Hitting with the Right Degree of Force!

Let’s take off the gloves.
Let me dispel a couple of illusions.
Let’s talk about how deep you strike somebody
in the martial arts.

There are three depths of striking.
First, you strike somebody skin deep.
Bare contact,
no harm,
point fighting.
Excellent stuff.
Trains people without harming them.
Sure, it lacks reality,
but you can get more reality
by mixing in other training.
Makiwara, sand box, punching bag.
Mix those with your point fighting and
you will become formidable.

Second,
you strike somebody muscle deep.
This is to cause pain and bruises.
It is not to kill somebody.
It is to bruise them and dissuade them.
It is the slap to bring them to their senses
before you stick a knife in them.
We use this in a very controlled manner
when we are doing form applications.
We build ourselves and our partners up
by striking them harder and harder,
but still don’t damage them.

Third,
you strike somebody bone deep.
This is the punch or block designed
to break a bone or…
to end a life.

To punch skin deep is to touch,
to punch muscle deep is to bruise,
to punch bone deep is to render them
broken and unconscious.

Good karate,
or any good martial art
will enable the student to progress
through the depths of strikes
so he can use the right one at the right time.

I think that being able to
strike somebody bone deep
is a skill worth acquiring.

I wrote a book on how to develop a third level strike.
it is called:

The Hardest Punch in the World

Have a great work out!
Al

Don’t forget to check out the interview
https://anchor.fm/dale-gillilan/episodes/S1E10—Al-Case-e12e3np

How to Fix Karate! (volumes one and two)

volume one is at

And volume two is at…

‘The Last Martial Arts Book’ has 11 ratings for 5 stars.
(There is a video version of this book with no stars yet)
My two yoga books have 9 ratings between them for 5 stars.
‘The Book of Five Arts’ has 7 ratings for 5 stars.
‘The Science of Government’ has 6 ratings for 5 stars.
‘Chiang Nan’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars.
My novel, ‘Monkeyland,’ has 5 ratings for 5 stars

That’s a lot of good ratings
so hopefully you’ll find that useful
find the book/course that is right for you,
and matrix your own martial arts.