By Enrique V. Zepeda
Introduction
Many martial arts techniques were
developed under the basis of physics.
 Everybody possess potential energy
depending of the size, muscle strength
and health.
 Hard style techniques: punching,
kicking, chopping.
 Soft style techniques: blocking, take
down’s, arm locks.

Hard style
All hard style techniques are follow
conservation of mechanical energy:
E= K+U => K=-U
Where K is the kinetic energy (½ mv2 ),
and U is the potential energy which can be
due to gravity or the work produced by our
muscles, or both.

Martial artists concentrate all
of their energy in a very
small contact point to reduce
the area so that the force
produced will not spread
throughout a large area. This
pressure produced can be
calculated:
P=F/a, where F is the force
of the hit and a is the area.


Soft style
The main physical principal is
conservation of momentum.
When blocking, martial artist redirect the hit controlling the direction
of the attacker’s momentum so that
it goes at an angle. Since the strike
is now on an angle, the defender
can use less force.
Another way to use conservation of
momentum is when the defender takes
down the attacker using his/her own
momentum.
The initial momentum of the attacker
becomes the angular momentum of both
the attacker and defender. P=L/r
And since the defender moves along with
the attacker, the defender applies little to
no torque at all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlmAoQ
5HYTk
References
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/
karate2.htm
 http://www.phys.ttu.edu/~cmyles/.../Phys
ics%20of%20Martial%20Arts.doc
