Scientific analysis of striking power

Posted by: BigRod

Scientific analysis of striking power - 01/14/07 09:34 PM

If you want to skip my 2cents worth, here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAF9J-RmXuc

It's an episode of Fight Science on National Geographic. Probably been discussed already, but I just saw it, so forgive me if this is a rehash.

Long story short, they looked at the mechanics of several styles to determine which one delivered the strongest punch and kick.

The strongest punch was delivered by a boxer. The strongest kick was actually not a kick at all, but a knee delivered Muay Thai style. The knee collapsed the chest cavity 2 inches and was equivalent to being hit by a car at 35 MPH. OUCH!

They even have some stuff on grappling, and it's pretty amazing.

Check it out.
Posted by: theotherguy

Re: Scientific analysis of striking power - 01/21/07 01:36 AM

i watch the entire 10 parts absalutly loved it its amazing how altho the boxing punch dosnt look hard it impacts the most.
Posted by: Taison

Re: Scientific analysis of striking power - 01/21/07 10:52 AM

I watched it, agreed on some things, disagreed on a lot.

The kicks. Karate used a side-kick. TKD used a spinning back kick. Basically, it was the same kick except TKD guy did a spin. If the karate-ka also did that, they'd probably yield similar results.

The punch. The Karate-ka is an idiot imo. He doesn't know how to throw a proper seiken-tsuki, or I'm just stupid and learning improper mechanics. He didn't even coil his arm properly, and his "dachi" (foot placement) sucks. IMO, he should be stripped off his black belt to something like white belt with yellow stripe.

The ninjutsu "mysticism". Ok, most of the things said I agreed on but the blocking and delivering a strike at the bicep/armpit area could knock a person out? What a load of BS. During confrontation, the accuracy required to land an exact point is near impossible, so pinching that nerve is out of the question. Not only that, adrelarine will prevent the body feeling that little strike to that nerve. How do I know this? Try this; When in the guard in grappling, have your ukemi press their elbow down on your knee. This will happen most of the time, you'll separate your legs because of the pain. In full sparring, I've done this loads of time, and rarely do they separate their legs, and thus hindering me from putting them into a leg-lock.

Katana. It's not the ultimate weapon. Katana has good slashing capability, but using it to thrust is a no no. Katana's efficiency at thrusting is very low, not even comparable to a rapier or Opaque. Another thing they forgot to mention. A well placed slash with the katana without excess force will result it being stuck onto the victim. This is worse than loss of control. In a big battlefield, you'd be dead if that happens.

A katana IMO, is only good for civil war, duels and up-close battles. The best weapon for war was the spear and then replaced with rifles and guns.

-Taison out
Posted by: TaeKwonBoxer

Re: Scientific analysis of striking power - 01/21/07 10:59 PM

Quote:

If you want to skip my 2cents worth, here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAF9J-RmXuc

It's an episode of Fight Science on National Geographic. Probably been discussed already, but I just saw it, so forgive me if this is a rehash.

Long story short, they looked at the mechanics of several styles to determine which one delivered the strongest punch and kick.

The strongest punch was delivered by a boxer. The strongest kick was actually not a kick at all, but a knee delivered Muay Thai style. The knee collapsed the chest cavity 2 inches and was equivalent to being hit by a car at 35 MPH. OUCH!

They even have some stuff on grappling, and it's pretty amazing.

Check it out.



Wow i jsut finished watchin the whole series and it was amazing, i always thoguht the ninja hammer strike was a myth. Quite impressive, but i practice Muat Thai and boxing so this is pleasing to me hahaha i liked reading people's defencces of their martial arts under the video, of course boxing has the best strike, all we do is perfect it, and no it is not slow, but if a fantastic boxer with amazing speed such as floyd mayweather was to learn to a side martial art he would be a force to be recond with.

Very good series ill b waiting to watch it on national geo next time it comes on
Posted by: Triddle

Re: Scientific analysis of striking power - 02/06/07 12:44 AM

I found this to be interesting, yet inconclusive. I enjoyed watching it, but I dont see how their results are scientific... They had a group of people of completely different sizes, strengths, and for all I know levels of skill. If the boxer had been into kung fu, and the kung fu guy into boxing, I am very confident that the bigger man would still have produced the bigger hit, even they admit that size = power, yet they conclude that 'boxing has the best punch'. Personally, I beleive that boxers DO tend to be the best punchers (I'm going to be getting into boxing this year ), but it's all about the individual, but this 'experiment' was by no means valid to determin which 'style' hits hardest. Same goes for kicking, though personally i beleive that a Muay Thai practioner's knees tend to beat the kicks of practioners of other styles, it's still just a generalisation, and it's all down to the fighter, this by no means proves that Muay Thai are the greatest kickers, nor would I take it as evidence for it.

When they were testing the punchers speed versus the speed of a striking snake, did anyone else notice that they only tested one fighter, and through their test of a single fighter, determined that kung fu is a super speedy martial art?

Looking at the track record, it makes me strongly doubt the validity of their other experiments, especially the 'death punch' it was all too showy for me to beleive it as science. Sure, maybe it is possible to kill someone with a hammer fist to the chest, but this test doesn't provide suitible evidence one way or the other for me.

The balancing proved to me that that man practicing ninjitsu was an excellent acrobat, it did not prove to me that ninjas have cat like balance. It was however, probably the most conclusive of the tests in my opinion, showing that IF that man's training is typical of ninjitsu, you are likely to learn good balance from it's practice.

All that aside, I think it was very entertaining to watch, and made me feel all tingly and warm just watching that boxer smacking the flop out of that dummy, but then, so did spider man, and I dont base my real world opinion's on it.
Posted by: TaeKwonBoxer

Re: Scientific analysis of striking power - 02/06/07 02:56 PM

the reason the size was differnt was becuase they took the best fighters they could find from each sport, kung fu was chinese champion so they sued him, TKD guy was an olympic gold medalist so they used him, if they took random ppl that are all the same size it would have been right either becuase their skill isnt perfected.
Posted by: Ed_Morris

Re: Scientific analysis of striking power - 02/06/07 10:31 PM


http://www.fightingarts.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/15867324/an/0/page/1#15867324
Posted by: Legend of the Hungry Wolf

Re: Scientific analysis of striking power - 02/12/07 12:23 PM

that was really cool, i watched the whole thing. course i saw the iron body thing before and the best part about it was the narrator started talking at the end about how not street effective it was and how u can't use iron body training on your face, and that the techniques they used to generate such force leaves them so wide open they could never use it effectively in any confrontation.

"The ninjutsu "mysticism". Ok, most of the things said I agreed on but the blocking and delivering a strike at the bicep/armpit area could knock a person out? What a load of BS. During confrontation, the accuracy required to land an exact point is near impossible, so pinching that nerve is out of the question. Not only that, adrelarine will prevent the body feeling that little strike to that nerve. How do I know this? Try this; When in the guard in grappling, have your ukemi press their elbow down on your knee. This will happen most of the time, you'll separate your legs because of the pain. In full sparring, I've done this loads of time, and rarely do they separate their legs, and thus hindering me from putting them into a leg-lock." taison

they did not necesarily say it was a KO, but it shut down the body. and i don't think stabbing with your fingers is exactly necessary though, I've heard of a fist to the armpit dropping ppl, not a knockout but painful. and even if u miss the nerve there are ribs right next door.