Internal Timing

[HanshiClayton]

To me, “internal” timing seems to be mainly a matter of coordination of various body parts into the moment of maximum power and focus. It is very hard to separate timing issues from power-generation issues and focus issues, and yet we can easily look at a student and tell that he/she is confused about timing.

In our most recent seminar, Master Nishiyama recapped his “staircase” theory of internal timing, which is an illustration worth noting. He pointed out that when we punch, part of our speed comes from our foot and calf. Another part comes from contraction of the thigh muscles. Another part comes from hip motion. Another from abdominal contraction. Another from arm motion. Finally, part of the speed of the punch comes from forearm rotation (futi). Each of these pieces must build upon the previous one to achieve a result that is at least the sum of the parts.

While he explains this, he pantomimes a speed vs. time graph in the air. If timing is right, each element builds on the previous one, and the graph looks like a staircase leading upward to the maximum speed/power technique at the top. If timing fails (and he wears a sorrowful expression for this) each part of the punch becomes an independent little speed bump along the bottom of the graph. No good!

The most elementary part of timing, for beginners, is to bring all parts of the body to a full stop at the same time when stepping and punching/blocking in kihon drills or beginner katas.

Slightly more advanced is to delay the launch of the punch or block until the step is well along, and then punch/block as fast as possible to achieve the “freeze” at the end.

Going forward, the moment of maximum power often corresponds to the moment of stepping down with the lead foot. Going backwards, however, the moment of maximum power is delayed just a moment after planting the rear foot. The backward momentum flows into the planted foot and then reflects to the front to create forward power. Backward stepping is weak until students figure this out.

My own experimentation with the heavy BOB dummy tells me that “punching through” the target means I have to brace for maximum focus and rigidity from the front surface of the target all the way through to the back. This requires quite different timing than we learn by punching air in the katas. For one thing, the arm must extend and lock down at the point where the step still has six or eight inches to travel. Done without the dummy, it looks as if the fighter has punched too early. Done with normal “kata timing” the punch collapses under the tremendous impact because it the elbow is still bent at the moment of maximum loading.

There was something that it took Funakoshi 60 years to figure out about the front punch. I wonder if this was it. (Or it might have been this.)

To me, internal timing feels like a string of collisions beginning in my foot and rat-a-tat-tat right up the skeleton to my fist. It reminds me of a freight train being pushed by a locomotive. When the locomotive applies power to the end of the string of cars, you can hear the couplers banging together is a staccato chain-reaction as the slack is taken up and each car comes into hard contact with the next one. It is like thunder that rumbles from one end of the train to the other. Internal timing lets me feel that thunder rolling up from the ground and into my hands.

I don’t know what else to say about it except this: If you haven’t got it, nothing else works.