This month I have picked a quote by Colin Wee. A great blogger and a very knowledgeable Martial Artist. I am lucky enough to call him a friend, and we have had many great chats together about the martial arts (at least I think they are great). Each time we chat I find myself taking notes and some time ago we chatted a lot about power generation. We who practise Taekwondo practise essentually a striking system (there is grappling etc, but main strategy is striking) so power generation should be at the forefront of our training. Choi Hong Hi wrote a lot of good stuff about this, but Colin somehow got all of that into one short quote which is quite profound.... When the year is over I plan to gather all the quotes of the month into one long post and I am sure that eventhough other quotes have been said by "legendary" masters, this quote by Colin will still stand out as pure genious:-)
"We need to take [our] body mass, set it in motion, accelerate it,
and transmit this power through the end limb
and inject it into the opponent."
- Colin Wee
Author of "Traditional Taekwondo Techniques Blog "
If we look at the wolrld of sport, we find the first step to step on is actually the motivation arrow towards up or straight ahead. What do I mean with up is that we as sportlers or Tekwondo practicers, would like to develope ourselves or ou kicks not only straight ahead but also high up. It is the transforming way of our energy to the opponent upper part, middle part or even any part of his body. So actually when we kick, it is true that we kick with our feet, but the truth is that when we kick we are one unity with our body, no doubt in order to produce an enorm power for this kick, till later arrive our opponen then it is massage from our mass body to our opponent.Please visite my homepage:www.kung-fu-schweiz.ch, and enjoy reading the articles written about Wing Chun Kung fu, you can also enjoy watching the videos about Bruce Lee and Ip Man, the Trainer of Bruce Lee.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good quote for taekwondo player.
ReplyDeletethis is of course, quite true, and is in the main the way most of tkd's use of energy is demonstrated. it does however leave out another component that is equally important--that of "spiraling or circular" energy generation. it is hard to illustrate just in words but is found at the advanced level of most hand to hand combat arts. the effect is more like a whipping type of strike than a heavy mass moving forward. it is useful because of the way it propagates a shock wave into the body. the two methods feel entirely different when you receive them.
ReplyDeleteActually I believe he covers both:-) If you read it again from a whipping type Power generation (if I understand what you mean as you say it is difficult to explain in Words) point of view I think you will agree. You still need to do what he says although in a more relaxed manner and different way than what you usually see demonstrated by Taekwondoin (e.g lunge forward and punch vs throwing a punch using Your hips and relaxing Your arm like a whip).
Deletehello
ReplyDeleteactually no, i don't think he does. the fact that he shifts his weight from the back stance he starts in towards the front foot is part of it. while this is the most common way that power is put into punching from a back stance it negates the rotational component that available. if you stand in front of the makiwara in back stance as he does, but instead of moving to the front foot, you drop (flex) the rear knee, you will find that your torso will rotate towards the target. your weight doesn't shift forward, it rotates around the spinal center. you will be surprised at the power that can be generated this way it is very useful for up close techniques, throws, locks, etc. that is one way of spiral energy. if i can figure out how to do it, i will post my you tube of "wave forms" with his Facebook post. please understand that this is not meant as a criticism of his excellent discussion, i just want to show other methodologies. i am curious as to how many incorporate these different approaches in their practice.