The Skeptical Teacher’s recent post on this very topic got me to pondering ki once again. For those of you that are new to this blog, ki is a topic I visit on occasion.
(Click this link then older entries to see most of my posts.)
When I used to break in competition I used to pscyh myself up by running through a few simple facts of human physiology and physics: Bone is denser than concrete or pine wood and force is mass times acceleration. If my targeting was on and I was calm I could generate the required speed to break stuff and I could do it consistently. Reverse time a few hundreds years when science was still lacking and I have to suspect that the best explanation of the day for some of these feats was ki.
Anyhow, here’s a video that captures some martial artists who still might believe in ki. While you watch it I challenge you to consider this: Might something else besides ki explain what you are seeing?
-BCP
Thanks for the shout-out to my blog post. One small nitpick: force is mass times acceleration, not mass times velocity – mass times velocity is momentum
Nitpick noted and fixed.
I avoided breaking things because it never made sense to the younger me (though it IS the common idea) that bone is denser than concrete. Not mine. I occasionally bust up those plastic boards nowadays, just to keep pace with martial arts that break things.
It’s just more nitpicking, but the nitpick highlights my favorite anatomical topic: Fascia. Connective tissues surrounding bones offers amazing tensile strength, like the rebar offers concrete. Our tensile strength, even under a compressive load, beats concrete, hands down (though I’m not sure about reinforced concrete). Bones by themselves, I fear, couldn’t take it.
Though my intuition is tight on this one, here’s a supporting abstract about it:Breaking Concrete PDF.
I don’t think I can adequately address the breaking aspect, but I can address stuff where there is a student and teacher.
I suppose it doesn’t matter what the educational setting is, but in martial arts I’ve seen flourish unchecked and then debunked. What I’m referring to is the student who so respects the teacher that the adoration starts to suspend belief and both parties participate in a folie a deaux.
I think it starts with something as simple as what I call, “punching to the block.” We’ve probably all done this once or twice – where instead of punching to the center, your punches slowly migrate to the spot where the block occurs. Most students and teachers are on the look out for this and correct when they see it. Now take this and apply it to a larger scale. Where every interaction with a teacher becomes “punching to the block.” Over time the teacher comes “prescient” to your moves. He seems to know everything your planning to do, etc.
The worst case scenarios are when a respectible practioner falls into this behavior and becomes publicly ridiculed. One such example is “The Human Taser,” George Dillman. There’s a guy that knows a lot of stuff, but he and his students have perpetrated a fraud unto themselves.
In the video I saw a couple of incidents of student and master silliness. I feel that the only way to contend with that, or perhaps be a bit more objective is to have a 3rd party as a recipient of the “chi.”
The most frustrating video segments are not the ones with the pencil bearded douchebags indulging in hypnotic prevarication, but a truely venerated practitioner like O Sensei tossing around a couple of big dudes – the Uki’s being patently obvious in their williness to be thrown without the slightest effort. I don’t want to denigrate a fantastic practitioner who invented a whole art, but I think you can probably see where I’m going.
To pick up where Tater left off about the O’Sensei. Some of those stories about Ueshiba are hard to believe. Disappearing in a flash of light to avoid bullets, a kiai that could cause time and events to move backward (as told by his disciple Shioda Gozo). Give me a break.
Supposedly, historical accounts of ki – at least in mainland Japan and Okinawa – weren’t really depicted as magical or supernatural. Ki was regarded as a natural life force that could be developed with training. All that mystical nonsense came with the George Dillmans and Jack Hogans and all the other snake-oil salesmen trying – and succeeding to a degree – to dupe the gullible.
Steven –
Good comments! My “before work” posts are usually very hurried. This one was one of those and I should have said more. Your comments reminded me of a discussion I got into with one of my past taekwondo instructors. I had read somewhere that if you could break two solid boards (no spacers) it’s about the equivalent of being able to crack a rib. He pointed out that bones are covered with flesh, muscle, and clothing. So he thought three solid was a safer bet. Being able to develop that kind of power and skill has a place in self-defense but you don’t need all the “woo” to explain it.
Tater – I agree. Heck, there are times when punching to the block may have a teaching purpose. i.e. just showing the basic movement behind a certain application, etc. However, it can degrade to sloppiness if you are not careful.
John – I don’t know about Ueshebia but I do know that I’ve been in a few meetings where I thought time was going backwards.
As for Dillman as a “human taser”. Well, I’d like to put his ki up against a real taser and see which one would win.
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