Useing your hips

[Tommy_P]

While I see good suggestions for developing hip rotation I also see the point being missed.

Turning or twisting the hip is only part of the equation and hip torque alone won't power a punch. I see many trainees rotating their hips as if on an axis. This does little for power generation.

Think of a lunge punch (stepping punch) where your driving forward off your rear leg thrusting it into the floor as your whole body is driven into the target. What is happening is you are projecting your mass into the target. You want to get as much mass and speed as possible. Now picture a stationary punch such as a reverse punch. Your not moving forward as dynamically as in a lunge punch but the proper technique can help mimic this.

Not only do you have to rotate your hip but you also have to drive off the rear leg and move your center forward. If you keep the rear knee slightly flexed and your hip cocked you will be able to forcefully drive your rear leg/foot into the ground as you turn your hip and also "drive forward." The key here is to get your center moving forward, everything should move into the target. Don't just rotate your hips in place but make the knot of your belt move forward with the rotation of the hips and drive of the rear leg. Done properly this will also slightly unweight the front foot from the ground much like a drag racer's wheels leave the ground slightly when the rear wheels "drive' the car forward forcefully. This forward movement and slight "air" under your front foot will force all your weight forward and into the punch. It forces your center to drop down and forward causing your fist to penetrate with all your body weight falling/ being driven into the target. Try placing your punching fist on a wall in a front stance then lift the front foot. Feel your weight being projected into the wall? Combine that with timing and speed as well as your center/body moving toward the target and drive of the rear leg. It's all one smooth motion.

Kind of a simplified explanation.

Practice against a target (bag/shield/makiwara) is a must.

Tommy

[Hobbes]

Hip rotation is a pretty complex and it represents "A" power source not "THEE" power source. No one is denying that techniques require co-ordinated efforts to generate a desired outcome. How one accelerates the mass of their limbs or their bodies, and uses rotation , vibration in combination with "locking the frame" to transfer energy from the powerful leg muscles to the trunk is poorly understood by many instructors I know. To be fair, some understand what they are doing, albeit not explicitly, and can "do it", yet have a very difficult time articulating what is happening. This is where a training course for instructors to hone their modeling, skill breakdown, chunking, skill reduction etc.. and overall verbal explanation of skills would be helpful.

What shogeri is describing is linear momentum that most of us recognize as "linear", "upwards" and "downwards". Its all linear movement for these three but represented as different vectors. I can honestly see why its so difficult to to discuss karate on a forum like this since most of us seem to be in the same book but rarely on the same page.

I like shogeri's explaination, with only a tinsy bit of confusion with regards to the air under the foot. It shows that he understands the need to combine several forces in a co-ordinated way. Kudos to you mate. Thumbs up from me.

[NidaninNJ]

Did you guys already see this? http://www.jkasv.com/article9912.html

[NidaninNJ]

Oh man! There's more good stuff on that site! http://www.jkasv.com/article0011.html

And check out the links on the bottom of that one. I think I'm more confused now.

[NidaninNJ]

More good stuff here:

http://www3.baylor.edu/BUKarate/articles/mechanics.html

Loads of good articles on that site too.

[shogeri]

Sometimes, I start out with root, but if I remain sunk, I can still generate power with my whole body, even if I leave the ground in a ferocious manner, with my whole body geared toward one thing, and doing so almost as reflexively as a sneeze...Beyond linear of karate and beyond the circular of taijiquan or chinese boxing...

Many Chinese masters seem to leave the ground and go beyond the structure found when we are linked to the earth.

hhhhhhhhmmmm....just thinking outloud.

Should sleep now.

[Killer Miller]

I think that there is a HUGE MIS-UNDERSTANDING as to the purpose of hip rotation/hip vibration. Hip rotation is the starting action to execute a technique - primarily generating speed, and although a great deal of force is required to generate that speed.

At the time of hip rotation or vibration (two separate techniques btw), a nano second, both feet must have full contact with the floor. At this time, you also obtain a certain amount of tension in your legs that acts like a coiled spring. To intiate the rotation action, you are cocked ready to fire and release the trigger so-to-speak. The tension of the forward leg pulls you and the side rotating forward, and the tension of the reaward leg pushes you and the side rotating forward at the same time - in unison. This is the starting action, speed and force of hip rotation and vibration.

Now you kind of relax and go for the ride for another nano second.

At this point you have generated all of this speed and energy (force being the end result). But what are you going to do with it now? If you hit something in this state, your arms and legs will fold or break, and/or you will bounce back??? Remember that for every action there is an oposite and equal reaction. What ever force you have generated will return to and through your body with equal force - and the weakest part of your body will give away if you do not have a solid frame at the time of impact. This is where Kime comes in... To turn this into this speed and energy into force, at the last nano second (notice that I'm referring to nano seconds to specify a rapid span of time) you contract ALL body muscles to create a solid frame from the intended target, through your body, to the ground, and back to through your body and the intended target. Force is now applied for the intended result of that force. Nock-down power as we commonly refer to. After the force is applied, we relax and are prepared for the next action with the same process. Note: This all occurs in less than a second and is very fluid with practice. Many have a tendancy to apply Kime too early which slows down the speed and also quickly dimenishes the energy that will be applied as force.

The above process is where breathing and breathing timing become very important. Breathing controls muscle contraction and expansion (or tensing and relaxing). Breathing is also your body's clock and timing for a given action. Anotherwise, if you breathe slowly, you contract slowly and for a longer period of time and technique execution. If you breathe fast, you contract fast and for a shorter period of time and technique execution. This is true whether you are rotating or lunging with your entire body. The body action is always in sync with your breathing from start to stop. This is known as breathing timing.

Understanding your own breathing and breathing timing for technique execution, you will also better understand your oponents breathing timing and technique execution. The object is when you understand your oponent's breathing timing, you will know and see signs in their breathing, regardless of how minute, as to when they will be in a relaxed state. THIS IS WHEN YOU ATTACK WITH THE ABOVE METHOD WE ARE DISCUSSING. It will never fail if you truly understand starting action, kime, and breathing timing. If you don't understand this natural gift of a body clock, you will be late in technique execution and will get nail in return every time.

Final note and thought on this topic. Hip rotation/vibration is not the sole source of a given action. However, is a vital part of the complete action. To "GET IT" (as we say so-to-speak) in terms of an effective complete action, you will "GET IT" far quicker if you work on Hip Rotation and Breathing Timing first as separate entities. The rest will fall into place naturally with little effort!

Fuel for thought.

BTW, watch Shirai nail somebody with a lunge punch from 12 feet back. You won't believe someone can move that fast in such a great distance. He is an expert where he understand breathing timing to levels of perfection where his contraction is so large, yet so fast that his body naturally moves that great distance in the same time as his breathing.

As long as this is, I probably should have submitted this as another article. Oh well...

- Killer -

[Whitefeather]

I highly recommend listening to everybody's advice here, as they all seem to have a lot of experience (probably a lot more experience than I have). That said, I have to throw in my two senses (or was it cents?...hmmm). Pick out somebody in your dojo who has good technique with their hips. Watch them move and try to mimick their movements when you train. Say you were trying to figure out how to use your hips on a basic punch. The best way--in my experience--to do this is to start out punching VERY VERY slowly, making sure that your hips are synched with your punch in the same way of the person you are trying to mimick. Very slowly work your speed up until you are punching at a moderate speed, using your hips properly. From there, it is a cakewalk to work up to punching fast while using your hips, at least from my experience.

Good Luck ,

David