Essential Attributes: POWER

Subject: Essential Attributes: POWER Sat Aug 18, 2007 11:39 am

Hi Everyone,
POWER. this is one of the "big four" attributes behind effective skill application (There are lots of other attributes, but the other three are speed, accuracy, timing). What are the effective ways you've found to increase your power?

Starting things off, let's define power. What's power? First of all, "power" in relation to fighting is actually a misnomer. Technically, power is defined as a measurement for the rate at which work is done. What we are looking for in terms of fighting is FORCE. Force is what we want behind our strikes.

With that said, since power is such a common, pervasive term in the martial arts/fighting world, let's stick with that for the sake of familiarity. Just know that it's force we are talking about.

FORCE=Mass X Acceleration

Translating this into a lay person's formula for combative purposes:

"POWER"=Body Mass/Weight X Body/Limb Speed

(By the way, "speed" means many things and in & of itself has several components, but we'll look at that on another thread.)

So, how can we maximize our striking power? There are several factors and nuances, but the bottom line is by putting as much of our body mass/weight behind a given strike and doing so as sequentially fast as possible.

The first way of improving your power in any given strike is by having impeccable body mechanics behind it. So, very conscientiously check your form on the strikes of choice individually and make sure you are executing each one with as perfect and coordinated form as you can. A good way of doing this is by using a full-length mirror. Another thing you can do to amplify proper feedback is to watch videos of instructors/fighters who have impeccable form, absorb it in your mind's eye then go evaluate it in front of a mirror. Better yet, if possible, have the video example play right next to your mirror and play/re-replay it over and over again as you mimic the given instructor's/fighter's movements. Do this very conscientiously until you have it down. As you are doing this, be aware of your body mechanics not only in a visual sense but also, most importantly, in a kinesthetic body sense/perception. FEEL IT. Feel the synchronization of the movements involved; the sequential torque behind the strike. Feel each step, each movement and absorb the feeling internally.

In the beginning, concentrate on quality not quantity. Perfect your form, your body mechanics when you are fresh, not fatigued.

The usual sequence of events when internalizing something goes like this:
-Unconscious Incompetence

-Conscious Incompetence

-Conscious Competence

-Unconscious Competence=meaning you can execute a given technique with optimal body mechanics in a relaxed state without having to think about it. You just do it. This is what you are striving for.

My buddy, Mick C. also pointed out a fifth "stage" for those in the teaching/training arena.

-Refletcive Competence=figuring out and being able to competently teach what you know.

That's it from me for now. More to follow...

How about any of you? What are the ways you've effectively found improved your striking power? Please share; we're all eyes...

Take Care,
Lito
_________________
The essence of true love is purposeful effort.

True happiness is attained through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Winners take chances and perceive pressure as a privilege.

Whatever you believe, it's true.

Joined : 14 Aug 2007 Posts : 22

Hi Lito

I thoroughly agree with your comments above my friend.

In addition to those points, especially when the person has the technique working for them, is to perform the movement in a relaxed state. The more relaxed you are, the more your body weight will work in your favour. A way I explain this is to imagine that you have a potential of 100% energy transfere available to you. For every bit of muscular tension you use, it means that you are using a percenatge of the energy for yourself. The greater the amount of tension used, the lesser amount of output is available. It almost like your trying to utilize 'dead weight' * like the difference between lifting a rigid body - like someone resisting - against lifting a relaxed - sleeping - body. The relaxed one feels so much heavier * Therefore, hitting someone with relaxed weight will allow a greater amount of impact.

Hope that reads right - it sounded ok in my head Neutral

Respectfully

DAVE

Admin Joined : 13 Aug 2007 Posts : 176

Great post Lito!

I have found that visualization is HUGE in developing power. As my man Dave once said, if you can pretend you are trying to waft a 30 pound weight into a target, you will eliminate muscular tension and focus on a proper delivery.

Jeff

Joined : 23 Aug 2007 Posts : 43

Great stuff guys.

Does anyone have any thoughts related to the idea that hitting people is different from hitting inanimate targets (even moving ones)? Or that hitting different parts of a person may require qualitative differences in your hitting in order to achieve best effect?

Thanks,
Ari

Subject: Re: Essential Attributes: POWER Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:49 am

Hi Ari,
I find hitting certain inanimate objects to be "harder" (in terms of density and such) than human beings. Hitting a human head is like a "hot knife cutting through butter" when compared to hitting a densely-packed 120-lb heavy bag.

In regards to your second question (which can be taken in several different directions), a concept that comes to mind at this moment which I generally adhere to is "soft weapon to hard target and hard weapon to soft target." For example, palm hook to side of the jaw/head and fisted shovel hook to floating ribs/liver/spleen.

Qualitatively, I'm all about putting as much force, as much power as I can generate into my strikes irregardless of what body weapon I'm using or target area I'm aiming for. If a situation comes down to me having to hit somebody (when all other options are exhausted or not viable), I want to crush & destroy him as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Take Care,
Lito
_________________
The essence of true love is purposeful effort.

True happiness is attained through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Winners take chances and perceive pressure as a privilege.

Whatever you believe, it's true.

Joined : 23 Aug 2007 Posts : 43

What about how that force is applied?

Just as an example, you can hit the heavy bag "hard" and cause it to swing all over the place, yet you can also hit it "hard" (actually harder) and cause it to simply dent and jump. A "powerful" hit to a person can knock him back while causing little damage, or can drop him where he stands, depending on how it is delivered. Penetration depth, suddenness of impact, impact angle, etc.

How do you train for such factors?

Subject: Re: Essential Attributes: POWER Fri Sep 21, 2007 9:08 am

Hi Ari,
You asked:

Subject: Re: Essential Attributes: POWER Fri Sep 28, 2007 7:42 pm

Hi Everyone,
Picking up where I left off on my first post, the next step in the process of developing power is to practice SINGLE SHOTS on a heavy bag and/or any piece of training equipment that offers adequate resistance to applied force.

After you've perfected your form and body mechanics on the given strike(s) to a "conscious competence" level, it's time to move on to applying it against resistance.

Now, at this next stage, start banging away at a bag and/or pad with deliberately focus, well-executed single power shots. Concentrate on perfect execution each and every time. Make each one a stand-alone shot. Do not mindlessly throw blow after blow like a robot. Put serious intention behind each shot.

As far as the ideal amount of sets and reps to do, there is no one program suited for everyone. Let me share a food for thought; conscientious quality is better than mindless quantity. I recommend starting off with few sets (e.g. 3 to 5) and reps (e.g. 3 to 10) until you achieve unconscious competence with your strikes.

While you are practicing single shots for developing bone-shattering power, you can kill "two birds with one stone" by working on accuracy at the same time by taping up small targets on your heavy bag, pad, or whatever to specifically aim your power shots through (not at).

Moreover, don't forget to briefly & sharply exhale as you are executing your single shot. This is an important and often overlooked point in generating power in strikes.

Once you achieve unconscious competence with your strike(s), now start increasing the sets, reps, or rounds you do. As you do this, never lose sight of what you are striving to accomplish. Keep a focused intention with all your training all the time. This can be a difficult thing to do but the better you do it, the better you'll become.

One last thing for now, be sure to do an even number of sets/reps or rounds with each side when you are isolating your shots for specific attribute development, in this case power. As an aside, a case can be made for doing more sets and reps for your weak/worse side.

Oh, one more thing, don't let the conscious counting of reps distract you. After you say it to yourself or out loud, forget about it and solely focus on the strike itself. If possible, have someone count out the reps for you so that you can fully concentrate at the task at hand.

Finally, remember that while "repetition is the mother of all skill," "focus is the father."

Anyway guys, what methods have you found functionally useful to improve your power? Please share...

Take Care,
Lito
_________________
The essence of true love is purposeful effort.

True happiness is attained through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Winners take chances and perceive pressure as a privilege.

Whatever you believe, it's true.

Subject: Re: Essential Attributes: POWER Sat Sep 29, 2007 3:41 am

I have been reading this thread and it's all good information but I have one main deviation from the traditionally accepted view.

Bear in mind this is my personal opinion and how I personally train.

Subject: Re: Essential Attributes: POWER Sat Sep 29, 2007 3:52 pm

Hi Alan,
Excellent post, excellent points made my friend...

You wrote:

Subject: Re: Essential Attributes: POWER Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:12 pm

Guys

What do you think about pre-tiring the muscles, it's impossible to exactly replicate the adrenalin effect of a real confrontation in training, what I am getting at is this, it's one thing to develop power on the bag or pads but is that feeling going to be the same when you know that your life is on the line or if you are having a shoot day, choked up with a bad cold or got some emotional problems clogging up your head.

These problems can make you feel like you are wading through treacle, so how about doing some push ups till your arms ache, lifting weights or doing some medicine ball work outs to simulate sluggishness and then immediately hitting the pads.

Any thoughts anyone.

Alan

Joined : 23 Aug 2007 Posts : 43

Alan,

1) During the few times I've been in real danger, and to a lesser extent during the more numerous times I've gotten a bit of an A-dump in serious training or simply in life, my body felt ANYTHING BUT "sluggish." My body felt tingly and energized, ready to explode (which it did, when necessary) with more speed and strength than ever before. So I don't see how making yourself feel "sluggish" would simulate a real attack. I can see how it would force you to dig deep to keep going, thereby offering good mental "toughness" training. Physically, it would seem to be more relevant to a sporting match that will go on for a while.

2) I train specifically to rely on as little muscular effort as possible to generate maximum power in any direction. My most effective hitting power comes from maximum balance, optimum proprioceptive feel of body alignment, and minimal unnecessary muscular tension (getting a bit "internal" here, but I think everyone would agree that good mechanics trump muscular effort). If I can feel "power" (tension) in any part of my body save my feet and lower legs when hitting, that represents hitting power that I'm retaining in my own body rather than transmitting it into the other guy. The best hit feels nearly effortless (as Lito alludes to above re: hitting people).

3) Given #2, feeling worn out, sick, etc. (within reason--assuming I'm not bedridden or semi-conscious) doesn't seem to affect my hitting power much. It can certainly affect awareness and general preparedness. A few times, I've felt worn out/sick/sluggish, but a bit of adrenaline took care of that temporarily. (Felt like crap after the adrenaline wore off but hey.)

Just food for thought.

Subject: Re: Essential Attributes: POWER Tue Oct 09, 2007 6:49 pm

Hi Everyone,
Picking up where I left off (well, sort of), when it comes to my two bread-and-butter preemptive strikes, I do primarily train my dominant hand. There has only been one occasion when I did use my non-dominant hand palm hook to good effect. Other than that, I have always used my dominant hand.

Interestingly enough, practically all the heavily experienced guys (like Geoff Thompson, Peter Consterdine, John Skillen, Mick Coup, Dave Briggs, Stan Peterec, Bas Rutten, etc) I know solely use their dominant hand when it comes to preemptive striking, especially when up against formidable opposition. Geoff Thompson told me (on a few occasions) that even when his right hand (i.e. dominant hand) was in a cast, he still only used it when he preemptively struck an adversary. He said that while he trained his non-dominant hand to be as potent as his dominant hand, when the poop hit the fan, he always defaulted to his right hand, always. In the hundreds and hundreds of fights he engaged in, he said he never once preemptively hit anyone with his left hand. He always found a way to throw his right, either throwing a hybrid cross or hook punch. My buddy Stan Peterec was even more economical, he had only one preemptive shot, his cross. No matter what situation he was in, he said he always found a way to throw that punch.

So, when it comes to preemptive striking, I do believe that focusing primarily on your dominant hand is a good thing. Moreover, I also believe that solely perfecting one or two shots with your dominant hand is the way to go. Less is more...

Hey Alan, in regards to your question, I think the best way to realistically train your strikes to replicate and acclimate yourself to the "tiredness" you would experience in a real confrontation is to observe the Law of Specificity and practice striking as you would actually utilize it in an anaerobic way--i.e. furiously and continuously for a specified (or unspecified to test one's fortitude even more) time period. Doing strike-specific training drills at the highest intensities you can muster in time frames ranging anywhere from 20 seconds to three minutes are excellent ways to replicate and work through the physical and mental fatigue you would experience in a real fight. For example, the Tabata Intervals protocol is an excellent method to employ on this end.

On another front, many, many years ago, Geoff Thompson suggested I train while sick to test and strengthen my mental and physical fortitude. So blindly following his suggestion (again this was many years ago), I trained really hard and sparred full-contact for a session lasting somewhere around 90 minutes to two hours while I had a full-blown case of the flu. I gutted through it and while it mentally toughened me on another level, it was a stupid thing to do. There are other safer and more productive ways, some of which I conceptually outlined above, to accomplish this kind of "toughening."

Please heed this, don't ever train while you are really sick. It's obviously not a good thing to do on the surface. It's even worse beneath it, medically speaking.

Anyway, that's it for now. Take care and God bless...

Best Regards,
Lito
_________________
The essence of true love is purposeful effort.

True happiness is attained through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Winners take chances and perceive pressure as a privilege.

Whatever you believe, it's true.

Joined : 23 Aug 2007 Posts : 43

What happens if the target moves or otherwise changes while your power shot is en route?

Subject: Re: Essential Attributes: POWER Thu Oct 25, 2007 8:22 pm

Hi Ari,
You asked: