One of the most common questions posed to me is how to generate more power in the main repetoire of Shotokan techniques. Often, the student does not ask directly but will demonstrate the technique we are practising showing varying degrees of strength and I can usually spot that he or she is experimenting with using their bodies in different ways to generate power. Naturally, some methods work, some are not as effective. In this indirect way, the student asks, "how can I get more power into this technique?"

This article will attempt to be a "how-to" and is targeted at the beginner to intermediate student with no more than 2 years of training in mind. I have noticed that this group usually needs the most assistance and reassurance anyway so here goes:

There are several ways of generating power in your techniques:

1. muscle contraction
2. muscle expansion
3. muscle extension
4. muscle retraction
5. dropping one's centre of gravity
6. body shifting (throwing one's body weight in a direction)
7. foot shuffling (Ashi Sabaki & Yori Ashi)
8. using the hip / waist movement/ rotation
9. using shoulder movement/ rotation
10. using the legs / pushing and pulling
11. breathing techniques
12. rotation / spinning the body
13. and the mystical "ki" energy.

Kime

Lets begin with commonly used phrases in a Dojo. When your instructor says "more kime"...what exactly does (s)he mean?

The term Kime (pronounced: Key-may) is a loose term that describes the moment in time when your breathing, muscle tension and relaxation, body movement, mental focus culminates into one explosive orchestra which results in a technique where you become the technique. Most instructors cannot complete a training session without barking at least once, "more kime!". The mental state of "no thought" (mushin) so favoured in Zen meditation is achieved momentarily where your only goal is to complete the technique, with no other mental baggage to delay the process of movement that will hinder or distract you from completing the technique. (It is also be a nice way of saying "punch him in the face, break open his nose and get on it now!" In other words, don't think about what you are about to do and just get on with it. Hesitation can get you seriously injured or in serious trouble with the law!)

This state can be equated to a runner's high where the adrenalin flows and heart beat rapids, breathing becomes shallow and swift and the runner feels a "high". You feel no pain, no resistance, nothing binding your body or limbs and you just go and become the technique. This is my understanding of "kime".

Of course this is what we all strive towards, but to reach the stage of no thought requires years of dedicated practice and a sabbatical from daily life. This means a total and selfish devotion to yourself and your mind. This is the spiritual aspect of generating power. To rid the mind of clutter which can delay or hamper your thought process to send pure signals from the brain to the muscles, and get everything in between to work the most efficiently. Why no thought? Well, it can be argued that not thinking about your actions can bring you a decisive victory. The policy of a self-defence fight has always been: win now, argue later. My instructor has always admonished the saying, "it is better to be judged by twelve than carried by six".

But in karate practice, we try to effect this by constant repetition of technique practiced in a form of drills. For the brain to work less (as in a real fight situation) same techniques are repeated over and over so the body's muscles remember the same movements and over time accomodate the stresses that they are subjected to. In effect, nothing new is introduced so that the brain does not have to absorb any new programming and therefore require less processing time between thought and action. The mind can then be "trained" to move automatically, much like the scientist, Pavlov and his salivating dogs. The same trigger should generate the same mental response. For karate, the stimuli is an attack and the response is practiced drill response. Can you see the military-type of mental conditioning here? "Think less equals more action" seems to be the theory. For the law-abiding citizen who may not necessarily want to kill or permanently injure another person, however nasty he may be, the guilty conscience will repress the fastest and strongest technique. Legal-action is a very real threat which usually comes after the battle is over (read: you broke the guy's jaw, arm in two places and a couple of ribs and now he sues you for grevious bodily harm.) Think about your actions and how best to solve the problem at hand. With a wider arsenal of weapons, finishing blows can be a last resort as you always have other options. You brain is still your most powerful weapon.

A different technique used in karate is the "hikite" (pronounced: hick-kit-tay) or pulling hand. This is used in almost all karate schools where as one hand twist punches out, the other hand is twist pulled back to the hip.

Some instructors believe that the withdrawing hand contributes to the generating of a powerful technique. In the JKA dojo, the hikite is the spark which starts the whole engine moving. The theory is to use the retracting arm's momentum to get the hips rotating into the target zone for a strong technique.

Mr. Nakayama (JKA chief instructor) is credited with "inventing" this particular movement. We believe it is to allow the referee to determine who threw the scoring punch. With a jumble of arms in the way, it was very difficult to score a technique. With one arm out of the way, the referee can see which arm hit first.

Otherwise, the original movement as per the way we practice it in Kissaki-Kai is as follows:

This simple movement doubles the effect of the striking technique by bringing the target closer to your striking weapon (hand, foot, knee, head, elbow). If you are going to hit someone, by reaching out to try to hit them, your arm has to travel a distance which takes time, effort and energy. Some intensity of power is lost through this movement. During that short time frame, the target subject can (and will) move which results in your hand technique missing its target or partially connecting and therefore losing it effectiveness. The concept of "hikite" is simple and effective. Grab the target, bring it close to you so that you don't have to reach that far so that you can hit more accurately. The effect of the punch will seem doubled as you have the target travelling at a speed to your oncoming fist which is travelling towards it also. On impact, your hand has to travel past the target to provide maximum impact and force. Your body weight goes at the target while the target is quickly pulled to impact against your weapon.

The priciple of gravity. You can't fight gravity so go with it. In a weightless environment, you can hold your arm horizontally forever with little or no effort as there is no gravitational pull. On planet Earth, the arm will be pulled down to the ground the moment you relax. Use this natural pull in your favour when generating power. Distancing covers both the horizontal and vertical planes as well. The closer you are to the target the more force you can create. This applies where your arm or leg reaches just before the peak of its travel arc. Once beyond that peak the limb starts to lose power as potential energy starts to turn into kinetic (from physics).

And this in turn ties in with the formula:

Great force is generated by a heavy object moving through the air at high speed. Meaning that if you are a heavy built person, you can generate a great deal of force by moving your fist quickly at a target. If you are a lightly built person (like the average youth or woman) you must move your fist faster in order to generate the equivalent amount of force on the target.

If you are a smaller person, you must move even faster in order to generate the same level of force. This means that it is possible for people of all sizes and builds to generate force. It all depends on how fast they move. So part of generating power in your technique depends on the speed factor. Moving faster, requires a different set of "twitch" muscles which can be developed through proper conditioning.