From “Fight Science”

In an upcoming National Geographic special “Fight Science,” advanced scientific tools are used to study martial arts techniques. From the National Geographic story:

In one experiment, experts in karate, boxing, kung fu, and tae kwon do all took turns striking the dummy in the face. The researchers were surprised to find that boxing is the fighting style capable of delivering the most force in a single punch.

Boxer Steve Petramale delivered about 1,000 pounds (453.6 kilograms) of impact force, the equivalent of swinging a sledgehammer into someone’s face. His punch, the sensors revealed, starts in the feet and travels up the legs through the hips to the chest and shoulders, multiplying in force as it travels up the body.

The tae kwon do spinning back kick delivered more than 1,500 pounds (680.4 kilograms) of force, while the kung fu flying double kick produced about 1,000 pounds (453.6 kilograms) of force.

But the undisputed winner practices a discipline known for its ability to deliver a knockout: Muay Thai, also known as Thai boxing. Melchor Menor, a former two-time Muay Thai world champion, uses a simple technique to incapacitate his opponents: a knee to the chest at close quarters.

“I wasn’t expecting to have the highest force. When he said the power of the knee [kick] was equal to the power of a 35-mile-an-hour [56.3-kilometer-an-hour] car crash, it was humbling.”

The displacement sensor in the dummy’s chest measured nearly two inches (five centimeters) of chest compression from Menor’s knee strike. Like the boxer’s punch, the energy from this kick starts from the feet and moves up to the knee. The blow is delivered to the soft tissue below the rib cage while Menor holds his opponent’s head stationary. The ribs are driven backward through the lungs and solar plexus, a cluster of nerve cells behind the human stomach that controls some organ functions. Truly a death blow, Menor’s knee kick can cause internal bleeding and even cardiac arrest.

h/t: Marginal Revolution

tags: martial arts

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 15th, 2006 at 3:33 pm by Insider and is filed under Brilliant, but uncategorizable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.