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Old 09-20-2007, 08:52 AM   #33
Mike Sigman
Location: Durango, CO
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,123
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Re: The Wave Motion/Theory

Quote:
Timothy Walters Kleinert wrote: View Post
When you "pulse" from the center, does the power/energy travel from the body down the arm to the hand? Or is the entire movement a coordinated, simultaneous action? What I mean is, back in my karate days, I would snap my hips, then a split-second later the power/energy would transfer to my arm and my hand would start moving.
Well, to cut to the chase and to keep it focused, let me just try to reiterate my perhaps poorly-made point: A "wave" or "towel snap" can pop someone, but it's not really all that powerful unless it is supported by something akin to that rod I mentioned in the other post. That "rod" can represent the path from the hands to the ground that someone like Tohei, O-Sensei, and others demonstrates when they show they are "immoveable", etc. An empty wave isn't all that powerful; a wave riding along a supporting path is powerful as an assist. You don't really need a wave in most cases, if you can store power along that path, bear in mind.

If you use a "wave", you're obviously doing what is called "sequential movement". The thing about sequential movement is that it's more or less what a whip does and one factor has to be in common.... if the "connection" between all the segments isn't good, the power is lost. If you snap your hips and then you only trigger off the hip snap, you haven't done much. If your body connection is good, the hip snap actually does the work and the torque across the torso will throw the arm out. That's the difference between actually using the center to strike and triggered sequential movement.
Quote:
After you, err... "pulse outward" with your center, do you actively "retract"? Back in my karate days---and earlier in this thread---it was advised that one should pull the hand or foot backwards after the strike. (There's a certain tactical advantage to this, but it's hard for me to see how it contributes to power generation.)
Depends. It's a discussion about Impulse. If I want to hurt someone, I tend to make the contact very short and very sharp. If I just want to bounce someone back for a demo, I maintain contact much longer so that it becomes simply a momentum transfer.

Best.

Mike
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