Several items are necessary to a punch for it to be effective. Focus must be to a precise spot in space. It must have no energy in it.
That's right, a punch must be empty. You have heard that the word Karate means 'Empty Hands.' People have thought that this means you hold no weapons, but they are wrong. What it really means is that the hand is actually empty, having no energy, and therefore mass.
It is an interesting sensation to strike with no mass. Taken to its highest and purest altitude, it means that you do not feel the strike, and this is possible. This would mean that you are not really inside the body, and you are throwing the body like a big freakin' ghost would throw a chair.
On other levels it means that you don't experience the feeling of weight. Why can a child run under a table with no effort, when if you bent your legs and did the same thing it would take tremendous effort? Because the child hasn't realized the concept of weight, yet.
So how do you make yourself have no weight? You do it through mental discipline. You train the mind by making the body do what you want, and the best way to train the mind is through the simple fact of forms.
People who speak slightingly of forms haven't done them sufficient to see what happens at the end. When you master a form you become lightly removed from your body, and you gain, and lose, different perceptions when it comes to motion. It is very interesting to do a form and feel the whistling sensation of being an object thrown through space.
Fortunately, this is a pleasant sensation, and yet, when done in a strike, it results in the unbelievable damage to an opponent. Simply, he doesn't have a defense for something that has become part of the whole universe, and seems to defy concepts of time and perception. This, incidentally, is the feeling of mind of no mind, Mushin no shin.
Your body is still going to weigh the same, and then some, when colliding with an opponent, when you practice doing your art with no weight. Just because you don't consider yourself to have weight doesn't mean that the weight isn't there. Actually, it is even more there, because when you move weightless, and think weightless, you move faster, and your opponent will anticipate accordingly.
That's right, a punch must be empty. You have heard that the word Karate means 'Empty Hands.' People have thought that this means you hold no weapons, but they are wrong. What it really means is that the hand is actually empty, having no energy, and therefore mass.
It is an interesting sensation to strike with no mass. Taken to its highest and purest altitude, it means that you do not feel the strike, and this is possible. This would mean that you are not really inside the body, and you are throwing the body like a big freakin' ghost would throw a chair.
On other levels it means that you don't experience the feeling of weight. Why can a child run under a table with no effort, when if you bent your legs and did the same thing it would take tremendous effort? Because the child hasn't realized the concept of weight, yet.
So how do you make yourself have no weight? You do it through mental discipline. You train the mind by making the body do what you want, and the best way to train the mind is through the simple fact of forms.
People who speak slightingly of forms haven't done them sufficient to see what happens at the end. When you master a form you become lightly removed from your body, and you gain, and lose, different perceptions when it comes to motion. It is very interesting to do a form and feel the whistling sensation of being an object thrown through space.
Fortunately, this is a pleasant sensation, and yet, when done in a strike, it results in the unbelievable damage to an opponent. Simply, he doesn't have a defense for something that has become part of the whole universe, and seems to defy concepts of time and perception. This, incidentally, is the feeling of mind of no mind, Mushin no shin.
Your body is still going to weigh the same, and then some, when colliding with an opponent, when you practice doing your art with no weight. Just because you don't consider yourself to have weight doesn't mean that the weight isn't there. Actually, it is even more there, because when you move weightless, and think weightless, you move faster, and your opponent will anticipate accordingly.
About the Author:
Al Case has practiced the martial arts for forty years. You can learn The Perfect Punch at Monster Martial Arts.
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