How to Use Your Body Weight in Martial Arts

Understanding martial arts can often feel like a study in physics - understanding leverage, force, momentum, and yes, body weight, can make the difference between someone who knows his stuff and someone who's destined to stay at white belt forever. If you're a Newtonian at heart (Force = mass times acceleration), then this article is for you. here's how to use your body weight in martial arts.

It's not about being big.

The old phrase "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" can be true in martial arts. Sports like jiujitsu are often built around the premise that your opponent's weight and momentum can quickly be turned on them. That's why it's not always about being the bigger or stronger one, but the one who can utilize leverage and martial arts principles.

Understand that winning a sparring match isn't about being big or small, it's about having the stronger presence of mind. Your beliefs and skills will be more important than your body weight; the more advanced your skills, the more you'll be able to maximize your own.

Enhance your strikes.

Putting the force of your body weight behind your strikes will add more power to your moves, catching your sparring opponent off-guard and letting them know you're not to be trifled with. An amateur will punch with his hand - a professional will punch from his shoulder. You will seem to gain strength and power out of nowhere if you can properly leverage your body weight.

Take advantage of your opponent's weight.

Taking advantage of your knowledge of body weight means you should be able to use that knowledge on your opponent. For example, you can grab their hand, but it's more powerful to grab the area that controls more weight - the wrist. The more control you have over your opponent's weight, the less power they'll be able to muster to fight back. It's important to understand how to use your own weight so that you know how to keep an opponent off balance.

Staying grounded.

When defending, it's important that you don't lose your cool and forget to keep balanced and grounded. It's much harder to attack someone who has strong footing than someone who is distracted and off their guard. Try to stay balanced as much as possible - oftentimes the person with the best balance wins the sparring match.

Photo Credits: parhessiastes

Originally posted 2009-08-19 03:09:31.

This post involves:

heart, leverage, Martial Arts, mass times acceleration, momentum, opponent, phrase, physics, premise, presence of mind, sparring match, sports, strikes

... and focuses on:

Attack, Defend, Martial Arts, Sparring

Posted by Martial Arts Karate Kung Fu on February 6, 2012 in Attack, Defend, Martial Arts, Sparring. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.