The Karate body can make power in several different ways, actually its how to handle, redirect and focus your power. The truth is power is defined in physics as work/time so the more work you do in in a set time…. or the rate of work in a set amount of time. Power in the mechanical systems is the combination of forces and movement. So, power can be the product of a force on an object and the objects velocity or the product of torque on a shaft and the shafts angular velocity.
Speed kills
Whey is this even important? Well both directly relate to how the body produces power. The first is how the body creates force by moving a limb causing Impactive force to an object. Impact is a high amount of force acting on a object over a short period of time. This is also called Shock impact. This kind of force generally has a greater effect on the target or object that it is being applied to than a lower amount of force over a greater period of time. The effect therefore depends greatly on the relative velocity of the two bodies to one and other.
Speed of movement is very important to effectiveness of a technique. Normally when an object (person in this case) is struck the resulting impact is absorbed or converted into heat and sound energy, a result is that the kinetic energy is transformed into different waves (Heat and sound waves) and dispersed across the surface of the object. However, the faster the impact is imparted the less efficiently the energy is converted into waves and thus the object behaves as though it is more brittle than it would otherwise, and the majority of the applied force goes directly into fracturing the material.
This also applies to objects that are not at a sufficient temperature to create mailability or pliability. Ergo, impact resistance decreases with a increase in the velocity of the striking force or a decrease in temperature of the item being struck. One way to illustrate impact force and its effect is to use a hammer and a nail. If you were to take the hammer and just push on the nail as hard as you can the nail would not move. Add velocity/impact power to the equation and each strike you will overcome the friction force between the nail and the object it is entering. Another example is a torque wrench. This tool is used to tighten and loosen bolts by applying impact via torque to the bolt. At normal speeds the force that is applied to a bolt would be dispersed via friction and the bolt would not move. However, with an impact wrench the force acting on the bolt is done with great speed and this forces the bolt to move as the force does not have time to disperse.
In a ballistic example, a bullet uses speed of impact to puncture surfaces that could otherwise resist the force that it imparts on the subject. A rubber sheet would flex and absorb the strike of an arrow/ as would leather and other woven materials. However, as the bullet is traveling at a greater speed the rubber fractures and does not have time to stretch and absorbed the impact by converting it to vibrations.
So speed and velocity impart damage to a target, how can that help us in Karate. Well first thing we need to realize is we have to train for speed but we also much use that speed properly. When striking we have several ways to increase speed, efficiency and also ways that we move that affect the power that we are transmitting to our targets. Power and speed together equal an increase in impact force, or rather increase the efficiency of the impact force which leads to impact damage. In Karate we aim for weaker, smaller targets, the point of the chin, a specific “soft spot” at the solar plexus and then we try and strike as fast as we can with as much power in the strike. The combination of power with speed is velocity and the resulting impact, if the technique is managed, is greater and thus the efficiency of movement is better….IE “one strike, one kill”.
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