Power Generation
The rear hand punch can effectively be broken into 3 primary contributors to punching force: (a) the contribution from the arm musculature into the target, (b) the rotation of the trunk, and (c) the drive off the ground by the legs.(1)
-Arm velocity
-Trunk rotation
-Leg driving off the ground
Importance of Leg Drive
There is some conflict in current research as to whether leg drive or preimpact hand velocity is the greater contributor to punching power. Investigating other sports, which follow roughly similar movement patterns, the importance of the contribution of the lower body is seen throughout the literature. These findings indirectly support the conclusions about the importance of leg drive to develop punching forces.
There are two main elements to striking with footwork. They are 1) the type of step taken and 2) how the step is coordinated with the striking arm.
1) Type of step
There are essentially two types of steps used when striking: shuffling and shifting
a. shuffling involves taking small steps. The idea is to move without sacrificing your stance.
b. shifting is when you take a full step while punching. This allows for a great deal of movement but is also risky in that you are less balanced while moving.
2) Coordinating steps with the striking arm
There are two ways you can coordinate your step with the striking arm. Same side stepping and opposite side stepping.
a. Same Side Stepping is when you step with the same side as the striking arm.
b. Opposite Side Stepping is when you step with the foot opposite the striking arm.
Example: In this video the striker uses shuffling steps with same side stepping while moving forward and opposite side footwork while moving backward.
Home Invasion Son shoots home invasion suspect in the head while sisters hide in closet at SW Houston home -"Police say three suspects pistol whipped a father, 39, as he arrived at the home, forcing him to open the door. Police said the armed suspects were hiding in the bushes waiting for the man to come home." Example of criminals using the 'Approach while returning home' method of entry.
The rear straight punch is commonly referred to as the cross. It is generally more powerful than the jab due to the rotation of the hips in conjunction with the foot pushing off the floor but is slower than the jab due to the greater distance between your rear hand and your opponent.
The hammerfist is a strike using the bottom or pinky side of a clenched fist. It is a powerful strike which can be thrown from a variety of angles.
One advantage to the hammerfist is that you are striking with the bottom fleshy part of the fist instead of the knuckles, thus reducing the chance of injuring your hand. It's also picked up by new students quickly as it's a fairly simple technique to learn.
Various types of hammerfist include:
1. Side Hammerfist/Horizontal Hammerfist
a) The basic side hammerfist is used to attack an opponent standing off to your side. *technique example
b) This hammerfist can also be used against an opponent in front of you whenever your hand crosses your center line. One example would be as a followup to a hook.
Andrei Arlovski following up the hook with a hammerfist
2. Forward Hammerfist
Generally used as a strike to the face. *technique example
3. Downward Hammerfist
Used whenever your opponent is lower than you, such as when they are doubled over or have fallen to the ground. There are a ton of examples of its use in mma against a downed opponent.
Raise your hand so that the heel of your palm or curled knuckles is braced against the back side of your head.
-When defending against a hooking punch, your arm is maximally bent at the elbow so that the wrist of your blocking arm is close to your ear.
*technique example
-When defending against a straight punch, you can use the same technique as above adjusted by slightly turn in to protect your face. Another variation is to place the palm of your blocking hand on your forehead.
Here Andrei Arlovski covers against the jab, cross
Covers can also be used to block against hooks to the body. Tutorial
There are three primary distinctions that can be made in regards to the distance between you and your opponent: Fighting Measure, Brim of Fire and the Critical Distance Line.
Fighting measure
Is the distance between a fighter and his opponent which puts him just out of range of his opponents attack. It is easier to defend against an opponents attack at this range as he or she must first take a step forward to reach you, thus providing you more time to respond.
Brim of fire
Is the distance at which your opponent can strike without moving forward because the critical distance line has been crossed.
Critical distance line
The imaginary line between the fighting measure and the brim of fire line.
Bridging the gap
Occurs when one opponent close the space between the fighting measure. The gap is bridged when either one or the other opponent moves past the fighting measure into striking distance.
"The Kali people often use the circle to organize their hand and foot movements. A defending Kali man, for instance, may step around his opponent to position himself in “safety zones.” These safety zones are places where the opponent has either not had time to gain momentum in his strike, a zone that would jam his strike before it begins (position "a" in the diagram), or where his strike has reached the end of its motion (position "b").
From the book The Filipino Martial Arts by Dan Inosanto
Used to block or deflect punches by rolling your shoulder and leaning back. To execute, tuck your chin into your lead shoulder, rotate your shoulder inward while leaning back to move your head out of range. Your lead shoulder should be higher than your rear.
Aliveness
As far as I know, aliveness is a term first used by Bruce Lee and later greatly expanded upon and promoted by Matt Thornton back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Thornton defines aliveness as training with resistance using energy, timing and motion.1 "Movement means real footwork, not contrived, not in a pattern... on the ground it means exactly that also... movement... if the person is just laying there, not moving as you apply your lock or move....that is not Alive. In the clinch its the same... pushing, pulling, moving. Timing is of course just that... if its in a predictable rhythm, a pattern, a repeatable series of sets, then you are not acquiring or developing timing, just motion speed.
And of course energy... swing the stick like someone would really swing it... don't stop at centerline. Punch with the energy of someone who wants to hit you. Not locking your arm out so your partner can look good doing the destruction, or trap, or silat sweep, etc."2
Aliveness is essentially the training principle which focuses on including the non-compliance/resistance element of real fighting while still trying to preserve an acceptable level of safety.
Why Aliveness is Important Feedback
There are a number of reasons aliveness is important. First, this type of training provides a method of testing the efficacy of your techniques by providing feedback. Someone who only practices their techniques in the air or by hitting a bag will not know if what they are doing will truly work because they have nothing to judge its effectiveness against. The same holds true when training with a partner that only reacts in a cooperative manner. Resisting opponents provide us with opportunities to run little experiments. If our technique works, then we give it more credence. If it doesn't, then we analyse it to figure out what went wrong or decide whether it should be discarded. The point here is that without these little experiments we are only left with our imagination and beliefs to judge our abilities.
Additionally, many of the aspects of what truly makes our individual techniques work can only be learned through resistance training. For instance, to really get a feel of what the correct distance should be between you and your opponent (referred to as the fighting measure in Jeet Kune Do) requires lots of sparring with lots of different body types. When students are first introduced to sparring they typically stand too close to their opponent (often because they are only used to hitting focus mitts or a heavy bag) or too far away (because they don't want to get hit). Because of the feedback received through training which is alive (stand too close means getting hit, too far away means you can't hit your opponent), the student is able to make adjustments which eventually lead to better fighting performance.
Toughness
Another reason aliveness is important is that it trains us to become more comfortable with roughness, aggression and chaos. Many students, when they first start sparring, experience a degree of panic and disorientation because up to that point they've had little exposure to being physically struck or manhandled. In addition, most people who have lived a life largely free from violence may themselves have an aversion to striking someone else. Over time, as the trainee puts in the hours sparring, they better learn to cope with being hit and physically roughed up and become less squeamish about striking their opponent.
Progressive Resistance & The Three Stages of Learning
Does this mean we should only spar and give up all other training methods? Of course not. In actuality, there needs to be a learning process which begins with no resistance. Resistance is then incrementally increased as development progresses. This process fits nicely with Fitts and Posner's Three Stages of Learning model which I'll use to help explain the value of progressive resistance.
When first learning a technique, students need to be able to work through the mechanics of the move unencumbered. This phase of the learning process is referred to as the Cognitive stage due to the great amount of cognitive activity required to discover and develop the component parts of the technique. The student will typically make many gross errors and perform techniques in an inconsistent manner as they try to learn the fundamental movement patterns. Resistance at this point will only slow development and frustrate the trainee.
Once a basic level of proficiency is achieved, the student moves into the Associative stage and resistance is added. The student displays fewer errors and has to devote less attention in the performance of techniques. While the cognitive stage is fairly short, the associative stage can be quite long and some students may never move beyond it. They are now focused on refining techniques and possess the ability to detect some of their own errors when analyzing the feedback provided from training which incorporates resistance. Adding resistance to training can be done through drills and sparring which are designed to isolate the technique or techniques being developed. Resistance should be kept to a minimum at first, then added as the student becomes more proficient. Martial arts instructor Burton Richardson uses a weightlifting analogy to explain the principle.
Imagine that you decide to sign up at a gym. (Martial arts sounded too dangerous!) You have a personal trainer to teach you how to lift correctly and get you going in the right direction. You tell the trainer that you want to work on your leg strength. She says okay, and teaches you how to do a squat. She puts a broomstick across your shoulders, feet shoulder width apart, has you keep your back straight while bending at the knees. She points out that you should sit back, almost like sitting in a chair, to avoid having your knees move out in front of your toes. Better for your knees and better for balance. After a few minutes you can duplicate the squat correctly. Now what did you actually just learn? You learned a technique. That would be like going to our JKD Unlimited/MMA for the street class and learning how to throw a solid punch. It has taken you about three minutes to learn the proper form for the technique called the squat. Now what happens? Do you just practice that technique with the broomstick for the next three years? No. Your trainer takes you to the squat rack. Why? Because you have to add resistance if you want to get stronger. Doing the technique with resistance is going to trigger the Adaptive Response. If you don’t add resistance you are not going to get stronger. If you don’t add resistance in your fight training you won’t develop fighting skill. Let’s now say that your wonderful trainer takes you to the squat rack and proceeds to load the bar with 300 pounds! What is going to happen if you try to squat that much your first day? You are going to break something. Why? TOO MUCH RESISTANCE! You have to start with just enough resistance to make the effort slightly difficult. This causes your body to adapt. You go in the following week and you can add a little more resistance. Over time, depending on your goals, you may be able to squat with 300 pounds. The exact same theory of Progressive Resistance holds true for our fight training. Too much resistance is counterproductive. You will actually be worse off by adding too much resistance than not training at all. Instead, the trick is to add enough resistance so that it is slightly difficult to apply your technique. As you improve, you add more resistance. The amount you end up training with depends upon your goals.4
After a great deal of practice and experience, the trainee moves into the final stage of learning referred to as the Autonomous Stage. At this point, the trainee can perform most of their techniques without thinking about them consistently and with very few errors. Resistance remains an important component of training as it provides the feedback necessary for the trainee to fine tune movements and work on higher level tactics and strategies. At this level it is important to have a wide variety of skilled training partners.
Larry Hartsells USA JKD Camp -96
JKD Concept Philosophy
-Honesty
Goal
-To be a complete martial artists. This means:
1) being Functional
2) in all Ranges of combat
3) with or without Weapons
4) against one or Multiple opponents
5) who are either Armed or Unarmed
6) in a variety of Environments.
Martial Arts (what does it really consist of)
1) Ranges
2) Postures
3) Techniques @10:54
4) Attributes
5) Training Methods
