The most important concept in martial arts you've probably never heard of!

[@kennethmullins5998]

Very well done. Most instructors don't even teach the mass x acceleration principle.

[@traditionalwadoryukarate8571]

Great video 👍

[@DanielPyatt]

Thank you David, glad you liked it and found it useful.

[@philwindsor2884]

Great video Dan, found it very interesting and useful :D

[@DanielPyatt]

Glad you enjoyed it Phil, hopefully it will help you bounce them across the room at kungfu ;)

[@R0nge]

Great video. Your opening point about instruction through feeling is also an interesting one. I have found especially where students train predominantly with ‘air techniques’ that there is a false equivalence between how a technique feels vs it’s actual effectiveness (In terms of generating force). Largely this is an incorrect application of kime and tension.. but also it is hard to ’feel’ the change in momentum and your effective mass when you are stepping. E.g the difference between stepping vs reverse punch when practiced in the air - the reverse punch in relative terms always feels (erroneously) soo much more powerful.

[@DanielPyatt]

Thank you kindly, really appreciate it, and I concur that an over reliance on intrinsic feedback whilst valuable in its own way and gets you so far can also lead you blindly If your not careful.

[@tuari108]

Hmm...food for thought Daniel , excellent points all! 🤔

[@DanielPyatt]

Glad you liked it Tuari

[@MZH47]

I like that you mentioned sneezing. While sneezing I noticed how the whole body comes together and tenses for split moment and then relaxes. That's the feeling I search for when trying to connect the body. Still very hard to get it close for me. I don't know why though.

[@DanielPyatt]

MZH47 I think it's probably the best metaphor for how you create explosive power in a strike. With power the time you execute the technique for must be very small to maximise the power and hence the sudden but importantly whole body tension is key to increasing your effective mass.

[@MZH47]

Daniel Pyatt I've also felt another type of power while holding pads for instructors. One of them can punch relatively slow and stops the hand instead of pushing, yet the force just goes through. I don't how he does it, but he can do it in all his strikes, punches, shutos, kicks and the pads fold in when he does it. He tries to teach us telling us to imagine different things as we train, but so far I don't think I've understood.

[@DanielPyatt]

If I may correct your physics to help explain this. Power is Energy transferred divided by time. So in other words maximum power is achieved when you transfer as much energy as you can in as short a time as you can. Energy can then be linked to force which in turn is linked to momentum. When you say the force passes through what you actually mean is the momentum is transferred through. As a rule think of this with any collision "Momentum moves", it is through the transfer of momentum to the pad that ultimately more force is applied. Momentum is mass x velocity and so if you executing the strike slowly then the only way to generate momentum is to strike with the largest effective mass as possible which is precisely the theme of the video. My advice in practice is first emphasis not the tension on impact but emphasis the relaxed stage and moving your body as to be position your effective mass behind the strike. I hope this helps, if any of what I've said doesn't make sense let me know and I'll expand

[@MZH47]

Daniel Pyatt Hmm... That makes a lot of sense. The instructor I mentioned always nitpicks a lot on structure and stance on any movement. I guess that means he's always been properly connected on impact and is wanting us to do the same. Thank you. I think my understanding is a bit better after this. :)

[@TheNadOby]

Nice video, funny in one of the schools I practiced there are very specific exercises to unify and tense the body to deliver the strike or kick with probably all the body mass. And it trsined from the beginning. No physics explanation was given thought.

[@karatekid3153]

When it comes to throwing...when i do the kusushi ...do i have to connect the core . hip and everything? Or do i do so when i am step in and turning?

[@DanielPyatt]

Hi Philip, sorry for ridiculously slow response I've only just seen this comment. Yes is the short answer, when you initial kuzushi it should be the action of the whole body almost to the point of ripping your opponent out of the floor. If you work each mechanical lever separately the person becomes much harder to throw. What I would suggest is focus on the connection between the hip, elbow and wrist rotation in the initial phase of kuzushi. The entry phase is then about maintaining that application of force simply to keep your opponent moving. Focus on that phase being as smooth as possible.

[@brendoneverett3303]

Nice to see the science being bought to the forefront for a change. Enjoyed this!

[@DanielPyatt]

Brendon Everett I completely agree we need science at the forefront, glad you enjoyed it 👍🏻

[@FlorisGerber]

really good video, but i think you do not do yourself a favour with such a clickbaity title. Any martial artist woth his salt should know these concepts. Still, thank you for explaining them so well.

[@alanrichardson3210]

Very helpful, thank you. But I have a question. If you increase the effective mass of your technique by using kime at the end of a technique doesnt it act as a brake unless you have also got it moving in the same direction earlier on?

[@DanielPyatt]

Hi Alan, sorry for slow reply. So balancing that issue is important. Its important to consider that you have to overcome the bodies inertial mass first and unify at the point of impact. Kime is one approach to this and can when executed poorly lead to the effect you describe. To answer this fully I'd need to go into considerable depth into the nature of Kime and defining the parameters of that term. I will do this in the future so keep a weather eye.

[@TieXiongJi]

Of course, a basic unxerstanding of physics and applying force properly is an advantage. The old masters didn't use math.

[@DanielPyatt]

This is a good point, they as a general rule did not which in many respects makes their achieves all the more remarkable that they understood so well what factors effect the delivery and execution of technique

[@Projectdarksource]

TieXiongJi the hell they didnt, they had to have use math to come up with using angles to step out of the centreline and triangle footwork, without math, your just guessing.

[@MZH47]

8:16 lol

[@DanielPyatt]

MZH47 I have a phrase I use a lot in my dojo "the important thing is ..... I'm fine 😉"

[@astonrichardson4309]

It all goes without saying.....

[@DanielPyatt]

I agree but for most... sadly... not so much

[@isaacflorentine]

OSU!

[@TheShicklee]

Good vid. Force is mass x acceleration squared. So speed has a much greater effect on force (power) than mass does. When I teach, I use the term strength instead of mass as we aren't inanimate objects being propelled through the air at a fixed speed. We are a complex, multi jointed, continually accelerating kinetic chain. The only other factor we deal with once the kinetic chain is coordinated, is how much sequential force we can put into that chain and this dictated by contraction strength. 👍🏼

[@DanielPyatt]

Hi, sorry to be picky but I'm a physics teacher so its my job to be picky, Force = mass x acceleration this is derived from Newton's 2nd Law which is Force is directly proportional to the rate of change of momentum, it isn't acceleration squared. It is the rate at which speed changes which affects force, if two objects collide and one has a higher speed then this means it has a higher momentum and therefore a bigger change in momentum per second will occur and hence a higher force. Force and power are not the same thing. Power is the rate of energy transfer but can also be for mechanical situations Power = Force x speed, so Power and Kinetic energy do depend more on speed because Kinetic energy is 1/2 x mass x speed squared but not Force. Strength and mass are very different also you are entirely right however about us not being a fixed mass this is why the we have to consider effective mass because we can alter the tension to in effect change how much of mass is applied to given interaction.