Whiplike-action; i.e. Kinetic Chaining

Going through some of my old stuff I stumbled upon the following which I wrote for eSAITF a few years back. The "Whiplike-action"  I speak of is a term I borrowed from Bruce Lee. The term I use now is Kinetic Chaining. Some people also speak of Sequential Motion. Regardless the terms used, they are in essence the same principle.

Whiplike-action for Power Generation

A very important principle I’ve witnessed in many martial arts, especially the Chinese arts, is the whip-like or coiled-spring action. This principle is apt also in Taekwon-Do. In this letter I thought merely to remind you all of this important power-generation method.

Bruce Lee [Footnote 1] describes this “method” as follows:

The whiplike or coiled-spring action of the human body in its striking (throwing) movement-pattern is a remarkable phenomenon. The movement of the body may start with a push of the toes, continue with a straightening of the knees and the trunk, add the shoulder rotation, the upper arm swing, and culminate in a forearm, wrist and finger snap. The timing is such that each segment adds its speed to that of the others. The shortened lever principle is used to accentuate many of the particular speeds of this uncoil or whip. The rotation of each segment around its particular join-fulcrum is made at high speed for that particular part; but each segment rate is accelerated tremendously because it rotates around a fulcrum already highly accelerated.

Although it is not so eloquently described in the ITF Encyclopaedia it is however suggested in some of the theoretical principles. For instance we read the following:

. . .It is very important that you should not unleash all your strength at the beginning but gradually. . .

. . .One is to concentrate every muscle of the body, particularly the bigger muscles around the hip and abdomen (which theoretically are slower than the smaller muscles of the other parts of the body) towards the appropriate tool to be used at the proper time. . .

. . .This is the reason why the hip and abdomen is jerked slightly before the hands and feet in any action. . .

. . .Thus the hip rotates in the same direction as that of the attacking or blocking tool. . .

. . .To bring the action of [everything] into one singe coordinated action. . .

. . .once the movement is in motion it should not be stopped before reaching the target. . .

I remember at one of my training session in preparation for 3rd degree with Master Kim Jong-Chol that he showed this with the blocking techniques. The upper-arm swings slightly before the forearm to add to the overall acceleration. And of course the actual blocking with the arms was prefigured by the stepping into a stance and the rotation of the hip [Footnote 2].

We use the same coiled-spring principle in our kicks. For example the front-snap starts by the slight jerk of the hip, the swing of the thigh and the snap of the lower leg.

Bruce Lee describes how to get the most acceleration using this uncoiling-method:

In throwing a ball, all the accumulated speeds of the body are present at the elbow when the forearm snaps over its fast-moving elbow-fulcrum. . . An important aspect of this multiple action of acceleration is the introduction of each segment movement as late as possible in order to take full advantage of the peak acceleration of its fulcrum. The arm is kept so far behind that the chest muscles pulling against it are tensed and stretched. The final wrist snap is postponed until the last instant before release or, in striking, before contact. In football, the punter puts the last snap into his knee and foot as, or a shade after, he makes contact with the ball. It is this last moment acceleration that is meant by ‘block through the man’ in football or ‘punch through the man’ in boxing. The principle is to preserve the maximum acceleration up to the last instant of contact. Regardless of distance, the final phase of a movement should be the fastest. Maintaining this increasing acceleration as long as there is contact is sound. . .

From this quote I hoped you also recognized other principle used in Taekwon-Do such as the principle of continuous acceleration (Speed), the heel-snap (knee-spring) at the end of the motion and striking beyond / through the target.

Some food for thought.

* Footnote 1: Quotes from Bruce Lee’s “The Tao of Jeet Kune Do”. There are a handful of crucial books that all martial artists should have in their library. If you don’t have this classic, I suggest you get it.


* Footnote 2: There is a trend in ITF to deemphasize the hip-rotation irrespective of the centrality it has in Taekwon-Do theory. Direct references to the turning of hip in the Theory of Power occur in both “Concentration” and “Mass” and can also be inferred from “Speed” as well as point 8 (“sine wave”) in the Training Secrets. The senior members of the Soo Shim Kwan decided that we will not follow the trend as the rotation of the hip is fundamental to Taekwon-Do theory. The Soo Shim Kwan acknowledges that we over-emphasized hip-rotation in the past. It was decided that over-emphasis will be avoided, but under-emphasis even more so.