NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/rec/martial/14627

Text File | 1992-11-19 | 1.7 KB | 36 lines

Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!news.sei.cmu.edu!fs7.ece.cmu.edu!crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!sc1u+
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 23:11:25 -0500
From: Stephen Chan <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Question: fumikomi (foot-stamping)
In-Reply-To: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]>
Lines: 24

    As my old Karate/Kenjutsu sensei taught it, if you are moving forward to
attack, what happens is you accelerate your body forward, and then,
just before you strike, you plant your lead foot into the ground -
this halts the motion of your body and torso, but your sword {or fist}
keeps moving.
    The analogy my old instructor made was that you were accelerating
your car and then slamming on the brakes - anything which wasn't
fastened down got launched forward.
    But its kind of misleading to say that you are relying on gravity -
gravity will provide downward acceleration, but your leg driving
against the floor is what provides much of the lateral motion which
you want to impart into your luckless target [ you aren't trying to
hurt the floor, you're trying hurt your opponent :-} ]
    Gravity sounds real impressive at 9.8 m/s^2, but the muscles of
your legs are mmore powerful - otherwise you wouldn't be able to
accelerate against gravity and jump around. And whatever power you put
into the initial "launch", you get back on the downward part of the
trajectory.
    Essentially, you want to throw your body, and just drop it.

    I hope that helps.

    Stephen Y. Chan
    [e-mail]