Two great lessons that I will write about so clearly that even though you are as far away from me as you are, you will learn every bit of what I want you to know on this subject. How do you learn to develop and deliver the awesome power that martial arts are so famous for?

Let’s assume that what you believe about punching as being something that begins and ends with the arms and the fist. Because after all, it is the arms that have a hand that folds, quite effectively, into a fist. So is a fist, and an arm all that is needed to send a powerful punch into the attacker’s body? No way, no how!  Your arm and fist are the least and last two things I am going to talk to you about as power producers. Compared to the legs and hips, there is no comparison in power produced.

Memorize these words: a punch is the sum total of all that the body can develop and deliver in a moment. In other words, the arm and hand is something that even when used correctly, they are the absolute least powerful part of the body’s chain of muscles that make the martial arts punch so devastating.

 If you are a 100 pound woman (45.359 kg.) who wants to punch with the knock-down, knock-out power of a one hundred and fifty pound man. There are quite a few things you need to know, learn, and understand first, well before you start punching a target.

Lets start at the ground and realize that the “whole body “ is the thing that provides the power and strength to punch so hard and with such penetrating force. Let’s start with what is the most powerful grouping of muscles in your body. It is the legs that need to be trained to deliver a lot of power and also withstand a lot of abuse like kicks to the legs. The legs are   “force multipliers” just like the rest of the body. A  “force multiplier” is a way of understanding about the body part in question that communicates to the student at what level it should perform at and why.  A  “force multiplier” is exactly what it sounds like it is; a part of your body that when flexed or moved in a certain way, actually provides power to the overall network that is sending extra power to a fist or a foot or any other striking surface in question that may be in use. It makes the striking weapons produce much greater impact because of what it does before it passes that power onward and upward to a fist, foot, or elbow.  As a martial arts student, you are learning beginner knowledge about what generates a power packed punch. So say it with me, and say it loud: force multiplication is my new best friend!  You hit much harder with what you’ve got to hit with because you take the lessons seriously enough to allow it into your mindset, which can guide you into becoming an awesome and very powerful street fighter. Repeat after me: force multiplication is my new best friend!  Say it as many times per day as you like, because just being reminded of this powerful realization molds your thinking into being a martial arts student that can hit, kick and block way over your body’s weight. It is in fact, a way to hit men who attacks you with power and ease, and this is STOP      no joke! Really, read the rest of what I have written here because if done the way I am teaching you to do, it can save your life with ease, grace and of course a few good belly laughs!

Here is an example of how the hips are “force multipliers”. When a student is about to deliver a punch, the hips automatically drop down into a slightly lower stance like a long-distance runner waiting to move off from the starting line. The only thing is that in fighting, portability and speed must be taken into account so that a student can actually hit hard what they are focusing on hitting. Now with the legs bent just a little to begin with, the hips and legs drop down just about an inch and are now primed and ready to send lifting and pushing power up to the hips and then upward again to the shoulders. So what does this look like to the bystander just a few feet away? It looks like the most natural thing in the world for one thing because this slight rise from a crouching position is not even noticeable to the untrained eye. A person could observe the rise of the hips an inch or two, but not know what they were looking at or its significance. Interpreting that one movement would zoom right over the top of the attacker’s head, he just cannot interpret what he does not know or understand. It is as if he were blind to anything you do to him from a martial arts perspective.

Now to add some extra spice to the mix, as the hips are being moved upwards by the legs, they do their part in multiplying the leg force by twisting back and forth just a little in the exact direction towards the body that’s being impacted.  So the hips absorb the lifting and driving force of the legs standing up that inch and then sending it through to the hips, which are twisting slightly forward and back again to its “point of origination” in order to provide a thing that looks like: “hip twist”.  One side goes forward, then the other side goes forward then the original hip comes back to ready position and waits for another command from the brain.

The second question is what is the difference between hip power versus the chest and shoulder’s power? Once the latent power generated by the legs and hips reaches the waist of the student it continues to move upward into the chest and shoulders area. Where the hips will move backwards, then forwards then backwards again, right back to its point of origination and a point of neutrality meaning that he can punch with either hand going through the exact process all over again.  The student’s hips move very abruptly and very quickly. That’s what I notice when I am watching Kata or Hyung performed by experienced martial artists. Very subtle, yet very powerful are the markers of observing a martial arts student’s hips when she punches at a target. Its like dancing the Hula dance except that instead of swaying side to side, the motion is one hip side in, then the other, then the other back to the starting point of neutrality.

What about though, the chest, back, and shoulder? What do they contribute as part of the “make-ready-department” for the upper body? Remember that because the student’s body has multiple support systems and weaponry, at her disposal she can make use of all of the back, stomach, chest, and shoulder that has not only a lot of muscle at her disposal but she is able to respond, quick as a wink, to guidance sent forth from her brain.  When you study martial arts and you study your body, you become aware of how powerful it is at defending itself from attackers. I don’t care what your size, height, or weight is or is not.  Start noticing when you react quickly to “save” your day. Notice how you moved your body. Notice that it seemed easy to do. Once you recognize on your investigation that you have the speed I am talking about, the next question is how do I make use of it to protect myself?  Welcome Home, you are right where you need to be.

Of course, you will not be stopped from learning from me, ever. Your body is infinitely changeable and all that matters are what you are determined about, “come what may”. You have an awesome power-producing machine that has no equal anywhere in the world for what it can do and what it has to work with. If you have thin arms and legs it does not keep you from learning all the martial arts I have to teach you and turn it into something that you can perform at a moment’s notice. Your chest can send the accumulated power form the hips to either the left or right shoulder faster than you can see them move and say go! Did you understand that comment I just made? Let me be real clear with you right now. You have speed to burn and you have no idea of how fast you can, with proper training become, just the same as others who have done it since all those years, now long ago. Women have been warrior Queens and Chieftains and fought land and sea battles directing the soldiers and sailors themselves. You, by no means will be the first female martial artist, but you can be the next one to step up and start learning all the things I have to teach you.

Getting back to the following phase of the conduction of your “power pathway”. The big advantage is just how much the lower body can send power from the ground up, to the “higher” muscles in just a moment. The cleverness of martial arts, no matter how much I tell you about it, is that it all has to be practiced, practiced, practiced, using martial arts as the road map to really understand what and how you control both inside and outside of your body. And even then, as you get older, you come to have a deeper appreciation for what you have done to improve your body’s ability to defend itself.  The deltoid muscles of the back, the chest, and the shoulders are all powerful contributors to the ultimate goal of striking a target of your choice. These upper body muscles are all “force multipliers” that only improve their performance and strength with practice, practice, and more practice. But the one final thing I want to teach you about the shoulders is that they absolutely, control the arm and fist’s ability to stay on the target. All the body’s upper level muscles have an ability to drive the shoulder forward very deeply into the target and right back out again in the blink of an eye. That means all that leg and hip strength is going to be sent upward to be used by the chest, back, stomach, and shoulders and be multiplied, in terms of strength by twisting and creating torque within the center line of the body.  This means that when her body is at rest, no force multiplication can exist. But once the student summons up a decision and has the intention to make it happen, that in other words, is “go-time” for her the body, as if by magic, it becomes filled with power and strength and is ready to strike right now! Do you get that? Your body in a second, once you are thoroughly trained, becomes ready to roll out and do what needs to be done, and only takes one second or less to activate.

And now, I am revealing the arms, the hands and their strengths. Don’t misunderstand me about the arms and hands. Although these muscles are smaller and shorter than the muscles in the legs, they can move at super fast speeds and cover the “gap” between your attacker and you super fast and easy.  But that’s not all the arms and hands can do that the legs and hips cannot. They can be taught to block an attack, grapple, and other things that I can’t go into now and can be trained to move tremendously fast again and again. When the body’s power is transferred and multiplied over and over again, a woman or girl throwing her first punch is a sight to behold. It is a sight to behold because it is more about what those first few punches mean to her future as a martial artist. Have someone take pictures of you in horse stance punching as hard as you can. I certainly wish someone had taken pictures of me back in 1966! Record your adventures with martial arts, and make it important for your future self to be reminded of how far you have come in your studies.

Your decision that you are about to be “in a fight”, precedes all mental thoughts!  Intention comes second; so don’t think for a minute we would be discussing martial arts without discussing a powerful force of nature inside your mind, body, and spirit called intention. Without intention, you would not be reading my words right now. Your intention is the activation of a mental force that precedes all focusing and that is a combination of things that we need to line up for easy understanding.  So, first is your decision to study with me until hell freezes over. Next, comes your intention concerning when that will happen, then comes the daily, hour by hour, minute by minute focus of getting in front of and repeatedly watching either more of my You Tube videos (Tuesdays and Friday) and all of the self-defense videos on www.Protecttheroses.com until you know them stone cold and can get out of bed once you are asleep and do the technique from a deep sleep, you can say you know it well enough to perform it when the time comes up.

In that moment, once you have decided, “the fight is on” it then becomes your “full-on” intention to not only survive the attack, but to not get hurt even once, by the attacker in the process, even by a little bit. What this means, is that you can have more than one intention at a time and you can follow through on all of them and execute them when you desire. If someone asks you what makes you such a powerful puncher, you would say: it’s my “seven steps” training at work.  And you would be telling the exact truth. I will write and teach this “seven steps” line of thinking in another lesson.

But for now, I want to say it another way for you that I hope impress you: and that is your intention, whether you know it or not is a “monster” of power and commitment. It most definitely gets all the things done that you want to get done in your life, but you have to exercise it and you have to flex it. You have to believe and know that your intention is something that nobody can alter or change in any way. It is the thing that comes forth from you and guides you repeatedly over and over again until you reach your eventual destination. Know the power of decision, intention and focus. Write those three down on a pad of paper over and over again.  Just knowing about this connection to you is one thing: I want you to start living them every day of your life. Knowledge is potential power, certainly, but it is actually bringing them forth into your life in a knowing way that is going to make the real-every-day difference to you. Repeat these words before you go to sleep at night and immediately upon waking up every morning for thirty days. Once you make a decision, you follow with your intention to make it happen, and then to get the job done you must focus. Focus, is where you may have many preferences in front of you, but you “see” only one option to use or pursue. Focus aids the martial artist in striking the same target repeatedly. Focus guides the martial artist to pick a “best” target in the blink of an eye.

The last thought I want to leave you with is this: the energy that penetrates the target (your body-mind-spirit power is your force) will travel to the floor and rebound in less than an instant and travel back up to connect with your fist. And once it penetrates into your fist it is re absorbed back into your body. So the shorter amount of time your fist is touching the target, the less of your own energy will travel back up into your own body and be absorbed. The less of your own energy you absorb, the more you will be able to fight back against multiple attackers. When my student wants to be coached to be a better fighter, she needs to pick the one teacher who says repeatedly “get the most for the least” and every time you will be better off. Why? Because martial arts, with all its long arduous training, sweat, and blood is still far and away the best system for learning how to make war on your attacker. But I don’t want you to think of this as just another class, because the only test you will ever get won’t be from me, it will be from your attacker. And believe me, on this test, you want to make an A+ not a C+.

And if you wonder why I am so willing to write these long documents about things that you have never even heard of, it is my way of reaching out to you and doing my very best to bring you back into balance, because their most definitely is an imbalance that exists between males and females worldwide. I write all of this because there is just no better way to reach you in your quiet moments where you can really think hard about what I am telling you. Because I strongly believe, that the world suffers greatly, I will say that again, the world suffers greatly because women are not in positions of ownership, leading countries, owning big multi national corporations, and anything else that they want to do. Until this imbalance is fixed permanently, there can never ever be world peace; never will there be respect for women, never will we have a balance of power, never.  The last frontier, or “there about” is of course, women defending themselves against rapists and murderers without any outside agency even knowing that their was a rape or mugging or murder attempt. For that to happen in this day and age, its going to take millions and millions of women and millions and millions of girls to get behind this program and take from it, that which is important to them and make it not mine, but make it their very own. Women and girls must internalize this training deeply and hold onto to it tightly. When that day comes, the world will be a wonderful place to live where women and girls will naturally speak their own minds and not care about what any man or boy thinks or says. When that day comes, women and girls will not be described in newspapers for what they did or didn’t wear to a social or business event. They would be described for their contribution to humanity, for their contribution to making the world a safer, better place to live. A world where girls would be brought up and trained by women of strong character, who were fearless, bold and too full of joy to ever be depressed about anything.

A woman must celebrate and cherish her girl, as the young goddess she is. A woman intuitively knows that her daughter deserves love and respect just for being born a girl. A woman’s wisdom includes seeing to it that she starts her daughter’s training in martial arts and self-defense as early as humanly possible. When women can defend themselves as well as any male martial artist can defend himself, then my work is done and the world will be in balance for sure.

We will be talking about this in greater detail in the coming Chung Do Kwon Tae Kwon Do classes. This is a longer talk for sure.   Always read as much as you can throughout www.Protecttheroses.com to get a broader scope and understanding of what we teach. As you can tell, in my writings, I have a different approach to teaching women and girl’s self-defense than anyone you will ever meet.