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The Secret of Taekwondo's Power

Once you get started, practice all of your movements slowly, and steadily, building your self confidence gradually. Rather than comparing yourself others, focus on your own inner feelings.

Taekwondo is a martial art, for those wanting to protect themselves using only their bare hands and feet. To those who lack experience in taekwondo, this may seem to be an ineffective means of self- defence, but anyone familiar with the art knows that bare hands can become as sharp as knives, and feet can become piercing bullets. Through proper training and dedication, this type of power can be created by utilizing the full potential of the student. Then, the question is clear: "How can I maximize and utilize my full Potential?;

When a technique feels comfortable, increase your speed gradually, and you will be on the road to developing your maximum potential. In creating deadly power, the following elements are what we have found to be the key factors.

Reaction Force

As Newton's third law states. 'For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction". A practical example of this is when a round horse kick is executed against a heavy bag; the bag will return the same amount of force that the kick produced. Lets look at a way to apply this to sparring. If your opponent is rushing at you at high speed, the slightest snapping side kick to his body will hurt him badly. This type of attack is the most effective, because of the combination of your opponent's force of the attack on a motionless opponent.

Breathe Control

Breath control has great significance in any type of movement especially in taekwondo. To create maximum power in each movement, you must exhale sharply and completely. And stop your breathing exactly at the moment of impact. Also at the movement of impact, taekwondo students use a strong, sharp yell: a kiap.

Good Balance

Keeping good balance is of utmost importance in any type of athletics. In taekwondo training, it is of special significance. By keeping a constant equilibrium of your body, your techniques can have more leverage, which will make them more effective, and powerful. If you lose balance, you may deliver uncoordinated attacks and be easily toppled by your opponent. To maintain good balance, your centre of gravity should fall on a line perpendicular to the ground, with your weight resting slightly more on your front foot. It is also strongly recommended to fix the heel of the standing leg on the ground at the moment of impact, not only to keep balance, but to maximize power as well.

Speed

If your weight is less than that of your opponent, and even if you are considerably smaller in size than your opponent, you can easily overpower him by increasing your speed, working towards maximum potential. In addition to enhancing power, speed can also give a fighter the edge in sparring. All taekwondo techniques done with proper speed cannot be blocked, because the execution time of the technique will be faster than the reaction time of the opponent.

Focusing Force

We all know that it's easy to shoot a hole in a person with a bullet, but how about with a chair? In theory, the chair is hundreds of times bigger than the bullet and should easily do more damage than a tiny bullet. But in reality, the bullet does more damage because a great deal of force is focused into one small package rather than spread out over a large area like a chair. For this reason, taekwondo attacks are focused to the edge of the hand or foot, the knuckles, and the heel of the foot to maximize the force of the attack. Applying the impact force of a blow to the smallest target area will concentrate the force and therefore increase its effect.

The ability to concentrate the force of your movement depends upon good timing ability. It is important to unleash your strength gradually at the beginning, accelerating the speed until your technique becomes mobilized simultaneously towards the target area. The shorter the time of full concentration, the greater the power of the blow.

For the maximum concentration of power, there are two simple principles to be applied. The first is to coordinate every muscle of the body, especially the muscles around the hip, abdomen and shoulders, to work in conjunction with other parts of the body. The second principle is to direct the force towards one of the vital points on the opponent. This will ensure that every blow you throw is as effective as you can possibly make it.