by rojcewiczj on Wed Jul 01, 2020 12:58 pm
I think an important topic of martial arts development is the difference between using muscle force and using weight force. I think the main difficulty with using weight force is that your weight is not a muscle that you can engage to issue force. When dealing with an opponent, its natural to use your intent to trigger your muscles in an attempt to generate force, this willful triggering of muscle force always works against the use of weight force. In order to use weight force its necessary to think purely in terms of spacial, positioning, directional terms. This is especially true when looking at the torso, where most of our weight is centered. No amount of twisting, crunching, or core engagement will force your weight in a direction. Only a free movement of your torso in a certain direction will move your weight in that direction. The difficulty is in the contradiction that arises when you engage muscles against resistance in an attempt to force your weight against the opponent, when this occurs, your weight is actually not shifting and is not felt by the opponent.
Mastering the skill of using weight, while it can manifest in powerful strikes, is most evident in the application of take-downs and grappling technique. I believe this is the reason Chinese martial arts has failed to express itself successfully in kick-boxing/ striking terms. When we look at the origins of Sanda, we see the striking from western boxing, Thai boxing, and others, the Chinese element is the fast take-down techniques. Also, we can see this in the effectiveness of Shuai Jiao to understand and apply traditional stance shifting and movements.
In summery, the pure and perfect use of weight force as opposed to muscle force is extremely difficult and requires dedicated practice in the mechanics of weight shifting. These mechanics can be developed through those methods that typify Chinese martial arts: stance shifting, relaxation, etc. The application of this skill, while applicable to striking, was developed more towards take-downs in Chinese martial arts.
I'm hoping to spark a discussion around these assertions, if I sound overly certain, its only to stimulate creative response! Thank you