I started doing karate about 2 years ago. I took a break for about 9 months because of my schedule at private school, but before I took the break, I had gotten up to Advanced Yellow Belt, which is a yellow belt, except through the center, it has a black stripe. In September, I started up again at white belt. I recently tested and promoted to yellow belt, skipping advanced white due to my prior experience.
Now I will be relearning the kata called Wan Su. This is a kata where you first use Nahachi stance, which is basically a ready stance in which your feet are a shoulder's width apart, except your toes are turned inward at a 45 degree angle. It is also where you first start to use sideways punches and open hand jabs.
Recently, we learned about the most powerful kick in martial arts in the world. Sensei Leo showed us a really awesome video about it. It is a kick from Tae Kwon Do, which originated in Brazil.
This kick involves you crouching down, sticking your front foot out and touching the floor with your heel, bringing your foot back in, kicking your front foot up, and using that momentum to bring yourself up and swing your back foot around. This enables you to hit the target with a fair amount of force. A master of Tae Kwon Do used this kick to hit a training bag at a speed of 99 miles an hour (that's how fast his leg was going), which is faster than some Major League fastballs!
The kick also generated a total of 1800 pounds of force per square inch on the spot where the foot made contact. This would basically be the equivalent of the person dropping a car on wherever he kicked you. He would be able to break bones wherever he kicked you and if he kicked you in the right place, you could sustain massive internal damage and possibly even die - from just ONE KICK.
Another person attempted to match that with a different kick from a different martial arts style and managed to move faster than 99 miles and hour, but generated a lower amount of force - about 1600 pounds per square inch. Make no mistake - that amount of force can still be deadly.
We tried this kick in karate class on Saturday, but it usually involved me falling on my butt. I did get it right once or twice, though, so that is an accomplishment.
Once again, thank you for visiting School Stories...Where school is ALWAYS in session. Tomorrow, I will be talking all about the New Hampshire primary. See you then. :)
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