“Enough” power is opponent specific. In hitting, bridging or wrestling, if you can go straight into your opponent’s aligned force (from a practical launch position) and make their structure buckle, you have more than enough power. If you’re partner reports your power as “heavy” you probably have enough power. The hitting can be judged via focus mitt. Against some people this won’t be accurate because they have significantly higher/lower arm/shoulder integrity relative to their torso/leg leg integrity. If you can consistently set up accurate hits to soft spots (the side of chin etc …) that your opponent feels before they see, then almost any level of hitting power is “enough”. “Enough power” is a contest of power vs integrity, and integrity depends on awareness, balance, coordination, emotional state, tissue integrity, “fighting spirit” and whether a location has innately high or low integrity.
Wow, two uploads in a single weekend? Nice! Lately I have been waiting every week for the weekend, just for the next videos of yours! There are always nice insights, be it philosophical or martial arts related. It's been a real treat to be able to follow this channel
it's not until you seriously hurt someone with your hands or feet that you understand power, isn't everything. The Journey is fun, hurting others is not
Greetings Sifu Chan, thank you. Very valid points, as Martial Artist we protect our bodies as we age. It is very refreshing to hear this than Sifu Chan☀️🌿🙏🏾
As usual I enjoyed your video. I was just talking to my old mantis sifu and he has recently changed from mantis to choy and fut gar because of his age and its easier on his joints. I'm 65 and trained mantis until my 40s, then I switched to xingyi for the same reason. I also play with tai chi and bagua, but xingyi is my main art. Funny thing though, I had a guy try to sucker punch me and mantis techniques came out.
Great advice. To many people I've met believe going easy is harmful. When clearly for all the reasons you mention there are other ways of testing one's effectiveness.
I really liked this session and what you said about to change the way you do it, when you are getting older. I am 55 now and I also had to reinvent the way to train in my life. It is also interesting if you want to teach something to some one that is younger like my 8 years old son training as a kickboxer. Thank you for this inspiration!
Once someone can hold a heavy bag for you and when you punch it they feel the force travel inside of them as if the bag wasn't there. instead of just pushing it. (that is technically more about the transfer of said power than the ammount of it) but that's the most important part. (I also recommend a punch bag from medium to large size filled with metal BBS like you would put in a bb gun)
you must look after your training partner, have good communication and feedback (no one will train with you if you don’t) good advice Adam! thankyou 🇦🇺 scott
I’ve been saying a lot of this for years. You’d have to be a psychopath of some kind to test full power and speed techniques on other people at any age. That’s how you ruin your body and wind up being forced to stop training by the time you’re 40 because your body is a complete mess from taking and giving all these full power hits in training. Always better to hit inanimate objects than other people when it comes to developing proper knockout power. Iron Palm is in my opinion perfect for that. Go nuts smashing a bag full of shotgun pellets then practice your moves gently on another person to develop all the timing, accuracy and reflexes that hitting unmoving objects can’t develop.
To measure power, you can buy a PowerKube. It'll give you your striking power in terms of numbers. If you know how to strike, workout at the gym. The more weight you can push and pull, the greater your striking power.
Also since you bring it up, I've physically seen you demonstrate it but what exactly is Hakka ? Lol I noticed it has alot of focus on the double fist type strikes etc(and how those strikes also actually have a relation to some techniques occasionally still taught in wing Chun as well) and are actually good for fighting while handcuffed etc btw lol also while I'm asking I saw you teaching about long fist , would you know of it's very similar relation to wing Chun ?
In class impact on a bag that straightens out the S chains is a good indication. You know it works when you can drop a man on the street with a single body shot. Still, be careful or you might need to spend 20 minuets doing CPR.
Re. age, if you’re training regularly (unlike Tyson), and you have the right diet (meat and collagen rich, unlike Tyson) can fight using a “young persons” style until sometime in your 50’s. So around 50, you should start transitioning to methods that leverage attributes that do not decline with age. Which especially means not relying on systems that require speed and power for effectiveness. Around 70, methods that depend on range of motion will become impractical for most people. If you don’t do things that harm them, intention, awareness, energy and fighting spirit remain undiminished. As a caveat, there are some kinds of energy work (in particular fascia development and refinement) that are highly dependent on kidney yin. Those practices are very difficult to progress in after 60. So it’s best to start transitioning at least a few years prior.
@@andymax1 intention, awareness, energy, and "fighting spirit", which are the attributes emphasized by the most purely "internal" martial arts. The more the art derives its effectiveness from these attributes, the less impacted by age it will be. For example, Xingyiquan can be done with Ming (obvious) force, An (Hidden force), and Hua (Mysterious/Transforming) force. Ming and An are good into the 50's. To retain effectiveness past that you have to transition to Hua. Even in the golden age of Xingyiquan, there were only a handful in each generation that got to Hua. Examples include Sun LuTang, Li Tsun Yi, Guo YunShen, Wang Fuyuan and Peng TingJun. The reason for the small number of practitioners at the An level for Xingyiquan is because Xingyiquan didn't have a good method for training Hua, so it depended on the individual genius of the practitioner. According to the now deceased lineage holder for the Wang Fuyuan lineage, they had only seen one living Dai Xinyi practitioner with Hua, and no one else in the Xingyiquan or Xinyiquan lineages. Taijiquan is focused on Hua, so it more reliably gets people to the Hua stage. Unfortunately, as a side effect of its focus on Hua, it leaves most people with no substantial martial skill at all. Currently there are a number of Taijiquan lineages (not many) that have practitioners that can use Hua. The characteristic of Hua is the opponent loses their ability to generate and control their force at first contact, even if the contact is only light or grazing,
@@andymax1 the Hua based internal systems train you perceive intention and energy and then to use intention and energy to “take” parts of the opponent’s structure or to reconfigure their force direction. It works without the application of any force to the opponent and it can be done with no external motion. You can take their center, shoulder, kua, knee, foot etc… Or you can also change their direction of force output, so for example, you can make someone trying to stand up, instead sit down. Again, with no application of force to them.
@@andymax1 One issue with Hua is high level grapplers can take your center with very little applied force, less than the weight of an arm resting on your body, by exploiting the body’s reactivity to external force. People mistake this for Hua. Hua requires no external force. The other issue with Hua is energy and intention are hard to perceive. So people get stuck in the trap of imagining they are perceiving something when in reality it’s just imagination. About the only way to clarify this is to find someone with real skill in Hua. Once they demonstrate it, there will be no doubt that it’s very different and that it has no reliance on external force. You can clearly feel your body reconfigure itself against your will when someone with real Hua demonstrates for you. The easiest and clearest demo is sinking. A person proficient in Hua can put their hand under your hand (in a position where it can only apply force on you upward) and cause you to sink into a kneeling position even if you are trying to remain standing. For floating the demo can be inverted. With their hand on top of yours (so the only direction they can apply force to you is downward) they can make you stand on your toes even if you are trying to keep your feet flat on the ground. So, if you are stationary, if you are not initiating an action, if their contact with you only allows them to exert force to make you move in direction A, but they can make you move opposite A, and you can’t fight it, and there is no perception of any applied force, and it works even when it feels like you are complete in balance, it’s Hua. It’s also why the pure Hua systems have little or no grabbing for throws and locks. Because as soon as the opponent makes contact, you can make them stick to you and follow your direction, even if they are trying to break contact. So once contact is made, the opponent’s speed and power become meaningless. Getting that contact is another matter. That can be solved by pre contact work that manipulates the opponent’s intention. There are other energy based methods, but the intention manipulation pre contact work is by far the most accessible.
@@andymax1 So real Hua requires no external force and there is no need to take someone’s balance for it to work. And lineages that teach Hua have demos like the ones described above to help the student understand what Hua is and isn’t, so there’s a much reduced risk of getting trapped in imagined success.
@@andymax1 the most important first step is experiencing Hua. Then at least when you’re looking for teachers you can tell if they can teach Hua or not.
Oi ups Wing Chun homie would love to learn Wing Chun cause I love learning Martial Arts well when I was 10 years of aged hanged out with the wrong older violent boys getting into juvenile correction facilities. At that time is when I learn't Sanda kickboxing and my thinking was I am the Killer Alpha Fighting Pitbull of the Prison Cell Block feared nothing got stabbed whacked with baseball bats or gangbashed. But Sanda Kickboxing was something else I'm use to life threatening injuries which can cause death that side of me for of Sanda vowed never to be again didn't know how really weak that side of me back then was homie. And I am telling you Sanda precision offensive striking combinations is so devastating on me way back then yuh but that is not what I want to talk about instead would love to learn Wing Chun. But prefer to learn from the very best and more realistic pressured tested Wing Chun that is not telegraphed although sticky hands most all boxers would not understand its principles in a light no injury precision pressure sparring session oi. So would love to learn your Wing Chun Hakka system Wing Chun Sifu Adam Chan for upper body arms strengthening and Wing Chun Sifu Tu Tengyao for lower legs strengthening must check out you tube channel Tu Tengyao Wing Chun Techniques Part 1 homie fight well oi💛💯🥊🦁🪖🤟😎.
Wise advice about not hurting your training partner
“Enough” power is opponent specific. In hitting, bridging or wrestling, if you can go straight into your opponent’s aligned force (from a practical launch position) and make their structure buckle, you have more than enough power. If you’re partner reports your power as “heavy” you probably have enough power. The hitting can be judged via focus mitt. Against some people this won’t be accurate because they have significantly higher/lower arm/shoulder integrity relative to their torso/leg leg integrity. If you can consistently set up accurate hits to soft spots (the side of chin etc …) that your opponent feels before they see, then almost any level of hitting power is “enough”. “Enough power” is a contest of power vs integrity, and integrity depends on awareness, balance, coordination, emotional state, tissue integrity, “fighting spirit” and whether a location has innately high or low integrity.
Wow, two uploads in a single weekend? Nice!
Lately I have been waiting every week for the weekend, just for the next videos of yours!
There are always nice insights, be it philosophical or martial arts related. It's been a real treat to be able to follow this channel
I would never test out my power against a buddy! Adam brought out good points!
it's not until you seriously hurt someone with your hands or feet that you understand power, isn't everything. The Journey is fun, hurting others is not
LaoShi Adam Chan . You are the most hard core, intelligent Taoist Sage i know of . We all thank you .
I would like to appreciate Chris for long time here in the channel
Greetings Sifu Chan, thank you. Very valid points, as Martial Artist we protect our bodies as we age. It is very refreshing to hear this than Sifu Chan☀️🌿🙏🏾
As usual I enjoyed your video. I was just talking to my old mantis sifu and he has recently changed from mantis to choy and fut gar because of his age and its easier on his joints. I'm 65 and trained mantis until my 40s, then I switched to xingyi for the same reason. I also play with tai chi and bagua, but xingyi is my main art.
Funny thing though, I had a guy try to sucker punch me and mantis techniques came out.
Very intelligent and insightful information thank you for your wisdom.
Great advice. To many people I've met believe going easy is harmful. When clearly for all the reasons you mention there are other ways of testing one's effectiveness.
Excellent session! Philosophy Martial Arts.
I really liked this session and what you said about to change the way you do it, when you are getting older. I am 55 now and I also had to reinvent the way to train in my life. It is also interesting if you want to teach something to some one that is younger like my 8 years old son training as a kickboxer. Thank you for this inspiration!
Once someone can hold a heavy bag for you and when you punch it they feel the force travel inside of them as if the bag wasn't there. instead of just pushing it. (that is technically more about the transfer of said power than the ammount of it) but that's the most important part. (I also recommend a punch bag from medium to large size filled with metal BBS like you would put in a bb gun)
you must look after your training partner, have good communication and feedback (no one will train with you if you don’t) good advice Adam! thankyou 🇦🇺 scott
Thank you, Sifu Chan 🙏🏼
Hello Sifu Adam, why do some traditional Chinese martial arts teachers say do not hit bags, mitts etc…?
I’ve been saying a lot of this for years. You’d have to be a psychopath of some kind to test full power and speed techniques on other people at any age. That’s how you ruin your body and wind up being forced to stop training by the time you’re 40 because your body is a complete mess from taking and giving all these full power hits in training. Always better to hit inanimate objects than other people when it comes to developing proper knockout power. Iron Palm is in my opinion perfect for that. Go nuts smashing a bag full of shotgun pellets then practice your moves gently on another person to develop all the timing, accuracy and reflexes that hitting unmoving objects can’t develop.
Great analogy 👏
To measure power, you can buy a PowerKube. It'll give you your striking power in terms of numbers. If you know how to strike, workout at the gym. The more weight you can push and pull, the greater your striking power.
Also since you bring it up, I've physically seen you demonstrate it but what exactly is Hakka ? Lol I noticed it has alot of focus on the double fist type strikes etc(and how those strikes also actually have a relation to some techniques occasionally still taught in wing Chun as well) and are actually good for fighting while handcuffed etc btw lol also while I'm asking I saw you teaching about long fist , would you know of it's very similar relation to wing Chun ?
Dann, that is exactly what i've been through the last 10 years , that development. Bullseye
Very Taoist about training smart
In class impact on a bag that straightens out the S chains is a good indication. You know it works when you can drop a man on the street with a single body shot. Still, be careful or you might need to spend 20 minuets doing CPR.
But also yes if your punch moves a 100 pound bag a foot or two back then that was a pretty hard punch lol
A 20 minute Video about hitting power without one hit or proofings. War against fake
War against comments from people who don't actually watch the video...
Re. age, if you’re training regularly (unlike Tyson), and you have the right diet (meat and collagen rich, unlike Tyson) can fight using a “young persons” style until sometime in your 50’s. So around 50, you should start transitioning to methods that leverage attributes that do not decline with age. Which especially means not relying on systems that require speed and power for effectiveness. Around 70, methods that depend on range of motion will become impractical for most people.
If you don’t do things that harm them, intention, awareness, energy and fighting spirit remain undiminished.
As a caveat, there are some kinds of energy work (in particular fascia development and refinement) that are highly dependent on kidney yin. Those practices are very difficult to progress in after 60. So it’s best to start transitioning at least a few years prior.
@@andymax1 intention, awareness, energy, and "fighting spirit", which are the attributes emphasized by the most purely "internal" martial arts. The more the art derives its effectiveness from these attributes, the less impacted by age it will be. For example, Xingyiquan can be done with Ming (obvious) force, An (Hidden force), and Hua (Mysterious/Transforming) force. Ming and An are good into the 50's. To retain effectiveness past that you have to transition to Hua. Even in the golden age of Xingyiquan, there were only a handful in each generation that got to Hua. Examples include Sun LuTang, Li Tsun Yi, Guo YunShen, Wang Fuyuan and Peng TingJun. The reason for the small number of practitioners at the An level for Xingyiquan is because Xingyiquan didn't have a good method for training Hua, so it depended on the individual genius of the practitioner. According to the now deceased lineage holder for the Wang Fuyuan lineage, they had only seen one living Dai Xinyi practitioner with Hua, and no one else in the Xingyiquan or Xinyiquan lineages. Taijiquan is focused on Hua, so it more reliably gets people to the Hua stage. Unfortunately, as a side effect of its focus on Hua, it leaves most people with no substantial martial skill at all. Currently there are a number of Taijiquan lineages (not many) that have practitioners that can use Hua. The characteristic of Hua is the opponent loses their ability to generate and control their force at first contact, even if the contact is only light or grazing,
@@andymax1 the Hua based internal systems train you perceive intention and energy and then to use intention and energy to “take” parts of the opponent’s structure or to reconfigure their force direction. It works without the application of any force to the opponent and it can be done with no external motion. You can take their center, shoulder, kua, knee, foot etc… Or you can also change their direction of force output, so for example, you can make someone trying to stand up, instead sit down. Again, with no application of force to them.
@@andymax1 One issue with Hua is high level grapplers can take your center with very little applied force, less than the weight of an arm resting on your body, by exploiting the body’s reactivity to external force. People mistake this for Hua. Hua requires no external force. The other issue with Hua is energy and intention are hard to perceive. So people get stuck in the trap of imagining they are perceiving something when in reality it’s just imagination. About the only way to clarify this is to find someone with real skill in Hua. Once they demonstrate it, there will be no doubt that it’s very different and that it has no reliance on external force. You can clearly feel your body reconfigure itself against your will when someone with real Hua demonstrates for you. The easiest and clearest demo is sinking. A person proficient in Hua can put their hand under your hand (in a position where it can only apply force on you upward) and cause you to sink into a kneeling position even if you are trying to remain standing. For floating the demo can be inverted. With their hand on top of yours (so the only direction they can apply force to you is downward) they can make you stand on your toes even if you are trying to keep your feet flat on the ground. So, if you are stationary, if you are not initiating an action, if their contact with you only allows them to exert force to make you move in direction A, but they can make you move opposite A, and you can’t fight it, and there is no perception of any applied force, and it works even when it feels like you are complete in balance, it’s Hua. It’s also why the pure Hua systems have little or no grabbing for throws and locks. Because as soon as the opponent makes contact, you can make them stick to you and follow your direction, even if they are trying to break contact. So once contact is made, the opponent’s speed and power become meaningless. Getting that contact is another matter. That can be solved by pre contact work that manipulates the opponent’s intention. There are other energy based methods, but the intention manipulation pre contact work is by far the most accessible.
@@andymax1 So real Hua requires no external force and there is no need to take someone’s balance for it to work. And lineages that teach Hua have demos like the ones described above to help the student understand what Hua is and isn’t, so there’s a much reduced risk of getting trapped in imagined success.
@@andymax1 the most important first step is experiencing Hua. Then at least when you’re looking for teachers you can tell if they can teach Hua or not.
Even unlimited power used improperly is nearly useless.
Oi ups Wing Chun homie would love to learn Wing Chun cause I love learning Martial Arts well when I was 10 years of aged hanged out with the wrong older violent boys getting into juvenile correction facilities. At that time is when I learn't Sanda kickboxing and my thinking was I am the Killer Alpha Fighting Pitbull of the Prison Cell Block feared nothing got stabbed whacked with baseball bats or gangbashed. But Sanda Kickboxing was something else I'm use to life threatening injuries which can cause death that side of me for of Sanda vowed never to be again didn't know how really weak that side of me back then was homie. And I am telling you Sanda precision offensive striking combinations is so devastating on me way back then yuh but that is not what I want to talk about instead would love to learn Wing Chun. But prefer to learn from the very best and more realistic pressured tested Wing Chun that is not telegraphed although sticky hands most all boxers would not understand its principles in a light no injury precision pressure sparring session oi. So would love to learn your Wing Chun Hakka system Wing Chun Sifu Adam Chan for upper body arms strengthening and Wing Chun Sifu Tu Tengyao for lower legs strengthening must check out you tube channel Tu Tengyao Wing Chun Techniques Part 1 homie fight well oi💛💯🥊🦁🪖🤟😎.
Power and speed - blah. A .22 can kill as easily as a .44 - if you are accurate. (Coming from a 66 year old.)
just measure it lol