Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
Note: The shoulder girdle and the pelvis are both somewhat rigid and attached to each other through the spine. They act as levers to control the spine and can manipulate each other as well as the arms and legs. This will become an important aspect when you begin to collate sub-principles into a holistically applied whole for power and force.
The single most overlooked principle of the martial arts. How to properly align methodologies with the spine. All power must be grounded, generated, and conducted through the spine (Note: when discussing the drop step methodologies for power generation the best application of the drop step requires a loss of grounding; Note II: also, truly powerful and forceful methodologies are about movement, movement of our mass along with enhancers through certain physiokinetic additions).
What happens to the anatomy when the spine is misaligned when striking. If the spine is rounded we leak power, if leaning back we leak power. If the spine is misaligned it prevents the legs from stabilizing the body and offering a solid foundation from which to exercise the power of the punch. The spine must function like a post. The spine must be in proper alignment if the legs are to become functional. If misaligned the spine will fail to direct energy into the legs, and consequently diminish or nullify the value of proper foot stance. (Note III: remember, power and force if possible through body movement is superior but in case that is not possible)
Some argue that the upper body can lean forward up to 22.5 degrees or perhaps to the point where the shoulders do not pass the vertical plane of the knees, provided that the spine does not become convex or concave, which means that it must tile from the hips alone. Any other violation of its structure will bleed energy upwards or backwards. At 22.5 degrees, however, the force can still be grounded into the legs through the spine. Proper posture must be upheld and the torso tile must be achieved as a unit from the hip.
In order for exertions of force to root through the spine, they must align with it, which when front facing means they must occur along the centerline. It is critical to understand that they must not only end on the centerline but also begin along it, or at least close to it. Any fault in structure and alignment of the spine as well as other structural body groups such as the shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand lead to energy bleed thus loss of power and force.
Spinal alignment dictates that the spine must act as a solid, unyielding post. Every degree of turn/rotation amounts to a degree it effectively yields - succumbing to “opposite reaction” rather than generating force - and thus a degree of power lost or misdirected. If the spine acts as a pivot instead of a post then our triangle guard will be deflected off target. The spine fails to function as a solid, stable post and instead acts as a weak, turning pivot, which ultimately results in a loss of power. If a punch fails to meet the centerline, the shoulder becomes susceptible to recoiling indirect opposition to the direction of the punch. If the punch crosses over centerline, the body becomes susceptible to pivoting the other direction, or the arm simply collapses toward the body with the shoulder acting as the hinge. (Note: all this depends on balance to achieve efficient maximum output from energy use. There will be trade-offs susceptible to energy losses as well as gains with the use of enhancers, etc.)
Depending on whom you ask, the shoulders either do or do not have to be squared to the target for the spine to align properly.
The triangle guard brings to light the importance of at least a certain amount of squaring in the shoulders, but the great equalizing factor in this particular matter always seems to come down to landing the strike directly between the shoulder lines so that the energy still grounds back to the spine. The spine needs to act as a post instead of a pivot.
It seems logical that power loss occurs when the body tilts because doing so seems to impact the alignment of other principles. Proper exercise of spinal alignment is to maximize out our power and simultaneously use it to exploit our adversary’s anatomy. The spine connects the body to power, so does it receive power into the body.
All parts of the body connect through the spine. Exercising proper spinal alignment does not mean physically moving force into the spine itself, e.g., forcing an adversary’s wrist to his or her chest. As the name suggests, this principle merely concerns aligning force between the spine and our adversary’s on a vertical plane.
Bibliography (Click the link)
No comments:
Post a Comment