We have been focusing on where to hit in order to dissuade or disable an attacker. But in order for these strikes, grabs, tears, breaks or other applied forces to be effective the items applying the force need to be hardened and fine tuned. Punching someone with a closed hand seems like the favored thing to do, and this can be effective but if this "fist" is not tight and the bones are not lined up properly the result will be more damage to our hand than to the target. So to solve this we train the hand to hit. We use finger tip pushups to strengthen and toughen the fingers for grabbing and striking with the fingers,, and we use knuckle pushups to train the hand to hit with the bones in the hand, wrist and arm lined up. A trained punch can generate upward of 1300 pounds of force which means the hand has to be able to withstand that same force. So unless the hand and bones are formed and aligned properly some fractures are likely. Keep in mind that a strike apllying this much force will accelerate the target at a rate over 40 to 50 times the force of gravity. As we have dicussed, in order to develop this much force we need to use rotational forces driven by the legs and body. A typical untrained punch deliveres less than 1/10 the force of a trained punch. So practice and training will produce noticeable benefits in the ability to defend ourselves and our loved ones. But there are many more weapons on our body that we can use to apply force. Each needs to be hardened and toughened to withstand the forces being applied. We start this process by tapping these bones against each other and slowly over time increase the force, thereby "sharpening the bones".
We spent much of the time this morning doing just that, learning and practicing techniques to sharpen the bones.
We then moved on to moving and striking, specifically the practice of attacking the outside sector of the attacker. We still maintain the practice of destroying what is attacking while moving in to center line attacks. We will keep practicing this strategy until it becomes natural, which will then allow us to divert from this as we recognize new opportunities as they present themselves.
As always, it is an honor to train with you fine men.
stay strong and stay safe
Tick Tock