Monday, June 2, 2014

One-inch punch: part 1

Bruce Lee was a polarizing force in martial arts.  People either seemed to love him or hate him, but without a doubt the man had some serious skills and also made a huge impact on the martial arts world.

One of his most famous techniques was the "one-inch punch" in which he would start by putting the fingertips of his open palm on a target, poking it.  Without drawing his hand back, he would then launch a tremendously powerful punch (closing his fist, of course).  The distance that the punch actually traveled was about one inch, hence the name of the punch.  At the time, the idea that you could launch such a strong attack without having to accelerate over a long distance was groundbreaking.

All the studies and analysis on this point to the same thing.  His entire body contributes to the speed, and subsequently the power, of this punch.  Frequent readers of my blog will see where I'm going with this...

Use your lower body!

Ok, not all styles of taiko use their lower body, but I've seen enough people who *could* but *don't* utilize the latent power of their feet, knees, thighs, and hips.  Some people are actually going the opposite direction, holding their lower body in place through tension - which is never a good idea, no matter the style.  What I'm getting at here is that there's a HUGE benefit in being active with your lower body, not just being passive and letting it move as you play.

Back to the punch.  Bio-mechanical analysis (shown here) shows how Bruce pushes off explosively from his legs, twists the hips which pushes the shoulder forward, thrusts his elbow forward, and flicks his wrist at the end.  Every motion along the way only adds to the speed and power of the punch.  He retracts immediately after contact, which makes the impact time shorter and compresses the force of the blow.  (That's also an aspect of good taiko striking; letting the bachi bounce back when you hit.)

The article I linked to talks about neuroscience and how coordination is actually what's the key here, more so than the combination of muscles working in order.  But for purposes of my post, the idea of using the entire body is the point I'm trying to make.

It's not just as simple as saying we can all get more power by using the lower body, because some taiko players already over-hit, and some strike in awkward ways that the lower body can't really contribute to.  But consider this: using the lower body can make you more efficient, make you less tired over time, help you strike faster, and add power to your hits.  You won't have to rely on arm strength (which diminishes over time), and have a much wider array of muscles to choose from as you do get tired or injured.  I see a lot of powerful youngsters (ok, not only youngsters) who can wail on a taiko quite well, but as youth/strength fades, so does the power.

There's no "Bruce Lee" of taiko, but who knows?  Maybe someday someone will come on the scene that revolutionizes how taiko is played across the board.  (One could argue some of those that started taiko in NA did just that!)  In this case though, what can we learn from one of the most iconic techniques seen in martial arts?  Yes, use the lower body - but even more, use the entire body!

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