Fight Like a Physicist Quotes

“Use your brain to knock out your opponent. Now that we have a basic understanding of diffuse axonal injury, the obvious next question is, “How can I use this knowledge to become a better fighter?” Sometimes the right visualization of the process is all it takes so give your training a significant edge. When you throw a punch, think about how your punch will rotate your opponent’s head. If you give your opponent a linear palm strike to the face, you will probably do a lot of damage to your opponent, but if you can strike and then move your hand up and over, forcing your opponent to look up at the ceiling, you will probably have a better chance of knockout from that strike. Another way to adjust your training is to practice hitting something that can rotate. Some heavy bags or double-end bags can rotate when you hit them, or you can try out the Quest Training AllStrike, which functions much like a focus mitt in the shape of a human head for fine-tuning your targeting, but it also provides realistic rotational feedback. If you can start understanding when you are spinning a head versus when you are pushing it back, you are on your way to being a better knockout artist.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“It was not until the second major overhaul in 1992, when the survey specifically asked victims if they started resisting before or after they were injured, that the real trend became clear. It turns out the correlation between resistance and injury (including sexual assault) was primarily due to cases where victims provided resistance only after they had been injured. If you correct this statistical error, victims who resisted their attacker were significantly less likely to be injured (Thompson, Simon, Saltzman, & Mercy, 1999; Tark & Kleck, 2004). In addition, 75 percent of the victims who resisted were of the opinion that their own actions improved their situation, while only 15 percent believed resisting resulted in greater injury. Despite our relatively new understanding of the importance of resisting your attacker, the “conventional wisdom” about crime scenarios is still very prevalent. Law enforcement officers may tell you, “Don’t be a hero,” but you should keep in mind that the personal experiences of those officers focus very heavily on the small percentage of those victims who suffered greater injury as a result of their actions.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“Be a skeptic. Respect your instructors, but also remember they are experts in the subject of martial arts training, not fighting. Even if they are former champions themselves, the best they can do is offer you a glimpse into what happened to work for them. Keep your ears open for potential garbage at all times. Some of the most common red flags for garbage are speaking in absolutes (“This kick will always knock him out”) and making untestable claims (“This kick will break the knee,” or “This strike will kill your opponent”). The truth is you have no good way of knowing what will happen as a result of most of your techniques. Replace untested assumptions with uncertainty, and learn to embrace that uncertainty. Ask why. At the most basic level, you want to ask “why” to make sure you understand the technique. Ask, “Why do we tuck our thumb in for this technique?” or “Why do we turn our foot for this kick?” The more you understand the “why” behind a rule, the better you will understand when it is OK to break it. Go deeper with your questions and ask about choices. Ask, “Why do we use a knife hand to strike the neck instead of a straight punch?” Go even deeper and ask about strategy with questions such as, “Why do we kick the leg?” Ultimately, ask about goals, such as, “What are we trying to accomplish by punching our opponent?” No instructor could ever answer every question you ask, and different instructors may have different answers to the same question, so don’t be disappointed if they don’t always have a good answer, but don’t forget to be skeptical as you listen either. Break everything. Every technique you learn, every strategy you employ, every weapon you use, and every piece of safety gear you wear, you should try to break. Find out what the limits are on your own terms, when you have time to soak it all in, instead of when you need your mind focused on your opponent. If you learned how to block a punch, have a friend throw punches harder and harder until one either flies through the block or hurts your arm. See what happens when you block too close or too far away. Does it also work on kicks? Try out various incoming punch angles. Take each technique to multiple extremes, and make a mental note of not only how far you can take it, but also the way it breaks down when you get there. Get it wrong on purpose. Make mistakes when you practice a technique with a partner and make mistakes when you spar. Mistakes are learning opportunities, and you won’t get enough of them if you are always flawless in class. Get sloppy and watch what happens. Overcommit, drop your hands, or use a narrow base on the mat. Zone out or let yourself get distracted for a moment and see what it takes to recover. Get used to making mistakes and dealing with the repercussions.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“These measurements are important to us because a larger surface area reduces localized tissue damage. As we learned back in chapter 2, the energy of a strike can be spent on structural damage to the surrounding tissue, and the momentum of a strike determines how much you can move your opponent (or your opponent’s head). Surface area has no effect on momentum, but it is incredibly important when it comes to dispersing energy.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“The neck is also a viable target. Given our understanding of diffuse axonal injury as the result of stretching forces on the axons in the brain (particularly near the base of the skull), it is reasonable to assume you could generate the same damage by applying a force on either side of the same axon. Since it appears that knockouts occur as a result of diffuse axonal injury involving the brainstem (Smith, et al., 2000), we should be able to apply our force to the neck to get a knockout as well. Of course, if you land a left hook to the chin, you get to use the head as a lever, but there are no levers for the neck, so you will have to apply more force to your strike in order to get the same result. We can see this in action in muay Thai, MMA, and kickboxing matches, where a kick to the side of the neck can cause an opponent to lose consciousness immediately. Strikes directly to the back of the head (at the base of the skull) generate the same effect, but the minimum force required is lower, possibly because there is less muscle and other tissue between the axons and the point of impact. These strikes are illegal in most styles of fighting for sport, but they are still good to know, just in case you find yourself in a life-or-death scenario with an opportunity to strike there.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“The physics of diffuse axonal injury Given our understanding of the rotational nature of diffuse axonal injury, it is now possible for us to take what we learned about levers and rotational motion in the previous chapters and apply that knowledge here to help us understand how a punch to the chin ends up stretching and damaging axons in the brainstem and throughout the brain. The first step in this process is the punch. This punch must meet a minimum energy requirement because we will be causing structural damage to axons in the brain. This punch must also meet a minimum momentum requirement because we need to spin the whole head around to damage those axons. Considering what we know about knockout punches and how boxers train, it is relatively safe to say that meeting the minimum energy requirement is not difficult, but meeting the minimum momentum requirement is. Fast punches are important strategically, but increasing the effective mass behind your punches is what gives your punch the ability to lay your opponent out on the mat. Figure 5-2. The process of diffuse axonal injury from punch to axon stretching. Left: The punch hits your opponent. Center: The punch rotates your opponent’s head around an axis located in the neck. Right: Axons located a small distance from the axis of rotation become stretched as one end of the axon travels around the axis of rotation. This story takes us from the fist to the axon, but there is still something missing. We turn our heads left and right every day, sometimes very rapidly, so what makes a punch so special? The science is still too young to be sure, but I will speculate that the peak of the force curve (figure 5-3) is typically where the axon gets rapidly extended to its natural limit, but the tail of the force curve is where the axons are damaged. The primary reason for this speculation is the empirical knowledge that pushing off the back foot is essential for a good knockout punch. Boxers and martial artists from all styles stress the importance of this push to the success of a punch. Some strikes, such as a front-hand palm strike or a square-shouldered wing chun punch, for which a back-foot push is impossible, will still generate the same long-tail force profile in figure 5-3 by making contact before the arm is fully extended and using the muscles in the arm to apply force by continuing the extension. The same profile appears when athletes tackle each other in other contact sports. There is an initial peak force at the moment of collision, but the legs continue to push after the initial peak.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“While the symptoms of CTE can include difficulty with math or memory, some common early symptoms also include disorientation, dizziness, headaches, irritability, outbursts of violent or aggressive behavior, confusion, speech abnormalities, and major depressive disorder (McKee, et al., 2009). A large number of CTE symptoms have very little to do with how “smart” you are, and CTE can make daily life or maintaining simple human relationships extremely difficult. A disproportionately large number of retired athletes with CTE commit suicide, including Chicago Bears defensive back Dave Duerson, who texted his family to ask that his brain be used for research into the disease before fatally shooting himself in the chest in 2011.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“In the case of a standing arm bar there is no stationary point to use as a fulcrum, so you need to apply two separate forces to make it work (pull up on the wrist, and push down just above the elbow). When it comes to the juji gatame, there are at least three distinct applied forces at play: pulling back on the arm at the wrist, pushing your opponent’s shoulders down on the mat by extending your legs, and extending your hips upward to raise the fulcrum at the same time. In order to keep all this straight in our heads with so much going on, we need to break it down into pieces. Every point of contact you have with your opponent has a purpose. When you are training a technique that uses leverage in one form or another, go through each point of contact with your opponent and ask yourself if this is meant to be a firm (possibly moving) fulcrum, an applied force, or a preventive measure against an escape or counterattack. Even the most complicated techniques boil down to basic components.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“This trick comes up across many different martial arts styles. In both judo and wrestling, the tug-of-war trick is a great preamble to a sacrifice throw, where your opponent leans into you, but instead of pushing back, you just take a seat on the floor (and possibly stick your foot into his stomach, depending on the throw). In some striking styles such as kenpo or muay Thai, if your opponent blocks your punch to the inside with too much force, you can let your arm go limp at the elbow. This can lead to your opponent clearing his own opening for that elbow of yours, which is already halfway there by now. This same block sensitivity is an important part of chi sao drills in wing chun and jeet kune do. These drills work by maintaining hand contact and feeling for excessive pressure in any direction from your opponent, before ultimately allowing your opponent to move his own hand out of the way with that excessive pressure while you strike. Stealing a free lunch is wonderful, and there is some ironic “stop hitting yourself” justice to it, but just like any other kind of theft, stealing a free lunch during a fight is a crime of opportunity, and there is no guarantee you will have that chance. You should approach any situation prepared to spend your own energy to get out of it, but if your opponent is going to leave his lunch sitting on the table, you should definitely eat it. Personally, when I fight or train, I like to make a mental note anytime I feel my opponent and I are pushing against each other. It doesn’t always mean it’s time for the tug-of-war trick, but chances are, if you are in a force-on-force scenario, there is probably something more productive you could be doing instead of just pushing back.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“Wing chun involves the concept of “wedging out” punches more often than other styles because it uses a square-shouldered stance instead of keeping the power hand back. This means any incoming strikes that happen to travel along the outside of the arms will be redirected away from the head without the need for active blocking. In muay Thai clinch fighting, you use the same wedging process to get your arms on the inside and gain control of your opponent. The “cross counter” is another example of wedging that has been used successfully in boxing and MMA. There are many variations to the technique, but the basic premise involves extending your right cross over the top of your opponent’s left jab. Since your shoulder is below your head, a successful cross counter will direct the jab down and away from your head as your fist approaches your opponent’s chin. If you want a simple example to test out using a wedge at home, have a friend of similar height approach you with two arms outstretched, as if to do the Hollywood-style two-hands-on-the-windpipe choke. As he approaches you, keep your shoulders square and extend your own arms, reaching for his neck or face, while ensuring your hands are on the inside. As he gets closer, the shape of your extended arms will clear his hands away from your neck, and you will be free to put your hands in his face. Figure 4-5. Diagram of a wedge. The applied force comes in from above and is split in two separate output forces, each pushing away from the wedge.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“Wing chun involves the concept of “wedging out” punches more often than other styles because it uses a square-shouldered stance instead of keeping the power hand back. This means any incoming strikes that happen to travel along the outside of the arms will be redirected away from the head without the need for active blocking. In muay Thai clinch fighting, you use the same wedging process to get your arms on the inside and gain control of your opponent. The “cross counter” is another example of wedging that has been used successfully in boxing and MMA. There are many variations to the technique, but the basic premise involves extending your right cross over the top of your opponent’s left jab. Since your shoulder is below your head, a successful cross counter will direct the jab down and away from your head as your fist approaches your opponent’s chin.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“At this point I should pause for a moment to mention the universe does not care at all who is the attacker and who is the defender in any given situation. If you generate some momentum or some energy, the universe is not going to say, “Good for you. I will now damage your opponent with it.” The universe just takes whatever you generate and spends it in the easiest possible manner. If it is easier to move your opponent back after you punch him with a high-momentum strike, he will move back, but if it is easier to move yourself back after the punch (if he is up against a brick wall), you will push yourself back instead. The same thing goes for energy. If it is easier to compress tissue in your opponent’s body, you will, but if it is easier to spend that energy breaking your own hand (if you punch a brick wall), your hand will suffer the damages. This complete indifference from the universe shows up all the time in physics, including Newton’s third law of motion, which states every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This indifference means your ability to transfer energy and momentum into your opponent depends on how well grounded you are, as well as how compressible you are.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“Advanced concepts: That little extra push generates more momentum. Even though most of the action occurs as the fist flies though the air, a punch is not necessarily over at the moment of impact. Any strike (even a high-energy punch) comes with the option to follow up the initial impact with additional force generated directly from the muscles. This force can feel like a push or a follow-through, and it generates momentum in addition to the momentum transferred at impact. This push usually involves farther extension of the limbs, pushing off the back foot, or both, and it can be just as important as the impact in a fight scenario.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“In chapter 1 we discussed how the human body could behave as a loose collection of small parts, or one large rigid object, depending on how relaxed or tight your muscles happen to be at the time. This same principle applies to getting your mass behind your punches, but with a few more eccentricities. The more rigid you are, the more difficult it is to move your muscles fast enough to throw a punch, but that rigidity is also what enables you to put more mass behind the punch. If you can get your timing just right, you can tighten your arm at the moment it becomes extended and continue the motion with your shoulders and hips, giving your punch the mass of your whole arm and even some of your body. Professional fighters can get as much as 10 percent of their body weight behind their punches, which is 10 to 20 times more momentum than throwing a fist by itself. It can take years of training to get to the point where you can put significant mass behind your punches, but we can get there a little quicker if we apply some of our knowledge of the center of mass from chapter 1. Since your center of mass lies just below your belly button, you will get the most mass behind your punch if you can make a continuous rigid path between your fist and your center of mass. Your rib cage does a good job of keeping your chest area rigid, but your lower abdomen is an entirely different story. Many martial artists yell or exhale (or hiss) while striking because the act of expelling air with the diaphragm provides the rigid path you need to get your mass behind your punches. You will also want to make sure to plant your center of mass firmly in the ground through your legs and hips, not only to include those muscle groups in your punches, but also to ensure your center of mass remains stationary as your punches push into your opponent.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“Equation: mv In English: Mass times velocity The special part: It has a specific direction assigned to it. Mass and velocity are multiplied together to get the magnitude of the momentum, so a large 200-pound man jogging 5 miles per hour (mph) (200 * 5 = 1000) and a petite 100-pound woman running 10 mph (100 * 10 = 1000) will each hit you with the same momentum and knock you back just as hard. The only difference between mass and velocity when it comes to momentum is that the velocity is what gives momentum its direction. This means if you tackle someone, the direction of the momentum you transfer to your opponent is the same as the direction you were running before the tackle. This may seem like a trivial statement at first, but the directional component of momentum is the key to redirecting and controlling an otherwise unstoppable blow. A high-momentum strike, or “push” strike, has the ability to move your opponent, or parts of your opponent, and that is an incredibly powerful tool to have in a fight. If your opponent is rigid, light on his feet, or if you strike him near his center of mass, a high-momentum strike can push him back, knock him off balance, push the air out of his lungs, or even send him to the floor if the stars are aligned properly. If your opponent is loose, a high-momentum strike to the hands can move them away from his face and leave him open. Whether he is loose or stiff, a high-momentum strike to the chin can make your opponent’s head rotate quickly about the base of his skull, resulting in a knockout.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“Advanced concepts: You are only an “object” when you are rigid. For most of this chapter, we have assumed people are big solid objects, but anyone who has ever watched a toddler using “noodle legs” in the grocery store while refusing to stand up knows the human body is also capable of behaving like a pile of wet spaghetti. At any moment you can decide if you would like to be one large object or a bunch of little, loosely connected objects, just by flexing or relaxing your muscles. To test this, hold your hand out in front of you with your arm and your body completely flexed and rigid. Have a friend put his palm up against yours and push you as hard as he can. Chances are you will end up stumbling back a few feet or lying on the floor, depending on how strong your friend is. Now have him push you again, but this time let your arm go flaccid. No matter how hard he pushes, your body will not move. From time to time a white belt judo student will try to use his strength to his advantage and “stiff-arm” his opponents. This can be an effective tactic to use against other white belts because they cannot get in close enough to try one of their throws, but to an experienced judoka, stiff arms are a gift, complete with wrapping paper and a bow. A rigid frame gives your opponent access to your center of mass from anywhere on your body, so he can throw you without ever stepping in. Hiza garuma, or the “knee wheel,” is a great throw to use, but there are many effective options available. The same concept applies to striking arts. When you are rigid, your body will be strong and your strikes will have your weight behind them, but you will also burn energy quickly, and you will give your opponent the ability to control you by manipulating your limbs. When you are loose, what happens far away from your center of mass stays far away from your center of mass.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“Your belly button is important for leg sweeps. Every sweep, throw, or takedown you have ever seen involves either removing a supporting foot (leaving the center of mass far away from the only remaining support) or shifting the center of mass away from the supporting feet in such a way as to make it difficult or impossible to move the feet back under the center of mass. The fact that we can describe all takedowns so succinctly means we can also boil all of their complexity down to simple concepts. Anytime you practice a sweep, throw, or takedown, ask yourself these two questions: Q1: How are you putting your opponent’s center of mass in a position where it is unsupported? Q2: Why is it that your opponent cannot just reposition his feet in time to save himself? If you can answer those two questions, you are on your way to developing a deep understanding and mastery of the technique. Alternatively, if you find yourself on the receiving end of a takedown, it would be to your advantage to understand the answers to these questions as well, so you can do your best to keep your opponent from putting you on the floor. Let’s look at a simple example here, so when it comes time for you to answer these questions yourself, you have somewhere to start. The simplest and perhaps most effective takedown we see in the ring today is the wrestler’s favorite: get low and shoot the legs. There are, of course, many variations and many subtleties to the technique, but for now, we will stick to the basics. Q1: How are you putting your opponent’s center of mass in a position where it is unsupported? A1: Your shoulder is pushing your opponent’s center of mass behind and possibly to the side of his supporting feet as you charge in. Q2: Why is it that your opponent cannot just reposition his feet in time to save himself? A2: Getting a hand behind one or both knees will assure you your opponent is not capable of recovery as you advance. While focusing on these questions will not grant you immediate mastery of the technique, it will get you started thinking like a scientist when it comes to takedowns, and over time, the “magic” behind them will start to seem more and more like common sense.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“Train like a scientist. Even though it may be possible that anyone can make a new scientific discovery, and anyone can win a fight against a professional fighter, the truth of the matter is the odds are against you. In fact, the odds are so unfavorably stacked against you, if you don’t train efficiently and push yourself to the very limits of what the human body and mind can endure, your chances of success are slim at best. While there is nothing new about pushing limits and training hard when it comes to fighting, successful modern fighters are starting to train with skepticism. I still remember the first day of one of my undergraduate physics classes, when the professor said, “Don’t trust me. If you don’t question everything I say here in class, if you don’t go home and check it yourself because you’re skeptical and refuse to take my word for it, then you don’t belong here, and you’re going to have a hard time making it in physics.” I remember it because at first it seemed like the opposite of what a professor should say, but once it sunk in, I realized he was right. Real mastery of physics does not come from memorization and repetition. Real mastery comes from understanding how well the laws of physics hold up when you try your best to break them. The same thing is true in fighting. You will never really master a choke until you have tried to choke out someone who does not want you to succeed at it. During an actual fight, on the street or in the ring, there is far too much chaos for anyone to succeed just by listening in class and repeating techniques. Everyone needs to have some rough personal failures to learn from. Everyone should have that awkward moment when your opponent’s only reaction to your attempted wristlock is a blank stare, and everyone needs to get knocked over once or twice because an opponent kicked right through the perfect block. Of course, sometimes there are techniques we do not have the luxury of testing out, either because they are too dangerous or the opportunities to use them in sparring may not come very often. You can’t learn everything the hard way, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still be a skeptic.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts

“understanding will help you out more than memorization.”
― Jason Thalken, Fight Like a Physicist: The Incredible Science Behind Martial Arts