from from your body as when your elbow is next to your body you have leverage) but it also protects your ribs.
2. Punch with your whole body and not just your arms. In boxing a person is who doesn't know how to punch properly is called an arm puncher because they don't know how to put their weight into a punch. (You can even do this with jabs please refer to either Championship Street Fighting by Ned Beaumont if you want to know how or possibly Google Falling Step principle).
Fearlessness
Now what does fearlessness mean. Does it mean not being afraid? Could mean that but only a fool wouldn't be afraid of a person with a knife in their hand who is trying to stab you. No I believe that it means to fight fearless like for example most people that die from being stabbed in the stomach generally die from shock and not the stab wound itself. It takes up to three days to die from a stab wound to the stomach so even though if your defending yourself in a knife fight even if you get stabbed you have a much better chance of surviving if you keep fighting than if you get stabbed and then give in to the shock.
This last one is the hardest to train but it means preparing yourself psychologically for an attack and the best way is to drill and drill and drill a particular scenario until you can react reflexively to it.
Summary
In conclusion i love this formula because it sums up what I think self defence should be about. Training to hit with power and speed so you can floor a would be attacked before they even get a chance to hurt you. Moral of the story. Train to hit hard and fast if you want victory which in turn could mean your life.
