Releasing power by Mr. Bi Tianzuo

"The research of Bagua Zhang's power releasing



Bi Tianzuo

March 7 2012 in BeiJing



We know in martial art, good or bad of any technique should be judged
by the result of the attack. That mostly depends on how much of the
force releasing. How to get the maximum force out, depends on the
method of releasing and knowing where to pay attention to (while
emitting the force).



In physic: F=ma, it's the power equals mass times acceleration. In
most cases people gain power from the acceleration, to get more power,
then need more speed, need more speed in turn need more acceleration.
Which results usually people need to bring the fist back, then punch
out with acceleration. But this has its limits in the applications.
For example at the clinching, you wouldn't have much chance to bring
your fist back, once you did, you opponent's attack would arrive. So
how to release the power effectively will be a question.



Bagua zhang also be called Chan Zhang(winding or sticking palm), so
the more (you and your opponent) sticking or clinching together, the
easier to use its advantage. This because you can use the character of
Bagua Zhang power releasing.



We mentioned F=ma, in Bagua Zhang the mass(m) get more attention,
bigger the mass, more power will be get. So one need to active the
most of body mass to generate power. Generally the average body weight
of people be greater than 50 kg, if one can use most of that weight
and get the power to the hand, the power will be much greater than by
just using the hand or arm alone( with the same acceleration). Then
the question is how to get the most of the body weight behind the
attacking hand? Generally speaking, power start from the leg, through
the waist to the hand, then landed on the weak parts of the opponent's
body, like the rib or the chest etc. you can put your hands directly
on your opponent's body without any clearance, then push the power
from the feet, body should be a solid structure without any loose, to
transfer the power to the hand without any lose, then land the power
on your opponent's body. The penetrating power is very strong, even
with pads, it still can hurt the internal organs without obvious
wounds. If the power releasing is hard enough, it will even break the
ribs. By using this method, you won't need to bring back the hand( to
wind up), but release the power directly. So it will seems very fast
to your opponent, also it can be one attack after another to make him
doesn't have chance to fight back. Like the Kai palm, Peng palm, Dun
palm etc. in Bagua Zhang,they all use the Knocking as the last strike.
We know this kind of movements not be seen very often in our daily
life, people get used to move by individual part of the body, like
using the hand to pick up an object, using the foot to kick the ball
etc. But rarely see a person move by the whole body, one part move
with whole body move. So in order to release this kind of power, one
has to train to get the habit to move this way. Also has to stick to
the basic requirements for the body postures of internal martial art.
It's to pull up the head and neck, sink the shoulders and elbows,
hollow the chest and round up the back,tight up the anus and stick out
the belly, sink the Qi to Dantian, to make the body a solid piece
during the strike. But have to be solid instead of rigid, have to get
the 6 harmonies for the technique. This is the key to this kind of
strike of Bagua, so a lot of attentions have to be paid. In this Bagua
system, the "pre heaven" and "post heaven" as two parts of the system
have been intentionally arranged. The reason of needing a long time of
Pre heaven training is laying on this. There are 10 movements in total
for the pre heaven, they are: Single palm change, 4 animal shaped
changes, 4 body changes plus 5 dragons wave tails. The core practice
of this is to walk the Deng and Tang steps correctly, all the
movements involve the Deng Tang steps. It will build a foundation for
the power releasing and the 64 palms, 8 sticky palms of the post
heaven by training this 10 movements thoroughly. The Bagua Zhang is a
complete martial art system, the design of the system is rather
scientific and logic, it is worth to be reserved and further
developed.



There's another power releasing method in Bagua called whipping power.
It's in like Jie palm,Tiao Palm,Diao palm etc. In Jie palm, The fist
instead of palm is used. In Tiao and Diao palm, the palm is used.
These changes coordinate to different striking methods. The reason of
why the palm is usually used in Bagua is, by using the palm, one can
avoid to use the fist as a connecting point, the power can be released
directly through the hand heel. Without going through the wrist, it
will reduce the power lose, be more stable and easier to emit. But the
Jie palm is a side way whipping, so the palm is not being used.



For the so called whipping power, the arm and hand need to be relaxed
to maximum, should be as soft as noodles, and then whip out. The
principle of this striking method is to change the energy into force.
We know the relationship between the (elastic energy ) and Work is
W=Eep2-Eep1, the difference of the elastic potential energy changes
into Work. When we practice the Jie palm, if using the right fist, we
need to turn the body left to compress the body to get the elastic
potential energy. Then quickly relax the body and turn right to whip
out the right fist. In order to get bigger elastic potential energy,
one has to compress the body tightly; the left side of the body
doesn't turn much, but use power to press the right part of the body
to your left. The harder the pressing, the bigger the elastic
potential energy can be get. By releasing the part of the elastic
potential energy, the W(work) can be achieved. Then how to get bigger
striking force? We know Work equals Force(F) times distance
traveled(S). W=FS, so the force F=W/S. In order to get bigger striking
force, if the work was the same, shorter the distance traveled, bigger
the force can be generated. So when practicing the Jie palm, pushing
the leg and turning the body, use the whole body mass to get the power
to the hand, whip the fist, the striking distance cannot be too long,
otherwise the force will get reduced.



Tiao palm has some differences with Jie palm, It gets potential energy
by raising up the hand. Ep=mgh, Ep is the potential energy, m is the
mass, g is the acceleration duo to gravity, h is the height. Under the
same other factors, the higher the hand to be raised, the more Ep will
be get. But the hand can't to be raised too high, it's because if the
hand be raised too high then the shoulder will be raised, then the
basic structure will be broken. It needs to keep sinking the shoulders
and elbows, during the strike, don't raise the shoulders, need to sink
the elbow and stand up the head. Using the left palm strike as an
example, first turn your body to left, and use the right arm to
support your opponent's left arm, then turn the body to right
slightly, throw the left hand heel downward to smash your opponent's
chest. During the smashing down, the hand has to be hold back ( at the
hitting point), don't let it go too far. There is a difference in
height between the position of the hand(h2) to the opponent's
chest(h1), the energy released is Ep=mg(h2-h1), it turns to Work,
W=FS. Then the force to get is F=W/S. So the S( distance) can't be too
long, if It is too long, the Force will get smaller. There's very
limited perceptual in daily life. Only by long time and repeated
exercises, one can understand and use it at will."


For more information about classes in the Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR areas, please contact us at stonetigerxingyi@gmail.com or visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/stonetigermartialarts