What is karate physically

The following articles are an explanation of the efficient application of physics to human physiology, with the observance of economy of energy.

These articles will in no wise exhaust the subject.

Firstly we will examine the waste of energy due to an error in tactics according to economy of energy in motion.

Kicking:

– a defender would not turn to an opponent attacking from his right side to execute a front kick on him. He would use side kick.

– Neither would he turn to use a side kick on an aggressor attacking from his front. He would use front kick.

– He would certainly never turn all the way around, one hundred eighty degrees, to use a back kick on an aggressor moving in from the front.

This motion takes more time than necessary, and wastes much energy, as well as putting the kicker in a compromised position to defend against any other aggressors present, not to mention the possibility of missing the target. One would never consider using such a move if required to defend one’s self in an elevator, or in the aisle of an airliner.

– On the other hand, if an attacker was directly behind you, back kick would be one of the most effective techniques to employ.

There would be no wasted motion used by turning to face an opponent that can be dispatched just as effectively without turning toward him, unless there was some other good reason to turn to face him.

Blocking:

Karate blocking techniques involve deflecting the offending force away from the target, as opposed to setting a barrier in front of the target. In a self-defense situation, the forces are too concentrated by the bare knuckles,or the foot edge, or the weapon to try to protect the vital areas by covering the target with hands or forearms, or the shins. The oncoming force, in many cases will break those bones, which will then present an opening for the aggressor to finish his work.

On the other hand, a good deflecting block will put the offender off balance, thereby temporarily rendering him vulnerable to a counter attack.

It is a waste of energy to execute a block, carrying the oncoming force farther off target than is necessary. This is an error in form

One only needs to deflect the offending technique far enough to avoid contact with the body, and only that far, no farther.

It is an error in tactics to block a technique, and body shift to avoid the technique. That breaks the law of economy of energy. There are some assaults that cannot be blocked, and body shifting is the only right way to avoid getting hit by them. A bullet for instance, or a motor vehicle, or a taser.

Blocking is faster than body shifting, and therefore the timing can be delayed slightly in relation to the timing of the attacker as opposed to shifting.

As I said earlier, there may be an exception to these rules of efficiency depending upon some certain situation.

I offer the following case study as an example of breaking the rules of efficiency for a purpose.

For many years, I have used the blocking, and counter striking of Tekki Shodan to teach an intermediate lesson in blocking power, and target selection.

I start my students learning kata applications after they learn their first kata. I lift four moves out of each kata, and use them in ippon kihon kumite.At this level, the defender always steps back to block, and then counter. This diminishes the power of everybody’s technique in an attempt to avoid injury,while learning the lessons of technique, distance, timing, balance, stance stability, etc.

At san kyu, a change is made. At this time I teach Tekki Shodan. One of the applications that I draw from it is the uchi-uke, uraken uchi combination.(skipping over the nagashi uke for now) This is techniques 8 and 9 of KataTekki Shodan in Sugiyama’s book 25 Shotokan Kata.

I teach the defender to face the attacker in hachiji dachi, and when the attack is made, (in this example with a right chudan oi-zuki) rather than stepping backwards, to step half of the kiba dachi with the right foot,stepping half of the width of the stance, and then as the left uchi uke is made, stepping the remainder of the width of the stance with the left foot.

This greatly increases the power of the block. The attacker is rocked by the strike on his forearm, both physically, and mentally. Not only does the uchi uke block the attack, but “puts a hurt” on the forearm of the offending hand. In a real situation, this may be all that is necessary to end a confrontation from an aggressor.

If not, then the back fist strike of the kata can be executed on a vital spot one kun (the width of a finger) below the eyebrow of the attacker,straight up from the pupil of the eye. (This is a “special point”taught to me by a Tai Chi practitioner.)

This teaches two lessons; that of augmentation of power by body shifting,and that a block can be a strike. As the student becomes acquainted with these principles, the training will become serious. Both the attacker and defender will now graduate to a higher level where the attacker will actually try to make contact on the target, rather than to pull the punch. Of course the defender will always pull his counter technique with no contact.

In my curriculum, this is upper level brown belt training.

This level of training changes everything, physically and mentally. This is done in preparation for the next, even more serious phase of ippon kihonkumite.

Punching with oi-zuki:

I will illustrate the point of expansion and contraction of energy, with no waste of energy, with the following explanation. Please pay attention to the asterisks () as they denote common errors in form at this point.

In the following explanation, imagine if you will, the last oi-zuki in Heian Shodan. The old way of doing this series was to give one command, for the last two steps of oi-zuki going down the “H”. A more up to date method is to give a command for each step.

1. As the step begins there will be a tightening of the hara (lower abdomen). There will be the slightest drawing of the hips forward. This creates a solid foundation for the legs to attach to the upper body which will carry the punching arm.

2. As the forward leg begins to pull the hips forward, the rear leg will push the hips forward. While locked in the forward stance, the rear leg is not completely straight, but slightly bent due to the fact that the hips need to be square to properly make a stance. Because of this fact, the thigh muscle of the rear leg still has some flexibility to push against the floor, aided in this effort by the calf of the rear leg. Everything will snap at the same time. As the pressure begins to be applied, the forward knee will draw inward slightly towards the imaginary line of the center of balance.

If the student is in the habit of waggling his front foot at this point,it is an error in form. To break friction with the floor at this point defeats the purpose of applying pressure to the floor through the leg and foot. In addition to this, in an engagement it telegraphs the move before it is made. Itis wasted motion, breaking the rule of “economy of energy”.

* If the center of balance moves off of the “center of balance line”, it is an error in form. The vector forces of physics do not flow directly toward the target for the duration of the entire movement, therefore the total inertia generated by the step will not be available on target at the moment of impact.

* If the hips rise and fall through the step, the vector forces are no tmoving directly at the target during the entire duration of the step.

3. As the rear foot passes the forward foot, the upper body is reaching it’s maximum velocity. It could be said that this step is a “one step run”as it should be executed with maximum effort.

Now that the upper body has reached maximum velocity, the punch is launched.With the speeding platform of the upper body as a foundation, the fist will now continue to accelerate to greater and greater speed to the completion of the punch.

Through practice, it will be coordinated to be almost fully extended, and to make contact on the target just before the inertia of the body is checked by the completion of the stance.

* If the shoulder of the punching arm is extended, or raised, energy will escape from these places because of errors in form.

* If the bones of the arm and the fist is not lined up properly, or if the elbow of the punching arm was allowed to fly too far from the body, then the vector forces will not be running in the proper direction to capture the maximum amount of inertia to place on the target.

One can see this problem demonstrated in an arrow shot from a bow that wobbles in flight. There is a reduction in the amount of inertia on the target if the back of the arrow does not follow the tip of the arrow. It is the same with the forearm of the punching hand.

* If the punching arm is held in the wrong position, too high, or too low,or not fully withdrawn, then the maximum number of muscle groups cannot be employed to launch the punch. This is an error in form, from the physiological point of view.

4. At this point, what was the rear foot has become the front foot. It is stretching forth, seeking it’s foot position on the floor. As it has moved from it’s rear position to it’s front position in an arc, it sweeps through the line of the center of balance. It does not touch the floor, but if there were a grain of sand laying on the floor in it’s path, it would touch that grain of sand.

5. All during this time that the front foot is seeking it’s position for the coming stance, what has now become the rear leg is pushing the hips forward,accelerating the body toward the target.

6. In the last quarter of the step, the rear foot begins to turn into it’s terminal position. It does not turn on the ball of the foot, nor on the heel of the foot, but in the middle of the foot, the outside edge of the rear foot becoming the driving force of the lower body’s inertia in the last instant of the lunge.

7. The stance locks into position. The pressure is out on the knees, with the hips swung to the center of balance. At the same time, all of the muscles in the body are tensed for the instant that the energy is transferred to the target. This is called “focus” in English, or “kime” in Japanese. It is this phenomenon that gives karate it’s great striking power.

If all things are in order at this point, and there is no energy leakage due to bad form, then in addition to the applied power, there will be striking power generated by Newton’s third law of motion, greater than the original equation. Although it will be subject to the law of diminishing returns, it isan important factor, especially with a counter-attack using gyaka-zuki.

* If the hips are not swung to the center of balance when the stance is complete, not only will the punch not transfer the total of the force generated, but also when the reaction force comes back from the target, it will escape through the hips, and the puncher will “be seated”.

* It is a common error to fail to tighten the muscles of the hips,especially the gluteus maximus (the butt muscles).

8. With all things working together according to proper body mechanics, the punch is applying the laws of physics in it’s generation of striking power

    a. by capturing the inertia of the forward motion of the body mass,

    b. by accelerating that mass to faster speed, creating exponentially greater inertia with greater velocity,

    c. by applying the strength of the entire body musculature to the final equation

    d. by stability of position, the reaction force from contact with the mass of the target will return from the floor, through thebody to the fist with an additional jolt of energy.

One can read a paragraph about this subject in Mr. Nishiyama’s book Karate The Art of Empty Hand Fighting page 19,  (the bottom of the page)”utililzing reaction-force”.

Having said all that, the instructor can test the sum of the parts, minus the last point (d), with a simple test.

Instruct the student to perform a fully developed and extended oi-zuki on the instructor, and by judging the distance, pull the punch one inch short of the solar plexus, holding the “focus” after his punch, as it is going to be tested.

The instructor stands directly in front of the student. Just as the punch completes, lean your abdomen into the fist, at the same time taking hold of the wrist of the punching arm. The student will not be able to tell if the instructor is going to pull the arm with his hand, or push with his abdomen. If anything is out of alignment, or is not focused, then it will show up as weakness at this time.

If everything is in order on the first attempt, reverse the direction of the push/pull, as a stable position should be stable in both directions.

Another exercise to test the sum of the power generation during the delivery of the punch is use gyaka-zuki. The instructor will place his hand on the withdrawn fist, and on command the student will execute gyaka-zuki, raising the weight of the instructor. If the stance is proper, then the weight of the instructor can be raised. If an error in form has been made, the leakage of energy will be apparent, and failure to raise the weight will result.

If the reader would like to examine point “d” above:

using gyaka-zuki, have a helper swing a heavy bag toward the puncher,hitting the bag with the punch just as it reaches full vertical position on the swing. The inertia supplied by the weight of the bag hitting the force of the punch head on will easily demonstrate the reactive power delivered by proper stance, and proper kime. This is important to be understood when playing therole of a defender, as it is the inertia of the oncoming mass of the attacker’s body that will supply the majority of the force present on the target at the moment of impact.

Another experiment to convince a skeptic of the power present in point”d” would be to have the skeptic hold the end of a bo staff, jo, or shinai on his solar plexus, and challenge him to, taking two running steps, run into the wall of the dojo. Since the wall is not “punching back” the only force present will be the force generated by the inertia of the body of the skeptic. One can readily see how much force is already present just by making a proper stance, and technique, and timing. Add the equation of the punch and the forces of the head on collision build rapidly.

In summary, if the student stresses the importance of efficiency in the execution of the basics of Shotokan karate, his body will find that efficiency through hard, repetitive training if he will strive to always do each move to his very best ability. There is no short answer to learning these things. It is rote learning, that is, learning by repetition. Only work, and concentration,and practice will produce the end results of physics applied to physiology,under the restraint of economy.