Power vs. Control

A recent discussion I had prompted me to write about training for increased power vs. training of control. I believe that martial arts in general trains people to strike with power, focuses on how to increase your power, focus to drive through your targets, etc. I agree that it is important to execute your techniques properly to generate power including how to set your stance, how to use your entire body, how to turn your waist, how to set your fist or foot, when to tense your muscles etc. All of these things come together to allow you to generate power in your strikes.

I believe it is more of an art to put all of these things together but stop your technique just at the point of impact each and every time. Total control of your techniques to the point of always being able to do damage but never doing damage is much more impressive. Of course you may face a time that you need to defend yourself and need to follow through but if you can control it, you can un-control it. On the surface this may seem straight forward but in sparring, nothing is standing still. You are controlling strikes where your opponent is advancing or you are advancing or the opponent changes direction, etc. All of these things add further complication to controlling the technique. With experience, it is ideal to be able to adjust in mid-strike and further shorten or adjust the point of impact of your strike. The final challenge to this is controlling all of the techniques without slowing down and leaving yourself open during the strike.

Happy sparring.

Turning It On

One of the things that can happen for those that are always practicing controlled fighting is they do not get into situations where there is a need to fight full out, strike at full power or defend against full power strikes. As we train in Kung Fu we need to understand that we need to be able to flick the switch when needed but only when needed. If a situation arises where you NEED to take action, you should completely commit to the situation. Based on the type of class I teach, I believe that my students would not be the aggressor in an altercation but there is a good chance that someone will have an altercation at some point in their lives. The ideal situation in that event is for the student to be calm and controlled until action is needed. Once the switched is turned on, it should continue until there is no longer a threat. There are many variables that go into the decision of when exactly to react and that can be discussed with your fellow students or instructor.

Body Coordination For Power

Generation of power can be maximized through properly coordinating the moving parts of your body to lock at the same time. You generate power by striking outward very quickly with your arm. You generate power by pulling back with your non-striking arm. You generate power by turning your waist. You generate power by pushing off with your legs while gripping the ground. These are some of the individual things that you can do to generate power in your strike. The big trick is to do all of these individual things at the same time and have them coordinate so the peak power in each individual component occurs at the exact same moment. Turning your waist followed by extending your arm results in a technique where you only use the power of your arm because the waist turn finished before you began your technique. The ideal situation has all of the components of your technique ending at the same time resulting in your hips, arms, legs, shoulders all locking at the same time. Think about this when you are executing your techniques and your power will increase.

Generating Power in Fut Gar Kung Fu

Students of my school will understand that generation of striking power in Fut Gar Kung Fu is different from the generation of power of most other Martial Arts styles. Fut Gar does not use a Gung Bo (Front/Bow Stace) in its hand forms. The theory is that pushing your weight forward into a Gung Bo to generate power will produce too much forward momentum which allows another martial artist to pull you off balance with a quick grab and pull.

Generation of power in Fut Gar Kung Fu comes from a combination of pulling backwards with your non-striking arm and turning at the waist. Pulling back the non-striking arm should be done as hard as possible as if you were throwing an elbow strike. Grandmaster Chen Rong En speaks about Leung Tin Chiu as someone who would create a snapping sound every time he pulled his arm back. As students train in Fut Gar they will be instructed on where the elbow should end up based on the strike being thrown. The pull will generally be in the exact opposite direction of the strike being thrown. The back should be kept straight and the body should pivot on an axis that is straight up and down.