Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Michael Jai White on proper striking

Most of the information in the following video is familiar to me, and it's information I've passed on to women and children as to how to make a fist, how to keep the fist aligned with the forearm so as not to hurt the wrist, and how to generate power when punching (I've mentioned dealing with people who obviously don't know how to fight; in general, you have little to nothing to fear from such people). That said, it's cool to see actor Michael Jai White—who is a practicing martial artist—offer a master class on striking. Much of what he says will be instantly familiar to anyone with a taekwondo background, and toward the end of the video, he mentions techniques from Japanese goju-ryu. Amusingly, he also talks about the focusing of force when doing the shot put. According to Wikipedia, White holds black belts in eight different martial disciplines, at least two of which are Korean. In his movies (I reviewed "Black Dynamite" here), his kicks definitely have a Korean flavor to them: they tend to be crisp and linear, with plenty of "snap action," not circular like in certain Chinese styles, and not whole-leg movements like in muay thai or capoeira.






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