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Wing Chun Academy of Thailand WING CHUN
LESSONSCLASSROOM LECTURE IIFORCE
- Force
- Velocity
- Direct Force
- Relative Force
- Ground Force
- Centrifugal Force
- Mass Force
- Unit Force
- Qi Force
Force, in Physics, is any influence that accelerates an
object. An object experiences a force because of the influence of a
field (electricity; gravitation). Force is a vector, meaning that it
has both direction and amount. When several forces act on an object,
the forces are combined. The total force acting on an object, the
object's mass, and the acceleration of the object are all related to
each other by the second law of motion. This law states that the total
force acting on an object is equal to the object's acceleration times
its mass. Thus, if a force acts on two objects of different mass, the
one with a larger mass will have a lower acceleration. This law of
nature is fully applicable in the art of pugilism. Understanding it
will help one to maximize his force, speed and mass.
In the study of Physics, acceleration is the rate of change in
velocity with respect to time. In the physical world, we measure
velocity by dividing the distance with time, thus we terming them
"km/hr", "rpm" etc. The speed of a car is measured in miles or
kilometer per hour. A Ferrari will reach 400 km in an hour. A Beetle
Bug will do the same distance in two hours. The time difference is
significant only when measured in long distances; however, if the
measured distance was only one meter, the difference is hardly
noticeable, as it would be in the milliseconds. The Ferrari will reach
the 1-meter mark in .00015 seconds and the Beetle will reach it in
.00030 seconds. Apart from the velocity and distance, there is also the
acceleration aspect to consider. From a standstill position to the
sprint and to the run, there is an acceleration rate. It begins from
zero and accelerates upwards. No object can shoot from zero to 400
km/hr. It accelerates incrementally. Therefore, the velocity
difference between a Ferrari and a Beetle Bug at the first meter is even
less. One meter and under is what the travel distance is for a fist to
meet its target. When two fists of different velocities, traveling from
the same point, fired at the same time, to a target a meter away, would
land at a time that's hardly noticeable visually, audibly or tactually.
The difference would have to be measured with very sophisticated
instruments to see the difference between your fist's velocity and
acceleration against Muhammad Ali's at his prime. One the other hand,
if a Beetle was positioned closer to the one meter finish line and the
driver kicked his gas pedal before the Ferrari driver did, he would
cleanly cross the meter line before the Ferrari. In pugilism, if your
fist is closer to your opponent than his is to you, and you fired it
before he does, you are likely to reach your target before he does.
This is not to say that the speed rate is not important. It certainly
helps not only in reaching the target thousands of a second sooner, but
the velocity and the moving mass equates to force when it is stopped by
a body. The velocity of a punch of a top fighter is around 400 km/hr;
200 km/hr for an average fighter. A recent study by physicists, using a
strobe light and a camera, measured a veteran martial artist's punch at
14 meters per second, and a novice's at 6 meters per second. As pointed
in the comparison of the Ferrari and the Bug, the time difference is
minute when the distance is only 1 meter. However, the difference
becomes evident when the impact that the two causes when they hit an
object is measured. A bullet, when hand thrown will not cause any or
little damage to an object; but when fired from a gun becomes a deadly
projectile. The force is in its speed. Therefore, the speed of a punch
is more important as a force than time measure in pugilism. The
question is: "What makes one punch travel faster than another?" As
mentioned earlier, "an object experiences a force because of the
influence of a field (electricity, gravitation)". Let us talk about
electricity first (as I will dedicate a section on gravitational force).
We know that there is electricity around and within us. The brain
receives and sends messages through electrical impulses. The brain
feeds on oxygen drawn from the blood, pumped by the heart, taken from
the lungs and inhaled through the nose, mouth and body pores. The red
blood cells in our body take the food we eat, the heat, neutrons and
protons we soak in from the sun and atmosphere and convert them to
energy. When we activate our muscles, we use energy. The more active
we are, the more "fuel" we will need to burn and replace. This whole
process is simply called "Qigong" (Chigong) in Chinese. The process
of a punch is as follows: The brain receives electrical impulses that it
should throw a punch. It sends out electrical impulses to the
responsible muscles to begin the process. The heart pumps blood and
oxygen to them. Stored energy is drawn to supply them. The lungs and
the diaphragm sends extra supply of oxygen to the thrusting muscles to
generate and replace burning energy as they accelerate to the target.
Electrical sparks fly. Heat is generated. At the point of contact, the
energy explodes. This process happens within thousands of a second. It
is also a description of a fast and clean punch. What is a slow and
poor punch? It is when the brain is distracted, confused and sends
mixed signals. Instead of activating only the thrusting muscle (for
example, the triceps) to shoot forward, it activates the contracting
muscles (for example, the biceps), that resists the forward motion.
Instead of firing off the punch from a relaxed stationary position, it
winds back and then moves forward. Instead of exploding the energy at
the point of contact, it starts burning energy heavily at the starting
point and dissipating at the end. Instead of minimizing and making
secondary use of other muscles, like the shoulder, facial, and leg
muscles, it activates them heavily ahead of the thrusting muscles. As
mentioned before, if two punches left at the same time for the same
distance, the time difference is insignificant. Nevertheless, if one
left earlier, it would reach its target sooner. So, if you were to face
an opponent and he telegraphed his intention to punch you by squinting
his eyes, biting his teeth, tightening his neck and shoulder muscles,
giving out a yell, drawing his fist back, tightening his biceps, and
stepping his foot forward to push (rather than fire) his punch, the
chances are that you will beat him to the punch if you just unleashed
yours from where it stood, in a relaxed manner, and in the most direct
line to the target. In this case, you have fired your punch before he
did although he initiated it first. The time difference becomes even
more evident if your fist was closer to him than his was to you. Wing
Chun fighting stance positions your hands forward ahead of you not only
to protect you but to shorten the distance of attack. Wing Chun trains
you to punch in a relaxed and explosive manner. Other schools train
their students to punch with their fists starting from the waist (long
distance). After a punch, they draw the fist back to the waist. The
argument is that the distance enables acceleration therefore generating
more force at the point of contact. It is true but at the cost of time,
distance, and energy. Wing Chun students fight bodies not wooden boards
or bricks. They do not need to hit hard surfaces but vulnerable body
parts that do not require massive force. Wing Chin punches do not draw
back to the waist. For that matter, it does not even draw back to its
original position. If a contact is made, it relaxes and punches again
from where it stands. The logic is this: Let us rate the chances of a
fist landing on a target from "0" to "10", with "0" being the farthest
and "10" being the hit. So if I were facing an opponent and had my
fist, at the waist or in front of me, I am at "0" chance of hitting him.
Once I see an opening and throw a punch, the fist moves up
incrementally from zero upwards. He may block it at 7 or get hit at 10.
Either way, why should I draw my fist back to zero, if I am already at
7 or 10? In fact, if I hit him, the force will move him back, creating
a chance of less than 10, perhaps 7. If I drew my fist back to the
original position, I would have created a chance of minus three now.
See the logic? So here again, time is gained by having your weapons
closer to your opponent than he has his to you.
Force is a vector, meaning that it has both direction and amount.
A force coming in a straight-line direction will measure more than
one coming indirectly. Take a car crash test for example. The most
damage a car will cause itself and a wall is if it were to run straight
on to the wall at 90 . The impact will be less if it were to swerve
into it or come from an angle of 15 and hit it with its side bumper.
Similarly, when a punch is executed in the straight line, perpendicular
to the target, its force will measure more than one coming at a curve or
at an angle other than a right angle. A punch generated from the waist
level is most effective if targeted straight to the waist of the
opponent. A punch to the face is less forceful than one generated from
the same height. Therefore, if your final goal is to immobilize the
headquarters of your enemy, shouldn't you position your soldiers and
weapons directly across it (rather than from an acute angle below)?
Without going too much into physical science, let us iterate the fact
that force is doubled when two forces meet traveling from opposite
directions at the same velocity. In pugilism, this means that the force
of a punch doubles in amount when the opponent moves into the punch at
the same speed of the punch. Wing Chun takes advantage of this
phenomenon and moves into attack when an opponent charges. Wing Chun
takes into account the danger of "walking into a punch" so have specific
footwork designed for you to enter the gates of the opponent without
dropping your own. It also teaches you techniques to draw the opponent
to your punch. Other styles do not teach this. If you watch
practitioners from these styles sparring, you will see that one
initiates an attack and the other withdrawing from it. The distance
(the gap between the two) remains the same. Neither of them is in the
line of fire. The one who withdrew changes his direction 100% to
counter the attack. The defender withdraws from it. They continue this
cat and mouse game until they accidentally collide into each other for a
direct confrontation. What a waste of time and effort! Why go through
all this when the objective is to go into the fight and finish it as
soon as possible. No matter how far apart you stand from each other or
what distance you initiate the attack, you end up within 1 meter to make
good the strike. This is why Wing Chun practitioners meet their
opponents when they charge. The bigger they are, the easier it is for
Wing Chun artists to control the fight. Having a full understanding of
the laws of nature, a Wing Chun practitioner can move his opponent at
will, strike with force and speed, and conclude the fight precisely.
When several forces act on an object, the forces are combined.
In pugilism, the object is the target. The combined forces are the
electrical energy generated by the body to project the fist and the
velocity of its travel. A bullet accelerates in air with a mighty force
(to a certain distance) because of the explosive energy the chemical
reaction creates when the hammer of the gun sparks the primer. A punch
does not have such a powerful explosion so travels at a much moderate
velocity. To gain more force, another type of force may be added to it,
the gravitational force. The Earth is a large mass. There is nothing
larger on it. It is as large as it can be where we are. It stores
massive amount of energy. We can borrow from it if we know how. In
fact, we do it everyday unconsciously. When we need and exert energy we
borrow from it. In Qigong, you learn to do this consciously and make
the best of it. In Wing Chun, we learn to make best use of the energy
of the earth as well. Without getting into the intricacies of Qigong,
let us simplify the explanation in terms of gravitational force. We all
know that the earth has a gravitational force. That is what keeps us
down to earth (pun intended). In order to lift something heavy, we use
this force as a leverage to offset the weight of the object. This is
the same rule as the two cars crashing head-on when traveling at the
same speed from opposite directions to double the force of the impact.
Your force doubles when you use your weight against the gravitational
force of the earth. Whatever amount of force you apply against it is
what you will get back in exchange. Let us look at another example
and situation. You were asked to move a heavy desk. Since the
gravitational pull is towards the center of the earth and you are being
pulled directly down in a straight line from your head to your heels.
The direction you want to push is 90¡ from you across the floor.
Standing at the edge of the desk and pushing with your hands will hardly
budge the desk. You step back a meter from it and lean against it and
push it with your elbows tucked close to you. Now, you are pushing the
desk using your weight, bodyÕs energy, and the earthÕs force to move it.
You are not getting the maximum out of your forces. You are leaning at
a 45û angle and pushing the desk at another angle. Now if you had a
perpendicular wall behind you that you could push a leg against, youÕd
be using direct force against the desk and move it more easily. Say you
were tied around the waist with a rope and suspended (parallel to the
floor) from the ceiling, and were asked to push the desk. As long as
there is a perpendicular wall behind you to push both your feet against,
you will have no trouble moving it; however, as soon as the wall is
removed, you will no longer be able to budge it. Similarly, if you were
to throw a punch using your fist as the lead, your force will be at its
minimum. This is because the force is generated with little energy and
is dependent on the velocity of the fist traveling through thin air.
This is similar to pushing the desk from the suspended position without
a back wall. If you were to drive the fist from behind using the elbow,
you would gain much more force (like you did with the desk).
Furthermore, if you were to use your waist behind the elbow to drive the
fist, you would gain even more force. If you want to compound the
forces to the maximum, add the force of the earth from the bottom to
drive the punch. Since you cannot stand right angle to a perpendicular
wall and strike your opponent with a direct force, you create an acute
angle from your back heels to your fist and combine all available forces
to explode a devastating punch.
 Centrifugal Force: The force that tends to
impel a thing or parts of a thing outward from a center rotation.
Understanding the science of centrifugal force is a major part of
understanding the Wing Chun system. Most fighting style "block" an
incoming force either directly or at right angle. A overhead strike
(force) is blocked with your forearm going against the force directly.
A straight punch is blocked with your forearm going right angle against
it. If the overhead strike was forceful or hard like a rod, you could
damage your forearm with such a block. To block a straight punch with
your forearm at right angle will not only require the same amount of
force to parry it, but will require precise timing to catch it. Wing
Chun takes into account the science of centrifugal force to use one's
hands or feet to impel an on coming force outward from a center
rotation. Both offensive and defensive moves in Wing Chun are generated
from one's centerline towards the opponent's centerline. When your hand
moves out from the centerline, although traveling in a straight line
(rather than in circle), it is still a part of rotation (see figure).
When a person punches you, the force is coming at an angle because his
arm is attached to his shoulder on the sides   . If you direct your hands/arm
toward his centerline, it will, with very little effort, deflect his arm
outward (see bird's-eye figures).
The total force acting on an object, the object's mass, and the
acceleration of the object are all related to each other by the second
law of motion. This law states that the total force acting on an object
is equal to the object's acceleration times its mass. We've
covered acceleration earlier on and now let's look into the Mass. The
Mass, is the gross weight of the car, speeding and crashing against a
wall. What is the mass in pugilism? Is it the fist accelerating to
land at your opponent? If you were to look at your fist as a unit and a
mass, it weighs only a pound. This is how many punches are executed,
throwing the fists. It you were to add the forearm to the fist as a
unit, it will now weigh perhaps 3 lbs, an increase of 300% in mass. Now
add the upper arm to the fist and forearm as one unit, it will weigh
around 5 lbs., 500% more than the fist alone. What happens when you
include your whole body behind the fist as a unit to throw a punch? You
will apply the maximum mass available to you in that punch! You may
think you are punching using your whole weight behind you until you
reexamine the nucleus, method, and the path of your punch. It's not as
simple as it sounds. One must learn to feel the "Qi" and the "Yi".
These are Chinese terms for "energy" and "mind". They are not accurate
translations for the two words since there isn't a Western concept of
what they represent. For matter of simplification, we can say that one
must learn to feel one's own body. You must learn to feel and make your
body into one unit as well as break it up into many parts when you wish
to. When you apply force, you make your whole body into one whole mass.
When a force is applied on you, you dissipate it.
We think of ourselves as one unit of course, but in reality, we are many
parts joined together. Roughly speaking, we are structured with a
spinal cord of disks, framed with a skeleton of bones, joined by
ligaments, balls and sockets, padded with elastic flesh. This allows us
flexibility and movement. When we move, we move different parts of our
body at different times. Take walking for instance. From a standing
position, we first shift our weight to one leg; lift the other thigh up;
stretch the knee out; stretch the calves out, land the heel on the
ground; land the ball of the foot; spring off the other ankle; lift the
heel up; shift the weight to the front foot; spring off the back foot
toes; move the back thigh forward; swing your torso forward to
facilitate the push; swing the arms in reverse direction; and etc. If
someone was to interrupt your rhythm with an outstretched hand to your
chest, you are likely to lose your balance. This is because parts of
your body are in front of the hand and parts behind. It is also because
that person is more of a unit than you are. A tree is a whole unit.
It's grounded by its roots. The branches move with the wind, but
nonetheless, it is connected to the roots. Let us take a small tree and
cut it to our size, weight and height. Now try to knock it down. You
can't because it is deeply rooted and is a whole unit. Now slice the
tree into parts like ourselves, one along the neck line; one along the
waistline; one along the knee line; and one along the ankle line. Pile
the pieces neatly on top of each other as it was before cutting it. Now
knock it. It will tumble (except the rooted base). The tree is no
longer a whole block unit. Cut the tree at the roots, drill a hole
through the middle of the trunk, and drop a rod of disks through it, and
connect it to the pieces of blocks loosely with some kind of strands.
Voila! You've just engineered a human body! Now, you can knock it
right off its base. If you think of yourself as a tree, you will
become rooted and whole like one. Your balance will be firm and
grounded. You will be one whole mass rather than pieces. Your force
will be massive rather than slight.
Qi (pronounced Chi) is a mystery to Westerners who are not involved in
Asian martial arts (particularly, Chinese martial arts). It is commonly
known to the Chinese even if they're not practitioners of martial arts.
This is because the word is built into the Chinese common language. It
is used to express a person's emotional state or his health. For
instance, when a person is angry, he is said to have risen his Qi. When
he loses his temper, he has fired up the Qi. When he is discontent, he
is unable to lower his Qi. When his energy level is low, he is low in
his Qi.
Qi is translated as "air" in the Chinese-English dictionary. It means
just that generally. But Qi can also mean weather, gas, oxygen and a
number of other things. However, when it comes to Chinese medicine or
the study of Physics, it means something else.
Western science understands that when oxygen is inhaled, it is taken up
by the blood stream and sent through the whole body for consumption.
Oxygen acts as a fuel to provide energy to the human body. Our lower
and middle brain controls this involuntary action unconsciously.
Ancient Chinese scientists discovered that the conscious mind can
control this action. Not only that, but someone else can control it as
well. This becomes helpful when the environment or an injury disrupts
the balance and flow of the bodily functions. One may control and bring
back the balance or have someone else help you on it.
We are born near perfection but deteriorate in time through
environmental or self-abuse. As children, we breathe using our lower
diaphragm. We store our Qi in our stomach, which has the largest
capacity. We are able to use it sparingly, therefore have a high level
of energy. We never seem to pant or run out of air. When we become
adults, because of the constant stress, the Qi rises to the chest. We
begin to store our Qi in the chest and use our lungs to breathe. The
lungs have less capacity to hold than the stomach, so we become short of
breath easily. (Strong athletes and singers continue using their
diaphragms.) When we come senile, the Qi rises above the chest. We use
our mouth and throat to breathe and therefore wheeze and run out of
breath easily and constantly. Because the intake of Qi is low, our
energy level becomes low.
For those who are not in the habit of breathing with the diaphragm must
learn to do so for good health. Our stomach is where the food goes.
The nutrients from the food are extracted from there first. This is the
best place for the energy to be generated and stored. Our major organs
are in this area and act as filters for the unwanted. By the same
token, they are supplied the nutrients they need. This area is also
best equipped for fighting the enemies of the body. As you know, one
can orally intake and digest snake venom although it is deadly
otherwise. Most medicines to illnesses are taken orally for them to sit
in the stomach and let the bodily function take over from thereon. The
chest is a poor place to store your Qi or anything else. It is
susceptible to infection or any unhealthy agent.
One can control the movement of the Qi by tapping it with the conscious
mind. We are not aware of it because we do not think of it, or we do
not need to think of it. However, if we have relocated our Qi storeroom
up in our chest, then we need to consciously train ourselves to return
it to our stomachs. We can also learn to move the Qi to whatever point
we will need it for, whether for healing a wound or exploding a punch.
How do you feel the Qi? Quite simple actually. Our conscious mind is
occupied with the superficial world … or the tangible. All you need to
do is think of the intangible. For example, think of the watch on your
wrist. You have it on all day but are not aware of it or feel it until
you think of it. Similarly, if you think of any part of your body, you
will feel it. Think of the top of your head. Once you are aware of it,
move this feeling along the centerline of your body from the head to the
forehead, to the bridge of your nose, lips etc., right down to your
stomach, three fingers apart from your navel. When you really have it
down, you will feel the Qi tingling along the path of your thoughts.
Qi in martial arts is very important. You use Qi to generate strength
and force instead of muscles. You've heard of mothers who were able to
lift cars to save their children. Western scientists say that the extra
adrenaline that the brain pumps out in time of danger is what makes
these women so strong at these times. The Chinese call this Qi. We all
have it; it's just a matter of tapping on it. Whether it is adrenaline
or Qi, it certainly isn't the muscles alone at work.
If you practice martial arts long enough, you will learn the secrets of
the Qi.
Copyright © Daniel Y. Xuan
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